Murphy: Trump trying to transition US to ‘something much closer to a totalitarian state’

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he thinks President Trump is trying to transition the country into “something much closer to a totalitarian state.”

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the outspoken Trump critic expressed concern that the ongoing government shutdown allows Trump to exercise more “king-like powers” and make decisions that should belong to the Congress.

“I think one of the reasons that President Trump is refusing to negotiate is because he likes the fact that the government is closed,” Murphy said, “because he thinks he can exercise king-like powers, he can open up the parts of the government that he wants, he can pay the employees who are loyal to him.”

“I mean, this is a leader who is trying to transition our government from a democracy to something much closer to a totalitarian state. And so this is part of what happens in totalitarian states,” Murphy added. "The leader, the regime only, decides what things get funded and what don't, often in coordination with their oligarch friends."

Murphy pushed back on the idea that Trump cares more than Democrats about paying the U.S. military just because the government received an anonymous $130 million donation to cover troops’ pay, in what some lawmakers and experts say raise legal concerns.

“I just don't want to live in a world in which Donald Trump and a handful of billionaires decide which part of government works and which don't, which is why I would rather have him at the negotiating table tomorrow, so that we can reopen the government and it can be a democratically elected Congress that decides what things get funded, not a handful of super rich dudes,” Murphy said.

The White House in a statement to The Hill called the Connecticut Democrat "a buffoon who regularly lies to the American people."

“Here’s the truth: President Trump wants the government open and Democrats could vote to reopen it anytime they want, but they’ve said they want to use struggling families as leverage for their radical left agenda. It’s sick," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Hill.

Updated 12:28 p.m. EDT