This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

As the second day of the US government shutdown wore on, there appeared little sign of progress. As both parties blamed each other, the White House went on the attack.

US government shutdown: anniversary of Trump inauguration marred by chaos Read more

Donald Trump used Twitter to urge Senate Republicans to end the impasse by taking the “nuclear option” if the “stalemate continues”.

Such a move would allow Republicans to pass legislation without Democratic support, lowering the majority needed to pass a bill to 51 votes. It is, however, not favoured by the GOP Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, who would in any case not have had enough votes to avert the shutdown on his own.

Trump also argued that Democrats were placing the nation’s borders under threat by opposing a short-term budget fix. “The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked,” he tweeted.

Quick guide All you need to know about a US government shutdown Show Hide What is a government shutdown? When the US Congress fails to pass appropriate funding for government operations and agencies, a shutdown is triggered. Most government services are frozen, barring those that are deemed “essential”, such as the work of the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. During this shutdown, around 25% of the government workforce is placed on unpaid furlough and told not to work. Workers deemed essential, such as active duty military personnel, are not furloughed. Why might the government shut down? The president and members of Congress are at an impasse over what should be included in a spending bill to keep the government open. How common is a shutdown? There have been more than a dozen government shutdowns in the US since 1981, although ranging in duration. The longest occurred under Bill Clinton, lasting a total of 21 days from December 1995 to January 1996, when the then House speaker, Newt Gingrich, demanded sharp cuts to government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and welfare.

This shutdown is on course to be the longest in US history. What would be the cost of a shutdown? A government shutdown would cost the US roughly $6.5bn a week, according to a report by S&P Global analysts. “A disruption in government spending means no government paychecks to spend; lost business and revenue to private contractors; lost sales at retail shops, particularly those that circle now-closed national parks; and less tax revenue for Uncle Sam,” the report stated. “That means less economic activity and fewer jobs.” Hundreds of thousands of people are not receiving regular paychecks in this shutdown. In previous shutdowns, furloughed employees have been paid retrospectively – but those payments have often been delayed. Sabrina Siddiqui Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images North America

The remarks followed an aggressive Trump campaign ad released on Saturday, which said Democrats opposing the president’s hardline immigration agenda were “complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants”.

Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, told NBC’s Meet the Press “that ad was produced by an outside group and not those of us in the White House”.

The ad concludes with a picture of the president giving two thumbs up and his voice saying: “I’m Donald Trump and I approve this message.”

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders told CNN’s State of the Union the ad was “nonsense and outrageous”.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, supports efforts to tie government funding to renewed protections for Dreamers, young undocumented migrants whose temporary legal status was rescinded by Trump.

Republicans have argued that as Trump set a March deadline for a resolution to the Dreamers issue, negotiations can continue after government funding is passed.

Although the president remained in Washington, missing a gala event at his Florida resort to celebrate his first year in office, he faced criticism for failing to lead.



News shows repeated Fox & Friends footage from 2013, when Republicans in Congress drove the last government shutdown, over healthcare reform.



“Well, if you say who gets fired it always has to be the top,” Trump said then. “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.”

On Saturday the White House released a photograph of the president sitting alone in the Oval Office, wearing a white Make America Great Again cap as he purportedly received “the latest updates from Capitol Hill”.

The Senate needs to lead because no one else is and the White House staff is making things very difficult Lindsey Graham

It was later reported that Trump had not made contact with the Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, since a lunch on Friday.

Schumer said on Saturday that working with Trump was like “negotiating with Jell-O”. In a speech in the Senate on Sunday, Schumer said he had “essentially agreed to give the president something he wants” – funding for a border wall – “for something we both want”, status for Dreamers.

It was now up to the president, Schumer said, to end what he repeatedly called “the Trump shutdown”.

Play Video 1:44 Schumer calls Trump 'dysfunctional' as government shutdown enters day two – video

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Schumer’s “memory is hazy because his account of Friday’s meeting is false”.

After initially ignoring questions about the president’s Sunday schedule, Sanders also said Trump had spoken to Kevin McCarthy and John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republicans in the House and Senate. Chief of staff John Kelly spoke to McConnell and Ryan and “updated the president on those calls”, Sanders said.

McConnell aimed to schedule for the early hours of Monday another vote on short-term funding, to reopen the government until 8 February.



Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation, the House speaker, Paul Ryan, said the lower chamber would accept the 8 February measure. The chairman of the hard right House Freedom Caucus signaled that his members would also support it.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats were seeking a commitment that a bill to reopen the government would establish parity between defense and domestic spending and would be followed by debate on immigration.

In the Senate, a spokesman said Schumer had only spoken with McConnell for a matter of minutes. Party moderates convened their own meeting, outside which the South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham predicted a “breakthrough”.

“The Senate needs to lead,” Graham said, “because no one else is and the White House staff is making things very difficult.”

Graham said White House proposals for spending on border security were “just not credible” and referred to a senior policy adviser to Trump and immigration hardliner when he said: “As long as Stephen Miller’s in charge of negotiating on immigration we’re going nowhere. He’s been an outlier for years.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump meets White House staffers on Saturday. Photograph: White House

The shutdown began at midnight on Friday, after Senate Democrats derailed a House-passed funding measure that would have run through 16 February.



Failed deal over Dreamers at the heart of US government shutdown Read more

They did so by preventing Republicans reaching the 60-vote tally that means blocking mechanisms cannot be used. Five red-state Democrats voted for the funding measure but a handful of Republicans opposed it.

The Kentucky senator Rand Paul, a Republican who voted no, bemoaned to CNN on Sunday “gamesmanship and partisanship” on both sides of the aisle.

Nonetheless, the White House continued to lead the charge. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, supported the president’s call for Senate Republicans to exercise the “nuclear option” if the standoff continued, and said Democrats were “dysfunctional”.

The public will not feel the full effect of the shutdown until the work week begins on Monday. Non-essential federal workers are likely to be told to take unpaid leave.

National parks remained open although in New York City the Statue of Liberty was closed. Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would seek funding to have it reopened.