WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s recent verbal swipes at congressional Democratic leaders could complicate closing a deal on the opposition party’s demands for immigration enforcement changes.

White House officials and Trump himself had said after a deal was struck late last year to end a lengthy government shutdown that he and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer would negotiate largely with each other on a package of possible enforcement changes.

But White House officials and aides to Schumer on Monday afternoon and Tuesday were mum about whether the longtime rivals were slated to have a telephone or in-person conversation this week.

Without a broader deal or a stopgap funding measure on Trump’s desk later this week, federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security will expire Friday.

Trump in recent weeks has used public remarks and social media posts to hammer congressional Democrats. He used parts of his address to the annual National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday to question how people of faith could vote for any Democratic politician.

“I know we have some here today,” Trump said before the religious audience. “And I don’t know why they’re here because they certainly don’t give us their vote.”

The president on Friday night set off a dustup with Schumer when he was asked on Air Force One if he had informed the New York Democrat that funding for the Gateway tunnel project would be released in return for the minority leader supporting slapping Trump’s name on the Big Apple’s Penn Station and Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.

Trump denied that, saying Schumer “suggested that to me.”

“Chuck Schumer suggested that to me about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station,” the president claimed. “Dulles Airport is really separate. Dulles Airport is really not too involved with Congress. That’s a separate kind of a deal, as you know. But it was suggested to me by numerous people, unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested.”

Schumer aides on Friday night quickly directed a reporter to a social media post from their boss. “Absolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it,” Schumer posted on X, adding of the president: “Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers.”

“Why not?” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied Tuesday when asked why Trump wants to slap his name on Dulles and Penn Station. Trump “floated” doing so during a recent conversation with Schumer, she added.

Trump and Schumer, both New York City natives, have had a long and complicated relationship. Though they have managed to achieve several spending agreements during Trump’s five years in office, their working relationship often has been contentious.

“The relationship between Trump and Schumer is not one that currently generates much trust, which is the key to being ‘functional.’ And as we get closer to the midterms, I assume Schumer will become even more unlikely to want to cut any major deals with the president,” one former Senate leadership aide, granted anonymity to be candid, said Tuesday, citing conversations with congressional aides.

Aides to Trump and Schumer did not dispute the notion that talks about DHS immigration enforcement tactical changes likely would happen at the senior staff and senator level.

That means “Schumer’s senior leadership staff, (Democratic Whip Richard J.) Durbin and others will be the key to anything being worked out between the White House and Senate Democrats,” the former leadership aide said. “Focus on the relationship Schumer has with (House Minority Leader Hakeem) Jeffries, who appears to me to be more out front on the ICE Democratic demands.”

During a government shutdown late last year, the Trump-Schumer relationship featured regular barbs, as the two New Yorkers tried to pin blame on the other.

For instance, on Nov. 10, the president criticized Schumer over the record-long shutdown, contending that the Senate’s top Democrat misread how unified Republicans were at the time.

“I think he made a mistake in going too far,” Trump told Fox News. “He just went too far. He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.”

‘Ultimate decider’

But another former senior Senate aide, Ivan Zapien, said Tuesday the verbal sparring in public should not be viewed as a surefire hindrance to an enforcement pact.

“Schumer and Trump have spent years studying each other. Getting along isn’t the most important thing — familiarity is,” Zapien said. “They know the tells, the pressure points, the limits. That kind of muscle memory can still produce a deal. You can’t fast-track years of learning the person across the table.”

While not pointing to any planned Trump-Schumer talks, White House aides have been eager to contend that the terms of any potential deal run through the Oval Office.

Meantime, Leavitt last week said Trump would be the “ultimate decider.”

“President Trump will be the ultimate decider of any policy changes on anything, especially with respect to immigration enforcement,” Leavitt told reporters.

“What I will tell you is the president is never going to waver in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws and protecting the public safety of the American people in his ardent support” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, “who, unfortunately, the Democrat Party has made a decision to demonize.”

She panned Democrats for not criticizing former President Barack Obama over his deportation program.

“So as for policy discussions that will take place, Congress will have those, the president will decide on those,” Leavitt said. “So look, we’re willing, obviously, to have this dialogue and to talk and to listen. But we are not going to concede in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws and delivering on the mandate the president was given by nearly 80 million Americans to deport illegal alien criminals from our country.”

During floor remarks on Tuesday, Schumer said the White House’s Monday response to Senate Democrats’ list of policies to impose restraints on federal immigration enforcement officers “included neither details nor legislative text,” adding: “We need to see more from Republicans very soon.”

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(Victor Feldman contributed to this report.)

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