Trump’s Shutdown Glee Could Come Back to Bite Him

Opinion|Trump’s Shutdown Glee Could Come Back to Bite Him

Under normal circumstances, Democrats’ fierce internal disagreements, clumsiness with messaging and lack of any megaphone that matches President Trump’s would convince me that they can’t win the government shutdown.

But under circumstances as abnormal as these? They have a shot, because whatever their ineptness, it’s rivaled by Republicans’ incoherence.

Consider a remarkable interview that Senator John Thune, the Republican majority leader, gave to Jordain Carney of Politico last week, as many federal workers were furloughed and many federal services were halted. Pressuring Democrats to shelve their demand that pending Medicaid cuts be restored and Affordable Care Act tax credits continued, Thune warned them that the shutdown was emboldening and unleashing Russell Vought, Trump’s dyspeptic director of the Office of Management and Budget, to proceed with his cherished dream of destroying programs that many voters hold dear.

“We don’t control what he’s going to do,” Thune said ominously.

Translation: Work with Republicans in Congress to save America from Republicans in the White House. It defines oxymoronic. Subtract the “oxy” and it fits that bill, too.

While Thune and other Senate Republicans insist that their Democratic colleagues pass legislation to continue funding the federal government and thus reopen it, Trump and Vought veritably cackle with glee about an “unprecedented opportunity” (the president’s words) to emaciate the federal work force and starve federal projects. Trump even posted a taunting, absurd video, set to the tune of the Blue Öyster Cult classic “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” in which Vought is the fearsome emissary of death — cape, hood, sickle and all. Trump taps a cowbell; Vice President JD Vance plays the drums. As I said: absurd.

So Republicans in aggregate are saying that it’s irresponsible of Democrats to interrupt the functioning of government, but that the government should perform many fewer functions. They’re presenting themselves as the protectors of government while staging an assault on it. With one hand, they’re wagging a finger at Democrats for inflicting temporary pain on Americans; with the other, they’re waving a pom-pom at the chance to inflict lasting pain on them. I guess both gestures involve extremities, but that’s where any consistency ends.