On This Day In 2019
Trump’s government shutdown becomes USA’s longest-ever
Trump gambled that Congress would fold. In December 2018, the U.S. government was running out of cash. So Congress and the president had to agree on a new bill to prevent a shutdown.
But before he would sign anything, Trump demanded that Congress pay $5 billion for his pet border Wall…you know, the wall he had promised us Mexico would pay for.
Congress wouldn’t do it. So Trump decided to shut down the government. It meant federal workers didn’t get paid, and certain services didn’t operate. But Trump didn’t care.
Trump’s shutdown was a disaster, and OTDI 2019 it officially became the longest in our 248-year-old country’s history.
The previous longest shutdown had been a miserable 21 days, instigated by House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the Clinton Administration. Trump’s would last 35 days before he finally caved.
But then Trump on his own, against the wishes of Congress which authorizes all spending, simply took billions from other military programs to pay for his Wall. Which he still never came even remotely close to actually building.
CNN offered a helpful comparison between shutdowns: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/politics/last-federal-government-shutdown-longest-dg/index.html
The Washington Post reported on Trump’s defiance: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-the-white-house-waiting-inside-trumps-defiance-on-the-longest-shutdown-ever/2019/01/12/c512af0c-15ee-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html
So Trump eventually just took the funds from the military: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/us/politics/senate-veto-override-border.html
