President Donald Trump was singing his praises. And former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other influential Democrats were expressing their dismay with him – or worse.

This was Schumer’s fate the day after he decided to back a Republican-crafted measure to avert a possible US government shutdown this weekend.

Later, he followed through on his promise, voting with nine other Democrats and all but one Republican to overcome the key procedural hurdle that – if Democrats had stuck together in opposition – would have prevented the funding bill from coming to a final vote.

The Senate bill, which passed that final vote shortly after, contained a number of provisions that angered liberals. These included cuts to non-military programmes, increased spending on border security, limits on how Congress can rescind Trump’s tariffs and draconian restrictions on Washington DC’s budget.

Schumer acknowledged all of this, but said he was backing the bill because a shutdown, which would allow the president to determine what government services and employees to suspend, would be worse.

“I believe it is the best way to minimise the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” he said on Friday. “Allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via government shutdown is a far worse option.”

It didn’t take long after Schumer’s announcement for Democratic second guessing – and straight-up outrage – to ensue.

“Chuck Schumer is unwilling and unable to meet the moment,” the Democratic group Pass the Torch, which led calls for Joe Biden to end his re-election bid last summer, said in a statement.

Pelosi, who wields considerable influence among House Democrats despite having stepped down from her leadership position, decried what she said was a “false choice” between a shutdown and accepting the Republican measure.

“We must fight back in a better way,” she said, suggesting a short-term funding extension and new bipartisan negotiations. She called the Republican bill a “blank cheque that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across America”.

In a Friday press conference, the current House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, dodged questions about Schumer. When asked if he still had confidence in his Senate counterpart, he tersely replied: “Next question.”

Others in the party were less circumspect. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia told reporters that he expected “new leadership” in the Senate next year – or after the next presidential election in 2028.

A group of 60 House Democrats – who joined all but one in their party to vote against the Republican bill in that chamber – penned a letter to Schumer, saying that the legislation “potentially legitimises President Trump and the Republican party’s dismantling of government”.

“If Republicans in Congress want to pass this bill,” they wrote, “they should do so with their own votes.”

As if to add rub salt on Democratic wounds, Trump took to his Truth Social website on Friday morning to praise what he said was a “good and smart move” by Schumer – and to promise that more Republican legislation on taxes, spending and “so much more” was coming.

“This could lead to something big for USA,” he wrote, “a whole new direction and beginning!”

While many rank-and-file Democrats and liberal activists clamoured for Schumer and Senate Democrats to block the House measure even if it triggered a government shutdown, it is unclear whether such a move would have pressured Trump and Republicans to negotiate a less partisan government-funding bill.

In fact, there are many on the right, including Trump’s designated government slasher, Elon Musk, who were relishing an opportunity to use a shutdown to further hamstring the federal bureaucracy.

After days, or weeks, of shutdown pain that would disproportionately affect their supporters, the Democratic Party could have found itself in the same place it is now – with limited power and few good options.

“Neither House Democrats nor the people voting ‘no’ in the Senate nor the people getting mad on Twitter have an actual strategy for getting what the base wants out of this, which is some kind of act of Congress saying that Trump and Musk need to conduct the government differently,” writes Matthew Yglesias, a left-leaning commentator.

Democrats have the power to block Republican legislation, but they simply don’t have the votes to advance their own alternative either in the House or the Senate.

That doesn’t make the situation Schumer and the Democrats have found themselves in any easier to stomach, however. Republicans, by sticking together, have been able to exert their will in Congress, while Trump pushes the boundaries of presidential power.

Elections, as they say, have consequences. And 2024’s results have left Democrats deep in the wilderness.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his reversal on Thursday, after vowing he and other Democrats would block the bill, which would fund the government through September.

It is possible a handful of other Democrats might now elect to vote to approve the measure, though it remains unclear.

Democrats face two options: Help Republicans pass the bill or stand their ground and oppose it. If they oppose the bill, it is likely they would take the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, which would start at 23:59 ET on Friday.

“There are no winners in a government shutdown,” Schumer said in his announcement on the Senate floor.

“It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.

“This in my view is no choice at all.”

He called the Republican-led funding bill deeply partisan but voiced concerns about a shutdown.

He said it would give Trump and Elon Musk, who have been leading an effort to slash federal spending, a “carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now”.

Votes on the measure are expected on Friday afternoon.

Although Democrats are in the minority in the Senate, they have a procedural ace in the hole. Senate rules require 60 votes out its 100-member chamber to pass most legislation.

So while the 47 Democrats and left-leaning independents don’t have the numbers to approve their own funding bill, they can block the Republican measure if they mostly stick together.

That’s exactly the course many liberals, desperate for Democrats to take a more forceful stand against the Trump administration, have insisted the party pursue.

The political brinksmanship has its risks.

Some conservatives would relish a government shutdown that suspends programmes and services they see as wasteful or counterproductive. Musk himself has said that such a scenario would help his team better identify “non-essential” government functions that they could then permanently end as part of his Department of Government Efficiency.

Republicans would also be quick to blame any shutdown, and the disruptions it causes, on the Democrats. And an extended shutdown would directly affect the very workers and programmes that Democrats are trying to protect.

On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the bill that keeps the lights on through September – with strings attached.

The new resolution boosts military spending by $6bn (£4.6bn) over current levels, while slashing $13bn from non-defence programmes and allowing more money for border enforcement.

It also contains a provision that makes it harder for Democrats to force a vote on rescinding Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

Many Democrats have said they would not support the House resolution and demanded the ability to modify it.

Hochul requested the federal assistance after drone sightings forced runways at Stewart International Airport in the state to shut for an hour last week.

“In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are sending a drone detection system to New York,” Hochul wrote on X on Sunday.

She said state governments needed more power to deal on their own with the small, uncrewed aircraft that have also been reported in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

And further west, in Ohio, drone sightings also led to the closure of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for about an hour on Friday night, according to local media.

“Congress must pass a law that will give us the power to deal directly with the drones,” Hochul said in her post, after last week promising to “do whatever it takes to ensure New Yorkers remain safe”.

Senator Chuck Schumer said on Sunday he hoped to pass a bill that would give local enforcement more power to investigate unidentified flying objects, saying: “I’m pushing for answers amid these drone sightings”.

He also asked that a drone detection system similar to the one headed for New York also be sent to New Jersey, where most of the aerial encounters have so far been recorded.

New Jersey Senator Andy Kim said he went out with local residents over the weekend to observe the night sky, and that he believed – based on conversations with civilian pilots and flight tracking data – that most of the aircraft he saw “were almost certainly planes”.

Despite their demands for more help in dealing with the issue, Hochul and other officials have sought to reassure the public that the suspected drones do not pose a national security threat.

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed the sightings included drones, as well as manned aircraft commonly mistaken for drones. He told ABC News that he knew of “no foreign involvement” related to the sightings.

The Pentagon has denied the suggestion of one New Jersey representative that the possible drones were coming from an Iranian “mothership” lurking off the east coast, while an FBI official has said there may have been “a slight overreaction” on the topic.

According to Mayorkas, the uptick in drone reports may be due to a change in federal regulations allowing drones to be flown at night.

He added that the federal government was working in “close co-ordination” with state and local authorities on the issue, saying it was “critical” they be given the ability to counter drone activity under federal supervision.

With just over a month to go until Donald Trump’s inauguration, the president-elect’s pick for national security adviser, Republican Representative Mike Waltz, hit out against the Biden administration’s response to the sightings.

“I think Americans are finding it hard to believe we can’t figure out where these are coming from,” he told CBS News.

“We need to get to the bottom of it,” he said, accusing government agencies of “pointing at each other” rather than offering answers.Kim, a Democrat, also called on federal authorities to do more to assuage Americans’ concerns.

“People have a lot anxiety right now about the economy, health, security etc,” he wrote on X.

“And too often we find that those charged with working on these issues don’t engage the public with the respect and depth needed.”