Trump’s Shutdown Management Upends Congressional Dynamics

President Donald Trump is taking an extremely active role in redirecting resources in order to blunt the painful effects of the federal government shutdown.

His creative management could change the dynamics in Congress—either by easing the pressure to reach a deal by easing the pain of the shutdown or by increasing the pressure through targeting programs aligned with liberal Democrat policies.

The president has decided to keep the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a nutrition and health care program, operating by directing money from tariff revenues to it. The program was subsisting on just $150 million in contingency funding, which the Office of Management and Budget had previously said was set to run out in October.

Additionally, amid layoffs in sectors he deemed nonessential, Trump has ordered that troops remain paid, directing “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our troops paid on October 15th.”

The next major payday after Oct. 15 will be Oct. 29, so Trump’s decision staves off one of the most painful consequences of a shutdown. If the shutdown continues at that point, it would be the second-longest ever, only beaten by a 35-day shutdown that lasted from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019, during Trump’s first term.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., backed the president to the hilt for his management of the shutdown in a Tuesday press conference.

“I’m grateful for a commander in chief who understands the priorities of the country, the necessity of national defense, and the urgency that we all feel and have voted for eight times … to fund the troops and pay federal workers and all these essential jobs and agencies,” said Johnson. 

But not everyone in Congress has approved of Trump’s redirecting of funds. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., has said that it is “probably not” legal and that the White House’s “understanding of United States law” is “pretty tentative, to say the best.”

“My understanding of this is, they have every right to move the funds around, duly appropriated dollars from Congress to the Department of Defense,” Johnson said of Trump’s actions. “There was some [research and development] accounts that had not been spent, and that’s my understanding, is that’s the money that’s being used to pay the troops right now.”

And Johnson says that if Democrats wish to make paying the troops a political issue, he’d welcome it.

“If the Democrats want to go to court and challenge troops being paid, bring it,” he said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who continues to reject the idea of funding the government until Democrats’ demands are acceded to, appeared to find no issue with the president’s allocation of funds to WIC.

“In previous shutdowns, funding has always been identified to make sure that the women’s infant nutrition program has been funded. And we expect that that should happen during this moment in time as well,” he said.

But another facet of the current shutdown is layoffs, with the White House implementing “reductions in force” in programs it doesn’t want.

Jeffries told reporters that that tactic would not work to pressure Democrats, since the president has been attempting to downsize government agencies since the beginning of his term.

“In terms of the mass firings, the violations of the law, the bullying of hard-working federal employees—that’s been going on since Jan. 20, the first day of this presidency. The focus of the Trump administration has been on visiting chaos and confusion and cruelty on the American people,” he said.

However, Trump’s contingency measures cannot go on forever, as funds continue to be depleted amid the now two-week government shutdown.

House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., addressed that concern Tuesday, telling reporters, “Listen, I’m grateful to President Trump for finding a way to keep milk flowing to moms and babies through the WIC, and paychecks going to our troops. Yes, I’m happy, but that’s not going to last forever.”

McClain suggested that, despite the Band-Aids being put on the shutdown, the political reality remains the same: The government will continue to see its resources depleted until Democrats join with Republicans in voting to reopen the government.

“These emergency measures can’t fully fix the Democrats’ damage. He can try, but at some point in time, they’re going to end,” said McClain.