Trump budget chief defines good shutdown as ‘one that fixes this town’

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday that a “good” government shutdown would include “fixing Washington, D.C. permanently,” though he added the threat shouldn’t be used as a way to negotiate.

“It’s not a goal and it’s not a negotiating tool,” Mulvaney said at White House press briefing. “But to the extent that the president advocated for one today, if you want to imagine what a good shutdown was, it’s one that fixes this town.”

“One that really drives the message back home to people that it really was as broken as they thought it was when they voted for Donald Trump. A good one would be something that fixes Washington, D.C. permanently.”

{mosads}Mulvaney’s comments come after President Trump earlier in the day called for a “good shutdown” in September to fix the “mess” in government.

Trump, taking to Twitter, also vented frustration about the 60-vote threshold on legislation in the Senate thanks to the filibuster. He called for “changing the rules,” or for more Republicans to be elected to the upper chamber in 2018. Republicans currently have a majority of 52 Senate seats.

Congress is poised to approve this week a bill to fund the government through September, the first major piece of bipartisan legislation since Trump took office.

Trump criticized the agreement on Tuesday morning, but by the afternoon was trumpeting the bipartisan spending deal as a “clear win.”

The president’s string of Tuesday morning tweets displayed Trump’s annoyance with Senate Democrats who successfully blocked some of his top priorities, including money for his proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mulvaney condemned Democrats — who argue that they won many of the battles within the bill — for celebrating the spending deal as a victory for their party.