On the 1st day of Christmas, my President gave to me…1 government shutdown. Volv Follow Jan 2, 2019 · Unlisted

“If there is a shut down, I think that would be a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States…the President should be blamed.” - Donald Trump, 2013 — on the Obama era shut down.

Almost all presidents face at least one government shutdown when Congress fails to appropriate funds for the following year. For example, the Obama era shut down was caused due to a dispute in funding for the Affordable Care Act; Ronald Reagan had to shut down the government in 1981 over funding for senior civil servants.

Cut to today, President Trump “proudly” forced a shut down due to funding… for a wall.

So, this might be the only time Trump said something that most people would agree with, the president should be blamed.

Last week, the Senate passed a bill with temporary measures to keep the government running till Feb. Even the White House indicated that the President was on board with this bill.

But that only lasted until famous conservatives like author Ann Coulter and TV show host, Rush Limbaugh caused a commotion by objecting the absence of funding for the wall. Soon after, Trump amended the bill to include $5.7 billion for the border wall.

But this doesn’t come as a surprise. Trump’s anti-immigration and nationalist rhetoric is what got him the GOP presidential nomination in the first place, and given the fact that 86% of Republicans favor the wall — he’s reusing the same strategy to push him through the 2020 elections.

Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, Trump managed to ruin the holidays for 400,000 federal employees who are required to work without pay and another 350,000 employees who will be furloughed.

As for the business prowess of the President, he doesn’t seem to be such an ‘expert negotiator’ in the art of the deal as he claims to be. From promising to make ‘Mexico pay $20 billion for the wall’ in 2016, the President has now come down to fighting for $5 billion from his own country. So much for making ‘the best deals’.

What’s even more confounding is the fact that the border wall is going to cost up wards of $20 billion in overheads and up keep alone. Some analysts estimate the cost at $70 billion. Which means, even if Trump does get his $5.7 billion, there is little that he’ll be able to do with it.

The 2013 shut down took $24 billion out of the economy and $2.5 billion in lost productivity.

The effects and consequences of this shut down remain to be seen.