Shutdowns
Trump Shutdowns
As of March 2026 there were two shutdowns in Trump’s first term, and so far two in the second term.
The October 2025 shutdown was because the GOP did not want to continue affordable healthcare for Americans, and the February 2026 shutdown was because the GOP didn’t want guardrails placed on ICE agents to prevent further harm to or executions of American citizens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdowns_in_the_United_States
https://www.thoughtco.com/government-shutdown-history-3368274
2025 October
2025-10-01 In response to the government shutdown, the Trump administration furloughed 96% of NRCS staff, effectively freezing conservation programs and the processing of financial aid and contracts for farmers.
https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/how-the-government-shutdown-is-impacting-farmers/
2025-10-01 The White House began a series of childish digs during the shutdown, adding horrendous messages to all government sites blaming Dems for the shutdown. By October 14, Kristi Noem released a new video for TSA employees, also blaming Democrats for the shutdown. The Trump administration used federal resources for political coercion which is a violation of the Hatch Act. The White House website pages all were headed by “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government”. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was headed in bright red captioning, “The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people”. And source headlines read, “These 13 Airports Won’t Air DHS Video Blaming Democrats for Shutdown”.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/government-shutdown-clock/
2025-10-02 During a Fox interview, Leavitt was caught off guard after the Fox reporter asked her to verify claims servicemembers were not receiving pay during the shutdown just after Russell Vought stated the contrary in a previous interview.
2025-10-07 In response to the shutdown, Republican Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa stated she would hold town halls “when hell freezes over” and stated, “I don’t have to hold a town hall so you can come and yell at me”.
2025-10-09 In response to the government shutdown, the FAA terminated $6.7M in infrastructure grants to the Indianapolis International Airport, stating it did not align with the administration’s priorities.
2025-10-09 During a White House press conference, Trump responded to a reporter question about backpay after the shutdown. He responded, “I would say it depends on who we’re talking about. We’re gonna take care of our people, there are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way”.
2025-10-10 In response to the government shutdown, Mike Johnson canceled house votes, including the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva. Her vote would be the one to get the Epstein files released. Meanwhile, Republican leaders decided not to show up to work.
2025-10-10 In a retaliatory move to the government shutdown, the Trump administration began firing thousands of employees, withholding backpay, and cutting funds. CNN reported that the administration fired 4000 workers.
2025-10-14 In response to the shutdown, RFK fired over 1000 CDC doctors and scientists.
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/cdc-rfk-jr-shutdown-layoffs-goal-rcna237035
2025-10-15 A US District Judge had to step in and block the Trump administration from going forward with their plans to mass-fire thousands of federal employees who had been furloughed during the shutdown.
https://apnews.com/article/shutdown-layoffs-judge-trump-fdcb16f91c94d7bf73977e8968210b0e
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/15/trump-administration-layoffs-order-00609833
2025-10-16 Trump proposed building himself a “victory arch”. No word about how much the arch would cost taxpayers, but Trump did share his proposal during a government shutdown while he withheld food benefits from millions of Americans. The plan was to construct the arch overlooking the Arlington Cemetery, and the structure would be nearly twice the size of both the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7e8lv176go
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/16/nx-s1-5576506/president-trump-arch-us-250th-anniversary
https://turtledove.fandom.com/wiki/German_Arch_of_Triumph
2025-10-31 Just hours before SNAP benefits were set to expire, Trump hosted a lavish Great Gatsby Halloween party at the White House. This was AFTER Trump donated $40B in taxpayer money to bail out Argentina. This was just BEFORE Trump defied judge orders to release contingency funds set aside to continue SNAP benefits. There are contingency benefits set aside for emergencies (like government shutdowns). Meanwhile, States had to step in to try to make up the difference, and food pantries were absolutely overrun.
2025 November
2025-11-02 Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins played the new pick-me-girl in November when she weighed in on SNAP benefits in an X post, spinning rhetoric of SNAP fraud, attacking blue states, and calling Trump the “new sheriff in town”.
https://x.com/SecRollins/status/1985007736896053318
2025-11-03 Despite judge orders, Trump leveraged SNAP benefits, citing it “could take months” to release them, once saying he’d only release HALF, then going on X and posting he would release none.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-defies-court-snap-ruling
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/g-s1-96296/trump-deadline-contingency-funds-snap
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5596121/snap-food-benefits-trump-government-shutdown
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-administration-partially-fund-snap-months/story?id=127138175
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/04/trump-snap-funding-shutdown-food-aid-00635141
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/07/politics/trump-administration-supreme-court-snap-benefits
2025-11-04 Trump posted on social media that he would not release ANY part of the SNAP funding until the “Radical Left Democrats open up government”.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115492285081397189
2025-11-10 The Agriculture Department threatened to penalize states that didn’t “undo” steps to fully fund SNAP.
https://factkeepers.com/trump-administration-threatens-states-that-dont-undo-full-snap-payments/
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/09/nx-s1-5603417/full-snap-benefits-trump-states-order
2025-11-10 Eight Democratic Senators joined Republicans in a vote to reopen the government without concessions. Also, nobody voted to reroute the $40B sent to bail out Argentina to feed 40 million Americans.
https://time.com/7332610/8-senators-broke-with-democrats-to-end-government-shutdown/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-democrats-vote-end-government-shutdown/
https://meidasnews.com/news/republicans-vote-no-on-using-argentina-bailout-money-for-aca-subsidies
2026 February
2026-02-11 Shortly after the closure, the story as to why the shutdown occurred spread, that the shutdown was due to a “Mexican cartel drone”. Sean Duffy posted “the threat has been neutralized”, Pam Bondi used the incident to pivot away from Epstein questions at her hearing, and White House officials pointed fingers at the FAA for the shutdown. Ultimately, the Pentagon (or the FAA) utilized an uncoordinated attack and fired an anti-drone laser at a stray party balloon.
https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/2021594420806639787
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/12/politics/el-paso-trump-administration-finger-pointing
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/coastal/politics/2026/02/11/dc-wrap
2026 March
2026-03-13 Senator Patty Murray asked for a measure to fund Department of Homeland Security agencies that weren’t involved in immigration enforcement. It was an attempt to get TSA agents paid. The Republican party blocked the attempt to fund TSA, FEMA, and other agencies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrmk6SvbrnA&list=WL&index=2&t=45s
2026-03-17 Hundreds of TSA workers quit due to no pay over the second government shutdown. This time the government shutdown happened after DHS executed Alex Pretti. Democrats demanded that one of hte six remaining funding bills for DHS be stripped, as well as requesting a code of conduct for officers and unmasking - none of which the GOP would concede to. Unlike the last shutdown, the Trump Administration did not hold SNAP benefits as leverage this time. However, during this shutdown airlines were asking passengers to donate gift cards so employees could survive. According to online sources, the Trump Administration continued to pay the salaries of select DHS agents patrolling our streets for immigration crackdown and were asking for $200B to fund the war in Iran which they said wasn’t a war and would be “over soon”.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tsa-absences-double-shutdown-300-quit-airport-security-lines/
https://www.businessinsider.com/tsa-agents-quit-partial-government-shutdown-airport-delays-2026-3
https://www.fedweek.com/fedweek/only-partial-payday-coming-up-for-most-dhs-employees
2026-03-26 Trump posted on social media he planned to sign an emergency Executive Order to get TSA agents paid during the second government shutdown. This came after Democrats made multiple attempts to pass a bill asking for the same thing and Trump initially responded by sending ICE agents to the airports where they did not offer help and instead stood around playing on their phones. Keeping in mind, ICE agents not wearing masks or body cameras was why we had the shutdown in the first place, and the GOP refused to allow those guardrails while they continued to fund agents during the shutdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETT5qkzk9Lo&list=WL&index=10
https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-hell-sign-order-directing-dhs-pay-tsa/story?id=131441186
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-order-tsa-pay-as-dhs-shutdown-drags-on/
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/26/trump-tsa-shutdown-dhs.html
2026-03-27 The proposed funding bill by Democrats to fund TSA workers finally passed the House, but the GOP Senate warned the bill would be “dead on arrival” once it met the Senate.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgj052l1j2no
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/dhs-shutdown-2026-senate-funding-day-42/