The United States federal government has officially shut down after Donald Trump shared a behind-the-scenes photo from his failed negotiations with Democrats.
The strike of midnight on Wednesday ushered in the first federal government shutdown since December 2018, when a standoff over border wall funding during President Trump’s first term led to a historic 35-day stoppage.
The Senate plans to vote on the twice-failed funding bill again on Wednesday morning, but most House Republicans are not even in Washington, leaving a timeline for a resolution an open question.
At the heart of the standoff is Democratic Party demands that Republicans agree to restoring cuts to healthcare that were enacted over the summer.
The shut down came just hours after the president continued to mock Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries over the breakdown in talks.
All three, plus Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, were pictured in an image Trump posted to Truth Social late Tuesday.
In the Oval Office, the president placed ‘Trump 2028’ hats on the Resolute Desk directly in front of the Democratic leaders beside a pair of ice-cold Diet Cokes, his favorite drink.
It was reported the hats were offered as gifts to the two leaders, according to Punchbowl News, but Jeffries disputed that when he spoke on CNN Tuesday night.
Donald Trump posted a photo offering an inside look into the failed government shutdown negotiation meetings, including a set of ‘Trump 2028’ hats he offered Democrat leaders
The president continued to troll Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries All three, plus Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, are seen in the pictures Trump posted to Truth Social with no caption
‘He did not try to hand us the Trump 2028 hat. They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting on the desk. It was the strangest thing ever.’
Jeffries even asked JD Vance, who was in the room at the time, what he thought of the president running for a third term, to which the vice president said: ‘No comment.’
The entire room apparently ‘erupted in laughter’ at Vance’s response.
However, despite the friendly-seeming negotiations, the Democrats blocked any deal to keep the government open from moving forward.
It follows the president’s controversial post from the night before which used AI to manipulate Schumer’s speech and photoshopped a sombrero and mustache onto Jeffries.
The lapse in funding could result in hundreds of thousands of government workers getting furloughed, while millions of federal employees will be on edge as they await to know whether or not they are deemed ‘essential’ and need to work during the shutdown. The 1.3 million U.S. military personnel will go without pay as well.
For everyday Americans, services like passport offices, federal loan offices and food inspections will come to a grinding halt, as these services are deemed non-essential. Museums and National Parks will close, too.
Trump has already warned of dire consequences for Democratic priorities, signaling little willingness to negotiate with the minority party.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures after speaking during a meeting of senior military leaders convened by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, U.S., September 30
Garbage overflows a trash can on the National Mall across from the White House (file photo)
Miami, Florida, Miami International Airport, crowds of people security screening TSA checkpoint (file photo)
A vehicle passes by a sign on Black Star Canyon Road in Silverado that informs visitors that access to the Cleveland National Forest is closed (file photo)
‘We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible – that are bad for them and irreversible by them – by cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,’ Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
‘A lot of good can come from shutdowns,’ he said later in the day.
Typically, Congress is supposed to pass a dozen separate appropriations bills to fund the government, but this has not happened in years; instead, lawmakers have opted to pass continuing resolutions (CRs), which largely maintain funding levels as previously established in the passed funding bills.
Economically, the shutdown is poised to impose temporary disruptions but its long-term effects are expected to be limited, according to many analysts. Layoffs could dampen consumer spending and slow services such as health inspections, veterans’ assistance and Social Security inquiries.
Essential operations, including border security, law enforcement and medical care will continue.
The impasse has arisen because Republican and Democratic leaders have yet to strike a deal on spending levels.
House Republicans under Johnson passed a CR earlier this month to keep the government’s lights on through November. However, Democrats in the Senate are opposing the Republican-led CR over its lack of healthcare funding provisions.
As it stands, the GOP proposal resides in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass and head to President Donald Trump’s desk, where he would need to sign it before midnight Wednesday to avoid a shutdown. All signs point to that not happening.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (R) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (L) met with Trump and top congressional Republicans at the White House on Monday. The leaders admitted there were still major differences between the two parties and that negotiations to strike a last-second deal were unsuccessful
Schumer and Senate Democrats have openly said for weeks that they are not willing to support the measure unless provisions are added to make permanent tax cuts from the Affordable Care Act, which are slated to expire by the end of the year.
Democrats are also pushing to repeal parts of Trump’s domestic policy agenda, the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which resulted in cuts in rural hospital funding and Medicaid.
There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, so any proposal would need at least seven Democratic votes to pass.
Republicans, meanwhile, have said they want to pass government funding first, then they will be open to negotiating subsidies.
The top four congressional leaders met with Trump at the White House on Monday to negotiate a deal, but those efforts stalled as both sides emerged from the session with less optimism than when they walked in.
‘I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,’ Vice President JD Vance told reporters after the hourlong meeting. ‘I hope they change their mind.’
Schumer had a similarly pessimistic outlook and noted how his party has not contributed to the current version of the CR.
‘Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we’ve done this before,’ Schumer told reporters after the White House meeting.
Vice President JD Vance, accompanied by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speak with the press after the Monday White House meeting
‘There are still large differences between us,’ he added.
Johnson, speaking alongside Vance and Senate Majority Leader John Thune following the White House meeting, accused Democrats of ‘trying to bring in extraneous issues’ instead of accepting his chamber’s ‘clean’ proposal to extend funding.
‘If the Democrats make the decision to shut the government down, the consequences are on them, and I think it’s absolutely tragic,’ he said.
Trump, for his part, has decried the Democrats’ demands as unreasonable, claiming that their proposals would give free health care to illegal immigrants and forward pro-transgender objectives.
‘We’ll probably have a shutdown because [Democrats] want to give incredible Medicare… to illegal immigrants,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘We cannot let that happen.’
Though the deadline to pass has already come and gone, the actual government shutdown would ensue once the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees all federal workers, sends out notice to government employees that they either are or are not required to show up for work in the morning.
OMB Director Russ Vought, an architect behind many of Trump’s ambitions to whittle down the size of the federal government, has reportedly warned that many of the furloughed workers – especially those who are in positions not legally required to continue – may be fired in the case of a shutdown.
Reduction-in-force notices, the government’s way of firing employees, are expected to be sent out to non-essential workers who get furloughed during the potential shutdown.
Thune scheduled a vote on the GOP-authored CR for Tuesday evening
The House of Representatives, under Speaker Johnson (C) passed a CR on September 19. Democrats have said the proposal is a non-starter, and signaled that they will not vote for it, which would inevitably lead to a shutdown
The most recent shutdown, which spanned between the end of 2018 and the start of 2019, lasted 34 days. During that time, 340,000 employees were furloughed, according to data from the Government Accountability Office.
Even more federal employees, up to 800,000, are expected to receive furlough notices this time around.
Those expecting environmental inspections from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should expect those to be canceled.
Anyone awaiting a federal immigration court case meeting should expect delays in the case of a shutdown.
Global economic markets could also take a hit due to a delay in collecting labor statistics – a function also deemed non-essential.
Around the Capitol, some government employees could be heard musing about not coming in to work on Wednesday.
For some of these workers, the shutdown could prove to be a short vacation, as they are legally required to receive back pay in the case of a shutdown.
