Trump: Demonstrably out of touch. Credit:AP This is, of course, not how grocery stores – or petrol stations or pharmacies or hardware stores – work, as most Americans understand. And that disconnect turned out to be genuinely damaging to the Trump administration. Americans have historically wanted strong, successful leaders still grounded in the realities of everyday life. Presidents could be wealthy, but they still had to be able to connect with the common man. This notion was built into the very fabric of Republican governance: George Washington, who had a taste for finery, did everything in his power to craft his image as a civilian, rather than a general (which he was) or a king (which he decidedly was not). That meant rejecting honorifics such as "Your Highness" in favour of "Mr President" and barring military parades in his honour. Presidents who followed carefully constructed a similar man-of-the-people image. Andrew Jackson, one of America's richest presidents, nonetheless presented himself as a populist, fighting the "money powers" of the Eastern banks and throwing open the doors of the White House to the public. Nor was this simply a phenomenon of the 18th and 19th centuries. Jimmy Carter the peanut farmer, Bill Clinton the "boy from Hope", George W. Bush, the brush-clearer: authenticity remains tied up with working-class roots and economic empathy for American presidents.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video And presidents who have failed, even for a moment, in expressing that empathy have paid a price. George H. W. Bush, though by all accounts compassionate and warm in person, struggled to communicate that to the public. Running for re-election in 1992 in the midst of a recession, Bush fumbled again and again. While being asked by an audience member at a presidential debate, "How can you honestly find a cure for the economic problems of the common people if you have no experience in what's ailing them?" Bush checked his watch, seemingly bored. (His answer was no better than his body language: he kept asking for clarification, unable to grasp what it meant to be affected by the economic downturn.) This moment, set against his opponent's "I feel your pain" emoting, helped turn the election towards Clinton. Barack Obama faced similar struggles. Out on the campaign trail in Iowa in 2007, he asked incredulously, "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula? I mean, they're charging a lot of money for this stuff." For the farmers of Iowa, a state that didn't even have one of the high-priced natural food stores, the attempt at connection fell flat, though Obama would go on to win the state's caucus.

Loading And of course Mitt Romney spent his time on the campaign trail in 2012 trying to connect with voters with tales that never quite connected with the working and middle classes. For instance, Romney admitted he didn't follow NASCAR, but he had "some great friends that are NASCAR team owners". He didn't make it to the White House. Now, it's true that Trump has often defied political history and conventional wisdom. And perhaps he will again here. But even his unconventional presidency has been built on a very conventional approach to economic empathy: promising steel workers he'll reopen plants, promising coal miners he'll restore their industry, promising "the forgotten people" that they have been remembered, and that, by dismantling NAFTA and throwing up tariffs and keeping out immigrants, he will bring them the economic prosperity that 40 years of deindustrialisation and globalisation have taken from them. Even though he will almost certainly never make good on these economic promises, the act of making them helped build his political base. And while Trump supporters were unlikely to side immediately with furloughed government workers over their President, they too were feeling the effects of the shutdown, which is harming farmers, small business owners, veterans, and travellers, as well as dragging down the overall economy. That's why in recent weeks, Trump began losing support not just with independents, but with his base. Presidents can get away with a lot – the Trump administration has provided ample evidence of that. But one thing they've never been able to get away with is an empathy deficit. In exposing that deficit, the shutdown has injured, perhaps irreparably, the Trump presidency.

Nicole Hemmer is a columnist based in the United States.