With the US government exiting the “shutdown” on the horizon, Trump is claiming a “big victory” over the Democrats

US President Donald Trump claimed a victory for Republicans over Democrats on the issue of the longest budget impasse in the history of the US government on Tuesday in a speech at an annual ceremony honoring veterans, reports AFP.

“Congratulations (…) on a great victory,” Trump told Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson as he spotted him in the audience at a Veterans Day ceremony at Airlington National Cemetery.

“We're opening up our country — it should never have been closed,” added the Republican president of the United States.

On Monday evening, in the 41st day of the shutdown, the US Senate passed the necessary legislation to reopen the federal government, and the bill was sent to the House of Representatives, where it will not be taken up until Wednesday, according to The New York Times.

The budget impasse has left millions of federal workers without pay, disrupted air travel and called into question food benefits for low-income families.

Eight senators from the Democratic caucus voted with the Republicans

Breaking the impasse was made possible by the decision of eight Democratic senators to break their own party's deadlock on spending legislation that Republicans have been trying for weeks to pass to reopen the government, prompting a backlash from Democrats.

The eight said they took the step after concluding that Republicans would never accept the Democrats' main demand to get out of the shutdown, which is to extend federal health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

“We had no path on the horizon on health care because Republicans said, 'We're not going to talk about health care if the government is shut down,'” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia.

The decision divided Democrats, just days after they scored their first major electoral victories in Donald Trump's second term in the White House.

Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the race for mayor of New York City on Tuesday, despite opposition from Donald Trump and even many in the Democratic Party.

In Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won the gubernatorial race by a wide margin.