Ezra Klein Slams Democrats for Caving on Shutdown

The New York Times columnist Ezra Klein warns that Democrats may have just signaled to President Donald Trump they will “fold under pressure.”

In Monday’s opinion piece titled “Were Democrats Thinking?” Klein argued that, despite Democrats’ slim chances as the opposition party to win a shutdown, they were prevailing this time, with polls suggesting that Americans were more likely to blame Republicans.

However, on Sunday, the Senate voted to approve a stopgap measure that will keep the government funded through January 30, fund most federal agencies, and pay back furloughed workers. Seven Democrats and one independent voted in favor of the measure.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a press conference as the government shutdown continues in Washington, D.C. on November 5, 2025. — Polls suggest Americans were more likely to blame Republicans for the shutdown. Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty Images

Klein described Sunday’s deal to end the shutdown as offering “very little,” as it does not include the Democrats’ original demands on healthcare subsidies.

The vote to pass a stopgap funding measure came a day after Trump admitted on Truth Social that Democrats have been successful in the shutdown.

“Democrats said the shutdown was about the subsidies, but for most of them, it wasn’t. It was about Trump’s authoritarianism,” Klein writes in his opinion piece.

Klein’s stance echoes his September column, in which he argued that joining Republicans to fund the government would be “complicity” in what he called “authoritarianism happening.”

Though the columnist notes the ongoing chaos caused by the 40-day shutdown—such as canceled flights across the country, reductions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, more than 670,000 furloughed federal employees, and roughly 730,000 working without pay—Klein says he would not vote for the compromise.

“Shutdowns are an opportunity to make an argument, and the country was just starting to pay attention,” Klein wrote, adding that he worries “Democrats have just taught Trump that they will fold under pressure,” which is a lesson the president “remembers.”

Following Democratic wins on Tuesday in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the main reason for Republican losses was that he wasn’t on the ballot and the shutdown.

People receive groceries in Flordia from the Curley's House Food Bank days before the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits may expire — Reductions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits left nearly 42 million Americans with limited food. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Many Democrats have responded to the deal passed on Sunday with frustration, as it merely promises a vote to extend Obamacare tax credits in December, with Klein noting that most of the House and Senate Democrats he has spoken to expected the vote to fail.

Yet, the columnist ends on an optimistic note for Democrats, writing that the end of the shutdown is “not a win,” but “better than a loss.”

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