President Donald Trump shared photos on Truth Social on Tuesday showing red "Trump 2028" hats strategically displayed on the Resolute Desk during an Oval Office meeting with Democrat leaders Monday in hopes of fending off a government shutdown.

Trump's post came late Tuesday, hours before Washington grappled with its first shutdown since 2018-19. 

"The Trump administration wants a straightforward and clean CR [continuing resolution] to continue funding the government – the exact same proposal that Democrats supported just 6 months ago, 13 times under the Biden Administration," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. 

"But radical Democrats are shutting the government down because they want a nearly $1.5 trillion wish list of demands, including free health care for illegal aliens. The Democrat’s radical agenda was rejected by the American people less than a year ago at the ballot box, now they’re shutting down the government and hold the American people hostage over it."

JD VANCE SAYS GOVERNMENT LIKELY 'HEADED INTO A SHUTDOWN' AFTER TRUMP MEETS WITH DEMS

Vice President JD Vance warned, "I think we’re headed to a shutdown" after Monday's meeting. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the time the sides "have very large differences." 

Late Tuesday, the Senate failed a last-ditch vote on extending funding and barreled toward a shutdown as the clock struck midnight on Oct. 1.

SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS, WHO DOESN'T AND HOW MUCH IT COSTS

Trump posted the photos late Tuesday, a few hours before the shutdown was slated to begin. 

His campaign has sold "Trump 2028" hats since earlier this year.

Democrat leaders downplayed the stunt. 

Schumer said Trump "can avoid a shutdown if he chooses to," while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., added, "we will not back down" in defending healthcare and spending priorities."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Trump presided over a 35-day government shutdown in 2018–19, the longest in American history, during his first term in office.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., railed against Senate Democrats’ move to block the GOP’s short-term funding extension as Congress gears up for a government shutdown.

Democratic lawmakers led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted to block Republicans' continuing resolution (CR) for a second time just hours ahead of the deadline to fund the government.

It’s unlikely that a deal will be struck in the waning hours of fiscal year (FY) 2025, and neither side is ready to blink.

Thune said there would be more votes to come on the same bill but noted that if Schumer wanted to talk, he knows where to find him. He also said there are Democrats who "are very unhappy with the situation that they are in."

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN RISK GROWS AFTER DEMS BLOCK TRUMP-BACKED EXTENSION FOR A 2ND TIME

"We didn't ask Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies. We didn't add partisan riders," Thune said. "We simply asked Democrats to extend existing funding levels to allow the Senate to continue the bipartisan appropriations work that we started."

"And Senate Democrats said no," he continued. "Why? Because far left interest groups and far left Democrat members wanted a showdown with the president. And so, Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats' partisan interests."

Republicans tried and failed to again advance their CR, which would have extended government funding until Nov. 21 with the main goal of giving lawmakers more time to pass the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the 1990s.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS' GOVERNMENT FUNDING PROPOSAL GOES DOWN IN FLAMES WITH SHUTDOWN DEADLINE IN HOURS

Despite an impending shutdown, Thune and Senate Republicans found a bright spot in the failed vote: more Democrats crossed the aisle than the previous test earlier this month.

"The cracks in the Democrats are already showing," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said. "When we had a vote on our proposal to keep the government open, the clean CR right before the recess, we had one Democrat vote. Tonight we had three."

Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, all crossed the aisle to support the bill.

GOP ACCUSES DEMS OF RISKING SHUTDOWN TO RESTORE ‘ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HEALTHCARE’

Meanwhile, Schumer signaled that he was not ready to budge from his position and instead pointed the finger at the GOP and President Donald Trump for "plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill, and risking America's health care."

Senate Democrats pushed for an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits, among other things, that Republicans argued were not provisions that should be tacked onto a short-term funding extension. 

Still, Schumer was resolute that Thune and the GOP needed to come to the negotiating table to solve that issue and craft a bipartisan CR.

"We hope they sit down with us and talk. Otherwise, it's the Republicans who will be driving us straight towards a shutdown tonight, and at midnight," Schumer said. "And the American people will blame them for bringing the federal government to a halt."