Shutdown or not? Trump isn't president yet, but he's already causing GOP problems. | Opinion
Donald Trump and his MAGA followers will have only themselves to blame if the government shuts down before Christmas.
Donald Trump isn’t even in office yet, and he's already causing problems for Republicans.
Republicans and Democrats had an agreement in place to fund the government and avoid a shutdown as recently as Tuesday, but that agreement fell through under pressure from Trump and his surrogates for Republicans to renegotiate.
Then, a Thursday evening retry failed after 38 Republicans voted against the new and Trump-endorsed attempt.
The deadline to avert a shutdown midnight Friday, and if a funding package is not passed by then it will be disastrous for the GOP.
Government shutdown would be a bad omen for 2nd Trump term
Trump doesn’t take office until mid-January, which ordinarily would incentivize presidents to avoid blunders prior to them taking office. Trump, as we all know, just can’t help himself.
A shutdown, in this case, particularly after Trump blew up a bipartisan agreement, would result in the blame solely being taken by the Republican Party.
The timing of such a shutdown could not be worse. Shutdowns mean federal employees can’t get paid until the government is reopened, leading to staffing shortages for some agencies. One such agency most impacted by a shutdown is the Transportation Security Administration, which means failure to pass a spending bill could cause massive delays during holiday travel.
Politics is about perceptions, and Republicans failing to keep the government running this holiday season under Trump’s direction would once again demonstrate to Americans that the GOP can’t be trusted when it's time to show leadership.
Last time Republicans were entrusted with total control, they failed to fund the government prior to the 2018 Christmas recess, resulting in the longest shutdown in U.S. History ‒ 35 days. The government went unfunded until the new Congress was sworn in that January.
This time around, a possible shutdown is looming as Republicans are weeks away from controlling the House, Senate and presidency.
Even so, total control is unlikely to help solve the problem, as only 172 Republicans and two Democrats voted for the most recent Trump-endorsed bill.
This divide within the GOP on the matter means that the differing factions will need to make some concessions to one another, because they cannot expect Democrats to bail them out.
MAGA Republicans are leading the charge into their own headache
While most politicians might be eager to avoid a shutdown, some within the MAGA movement aren’t worried at all about the prospect or the impact it would have on Americans.
“The government can shut down all the way until Jan 20th as far as I’m concerned,” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X.
It's unclear why any Republicans would want to delay funding until Trump’s inauguration, as the new government is unlikely to be any more favorable toward MAGA’s wish list than the current one.
The fact that the new version of the bill failed to even unite House Republicans makes it even more puzzling that Trump would undermine an existing funding measure and open his party up to criticism.
Last time around, simple issues like keeping the government funded became major struggles for Republican lawmakers, and contributed to why voters no longer trusted them with the majority. Their inability to simply be responsible and run the country is a big part of the reason Democrats were able to claim they were the “adults in the room,” and Americans agreed, swinging in their favor shortly after.
Republicans would be wise to sort out their issues and prove they can do the basic tasks necessary to keep the government functioning. Failure to do so would undermine trust in their complete control of government before it even begins.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for Paste BN and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.