But this partial shutdown has almost nothing to do with policy disagreements in the halls of the Capitol building — and everything to do with President Trump.
The impasse comes down to Trump’s demand for $5 billion to start building a wall at the southern border, something Democrats refuse to support. Trump has asked for wall funding since he took office, but every time Congress came around to negotiating spending bills, Republicans conceded the wall in exchange for funding other priorities.
In the weeks leading up to the December 21 deadline, it looked like Republicans and Democrats would do the same. The Senate passed a spending bill that fully funded the government but didn’t touch the border wall (instead, it included $1.3 billion for border security more generally), which had enough support to pass in the then-Republican-controlled House. But Trump said he would veto that bill, so the House, then led by Speaker Paul Ryan, passed a spending bill with $5.7 billion in wall funding with only Republican votes, which the Senate would never be able to pass, upending negotiations and leaving the government to shut down.
Most government shutdowns result in endless blame games. But in this case, Trump has actually gone on the record claiming responsibility. In a meeting with the Democratic leaders ahead of the spending deadline, he said he would be happy to shut down the government in a bid to force lawmakers to fund his southern border wall.
“I am proud to shut down the government for border security,” Trump told Democratic leaders a little more than a week before the latest shutdown started.
In December, at the last minute, the president pulled his support for a spending plan that had already passed the Senate, precipitating the shutdown. The American public accordingly blames him for the impasse far more than they blame Democrats in Congress.
