Hundreds of thousands of employees have been without pay for weeks due to the federal government shutdown, and now President Donald Trump said he “can relate” to their plight.

“I can relate, and I’m sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments — they always do — and they’ll make adjustments,” he told NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell after she asked, “Can you relate to the pain of federal workers who can’t pay their bills?”

My question to the president, “Can you relate to the pain of federal workers who can’t pay their bills?” Pres. Trump:”I can relate…”. Watch: pic.twitter.com/WJCBHZQ15x

— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) January 6, 2019

“People understand exactly what’s going on,” Trump continued, contending, without evidence, that “many of those people that won’t be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I’m doing.”

The government partially closed on Dec. 22 over Trump’s call for funding for a proposed southern border wall. The newly Democratic House of Representatives has continued dismissing his demand.

This shutdown could become the longest in American history, surpassing the previous record of 21 days in the ’90s, under President Bill Clinton and a Republican-led Congress, according to CNN.