White House economic adviser Hassett says the shutdown could end this week

at the top The White House Financial Advisor Kevin Hassett Forecast on Monday Government shutdown “It’s likely to be over sometime this week.”

But if that doesn’t happen, the Trump administration could impose “strong measures” to force Democrats to cooperate, National Economic Council director Hassett told CNBC’s “Squawk box.”

The comments came deep into the third week of a shutdown that has dragged on with no apparent end in sight amid a partisan battle in the Senate over federal funding priorities.

Republicans want to pass a short-term resolution to resume funding at current levels. Democrats are demanding that any stopgap bill include additional spending on health-care protections, including an extension of the Enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Hassett said on CNBC that he had heard from the Senate that Democrats felt it would be “bad optics” to vote to reopen the government ahead of this weekend’s massive nationwide “No Kings” protests against the president. Donald Trump.

“Now there’s a shot that things will come together this week and very quickly,” Hassett said. “Moderate Democrats will go ahead and get us an open government, at which point we can negotiate any policies they want to negotiate with the regular order.”

“I think the Schumer shutdown will end sometime this week,” he said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whom Republicans blame for the funding miss.

But if that doesn’t happen, “I think the White House, along with (White House budget chief) Russell Vought, will have to look at what strong measures we can take to bring them to the table,” he said.

Hassett’s comments suggest that Democrats are looking for a politically opportune moment to fold into the shutdown fight. But with Numerous polls As more voters turn out to blame Trump and Republicans for the mess — and show strong support for increasing ACA health insurance subsidies — Democrats are largely unfazed.

“Every day gets better for us,” Schumer said Panchbol news Earlier this month, “because we thought about it long in advance and we knew that health care would be the focal point on September 30 and we prepared for that.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D. said last week that he had offered Democratic leaders a vote on extending Obamacare tax credits in exchange for opening the government.

But top Democrats appear to be rejecting Thune’s request. Instead, some Democrats are urging Trump to get involved in the negotiations himself.

Hassett said Monday that Trump “has been very active during this process, but it’s also his position that this is something that the Senate needs to work on.”