On Trump’s First Anniversary, a Government Shutdown


Donald Trump greets anti-abortion activists outside the Oval Office in the hours before the start of the government shutdown.Photograph by Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

Donald Trump was supposed to be in Palm Beach on Saturday celebrating the first anniversary of his Inauguration with another round of golf and a big party for donors at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Instead, he’s still in Washington, and parts of the federal government, at least for now, have shut down.

After a day of back and forth on Friday, the decisive vote in the Senate was taken after ten p.m. It was on a motion to go to a vote on a Republican spending bill that would have kept the government open for another month. Needing sixty votes to prevail, the Republicans only got fifty, with four of their own members voting against the party line. (The dissidents were Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul. The ailing John McCain was absent.)

Comments