Democrats opt out of White House meeting with Trump

US Democratic leaders have cancelled a planned meeting with President Donald Trump after he attacked them on Twitter.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi abruptly pulled out of the Tuesday’s bipartisan meeting and asked for immediate talks with top Republican leaders instead after the US president said he did not "see a deal" to avoid a government shutdown.

Trump also accused Democrats of being soft on crime, taxes and illegal immigration.

"Given that the President doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead," the two Democratic leaders said in a joint statement. "Rather than going to the White House for a show meeting that won’t result in an agreement, we’ve asked leader [Mitch] McConnell and Speaker [Paul] Ryan to meet this afternoon. We don’t have any time to waste in addressing the issues that confront us, so we’re going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement."

Trump, Schumer and Pelosi were scheduled to hold a meeting with Ryan and McConnell on Tuesday afternoon, negotiating the funding of the US government after December 8, when the current funding deal expires.

“If the president, who already said earlier this year that ‘our country needs a good shutdown,’ isn’t interested in addressing the difficult year-end agenda, we’ll work with those Republicans who are,” the two leaders noted.

Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that it would be impossible to strike a deal with Democrats on funding the government or immigration.

"Meeting with 'Chuck and Nancy' today about keeping government open and working," he wrote. "Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don’t see a deal!"

Meanwhile, McConnell and Ryan rejected the demand of their democratic colleagues for a separate meeting.

"We have important work to do, and Democratic leaders have continually found new excuses not to meet with the administration to discuss these issues … There is a meeting at the White House this afternoon, and if Democrats want to reach an agreement, they will be there," the two Republicans said.

The White House also responded to the move by the top Democratic leaders and said in a statement that the meeting would continue as planned and Trump's invitation remained open.

“It’s disappointing that Senator Schumer and Leader Pelosi are refusing to come to the table and discuss urgent issues," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. "The President’s invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work. These issues are too important."

Approval of the spending bill to fund the government will spare Trump a harmful government shutdown.

In 2013, a government shutdown sent almost 2 million federal workers home and led to massive economic disruptions. It also forced national parks to close and caused a delay in payments to millions of people working for the government.

Joined by a growing number of Republicans, Democrats also insist that the funding bill should include a long-term solution for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.

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