In 2018, during Donald J. Trump’s first presidency, he said he would be “proud” to shut down the government if a deal was not reached that included funding he wanted for his proposed wall along the southern U.S. border.
“I’ll be the one to shut it down,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “I will take the mantle. And I will shut it down for border security.”
The partial government shutdown that followed was the longest in U.S. history. Mr. Trump was surprised at how poorly people reacted to it, according to one official who worked in the administration said.
As a midnight deadline drew closer on Friday,the incoming president both suggested he could live with a shutdown and tried to push the blame for it on President Biden, who will be in office for another four weeks.
“President-elect Trump is doing more to find a resolution for the American people than the sitting president,” said Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, in a statement. “If the government shuts down, the onus is on Joe Biden, who has been hiding away since Election Day.”
Mr. Trump has pushed for shutdowns consistently over time, primarily as a leverage tool. Some advisers in his first term told him that there were ways to minimize the pain that taxpayers experience in a shutdown — a message that apparently has stuck with him.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly told allies and advisers over the last few days that he does not oppose a government shutdown, according to two people with knowledge of his comments.
In May 2023, Kevin McCarthy, then the speaker of the House, reached a budget deal with Mr. Biden that included some spending cuts and suspended the debt ceiling through this coming weekend. Mr. Trump was furious. He wanted Mr. McCarthy to let the government default on its debts instead of striking a deal that would benefit Mr. Biden, who was running for a second term at the time, two people briefed on the events said.
Mr. Trump’s advisers believe voters are more preoccupied with the holidays than they are with the ins and outs of congressional negotiations. But while Mr. Trump is technically correct that a shutdown would be Mr. Biden’s problem now, it could become a Trump problem if it drags on.
The driving conceit this time has been that Mr. Trump — and Elon Musk, an ally, funder, and multibillionaire new friend whom he has tasked with cutting government costs — believes the initial bipartisan deal was stuffed with too much bloat and too many Democratic priorities. A shutdown, from that perspective, is preferable.
That may be harder for lawmakers to swallow when Mr. Trump is arguing that he wants is to remove or raise the debt ceiling — something that was not in the initial deal — which would allow government spending to continue to increase.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, hours before he called for a shutdown. “Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”
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