Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, and author, with Kevin Kruse, of the forthcoming "Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles at CNN.

(CNN) The Trump shutdown is a fitting way to end the second year of this presidency.

The temporary closure of government was a crisis that could easily have been avoided. Even within President Donald Trump's own party, there was a strong desire to head it off and for legislators just to go home.

Julian Zelizer

But in the end, Trump couldn't resist flexing his negative presidential power one last time before Christmas, to demonstrate to the world how far he could go when he wanted to get his way. When the President boasted in his televised meeting with Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer that he would be "proud" to shut down the government, he wasn't lying.

The shutdown is another demonstration of the way in which the President is eager to use his power in destructive ways -- to stop things, to dismantle things, to block things, rather than to get things done.

There is no good reason why many offices of the government are now closed down. A deal to keep the government up and running was in the works. Senate Republicans had been prepared to join Democrats in passing a temporary budget, without $5 billion for a wall that almost no border security experts think is necessary, so they could go back to their states and districts for the holiday.

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