In 2013, at just this time of year, the government shut down for 17 days. At the time, it was one of the longest shutdowns. Then, as now, it hinged on the Affordable Care Act, which was slated to come online on Oct. 1. House Republicans, under the influence of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and many conservative outside groups, were determined to stop it. Since funding for the ACA was not a discretionary budget item, it would not be affected, but that didn’t stop Republicans from refusing to pass a budget that didn’t defund — or, at the very least, delay — the new program.
The GOP eventually caved, and in the end, the media scored it as a Democratic win since they not only succeeded in raising the debt ceiling but also staved off the assault on their signature health care legislation. Still, there is no evidence that any of it made much difference politically. In the 2014 midterms, the GOP picked up nine Senate seats and 14 House seats.
During this shutdown — and the others that seemed to happen every couple of years during President Barack Obama’s administration — the media inexplicably felt the need to ask reality star and New York real estate developer Donald Trump what he thought about them. In an appearance on the Today Show, he said, “If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.” Asked what he would do in such a situation, Trump said, “I would get everybody together and we’d have a budget.” When the host pointed out that Democrats and Republicans had all gotten together to no avail, Trump replied, “Well, that’s because they don’t have the right leader. You don’t have the right leader.”
Trump also called in to “Fox and Friends” and was asked, “Who’s getting fired, who’s going to bear the brunt of the responsibility if indeed there is a shutdown of our government?” He once again took the opportunity to blame Obama. “It always has to be the top. I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top. And the president’s the leader and he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead. And he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t like doing that. That’s not his strength.”
Five years later, the shoe was on the other foot. In late 2018, Trump was the president and presided over the longest government shutdown in history. Over the course of 35 days, he refused to sign any bill that didn’t include funding for his border wall, and Democrats were having none of it. On January 25, after short staffing at the Federal Aviation Administration forced many flight cancellations, Congress passed a funding bill with a veto-proof majority, essentially forcing Trump to sign it. He then declared a national emergency, allowing him to pilfer some military appropriations to build his wall. (Sound familiar?) For all his big talk, Trump handled his shutdown worse than any president before him.
Today he’s presiding over yet another standoff, and according to a recent AP-NORC poll, a majority of Americans are laying the blame at the feet of Trump and the GOP. Six in 10 Americans say the president and congressional Republicans bear “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility; 54% blame congressional Democrats. Other polls have produced similar findings. The public isn’t thrilled with any of them at the moment.
For all of his blather about Obama’s lack of leadership, Trump is completely checked out of this shutdown. The administration’s work in brokering a ceasefire and pending peace deal in Gaza has blown up his ego to even more gargantuan proportions, and it appears he just can’t be bothered.
For all his blather about Obama’s lack of leadership, Trump is completely checked out of this shutdown. The administration’s work in brokering a ceasefire and pending peace deal in Gaza has blown up his ego to even more gargantuan proportions, and it appears he just can’t be bothered. He is on a massive sugar high right now, standing astride the world like a colossus and taking credit for every positive thing that’s happened around the globe in the last nine months while treating America’s allies and enemies alike as his puppets. Trump has claimed he’s “ended” eight wars, so many he can’t even remember the names of the countries involved.
On Thursday he made a new claim. “I’ve made deals, I know about deals, I do it well,” he said during a press availability in the Oval Office. “I don’t think any president has ever ended a deal and I’ve done eight… Did Bush ever end, do you think Biden ever ended, no — Biden started wars because he was stupid… I ended eight and it’s going to be nine.”
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The president’s peacemaking prowess is apparently due in part to his willingness to murder civilians, which he persists in doing in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. And just yesterday, on receiving word that the fragile peace in Gaza is seeing Hamas commit executions against opposition Palestinians, he appeared to indicate he had given his approval — until someone likely reminded him that he’s supposed to be enforcing a peace deal. So he posted his own threat on Truth Social: “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
After all of Trump’s bragging in years past about how a president must “lead” and strutting around like he’s emperor of the world these last few months, he doesn’t seem to realize that his lackadaisical attitude about the shutdown is not a good look — and his own supporters appear to be taking note.
Sophia Cole is a Trump voter from St. Louis who participated in the AP-NORC poll, and she “placed equal blame for the shutdown on Trump and Congress.” The 38-year-old mother said Republicans and Democrats should be able to find a compromise to open the government. But she “believes it is ultimately the Republican president’s responsibility to broker a deal. ‘We’re dependent on him to get the House and everyone to vote the way that he needs them to vote,’ Cole said.”
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It’s easy to see why she might be a bit confused. Trump, after all, has conjured an image of himself as not just a dealmaker, but a strong, decisive leader who brings everyone into the room and cracks their heads together until they do what he tells them to do. He supposedly brought Hamas to its knees and wrestled all of Europe to the ground — and now he can’t get Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to bend the knee? What’s going on here?
As the shutdown drags on, it’s possible this realization may percolate up to the MAGA faithful. Everyone’s starting to feel the effects of this shutdown and they’re logically going to start wondering why Daddy Trump can end eight wars around the world but he can’t seem to end a mere congressional standoff. Something doesn’t add up, and even his own people could begin to wonder why he isn’t using his magical prowess to provide for their needs and wants. “What happened to America First?” they might well ask.
If for no other reason, Democrats need to hang tough. The shutdown is exposing the fact that Trump is anything but the strongman he portrays himself to be. Instead, the feeble man behind the curtain is really just a sad, bent, braggart who spends most of his time redecorating the White House and fantasizing that he’s been anointed king of the world. Every day the Democrats hold their ground, Trump looks weaker and weaker.
