Republicans are trying to pin the blame for the government shutdown while simultaneously cheering the temporary pause on its functions, a New York Times analyst warned Monday.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have been gloating over slashing programs favored by Democrats and unleashing White House budget director Russell Vought to enact cuts laid out in the Project 2025 blueprint he helped devise, and columnist Frank Bruni analyzed the disconnect.
"Republicans in aggregate are saying that it’s irresponsible of Democrats to interrupt the functioning of government, but that the government should perform many fewer functions," Bruni wrote. "They’re presenting themselves as the protectors of government while staging an assault on it. With one hand, they’re wagging a finger at Democrats for inflicting temporary pain on Americans; with the other, they’re waving a pom-pom at the chance to inflict lasting pain on them. I guess both gestures involve extremities, but that’s where any consistency ends."
"And they’re not doing any of the above quietly or slyly," he added. "They’re doing it flamboyantly and crudely, by which I mean on social media. They’re doing it punitively, as Trump and Vought exult in sticking it to programs favored by Democrats and states run by Democrats. By just the third day of the shutdown, the Trump administration had announced the elimination of nearly $8 billion for clean-energy projects in 16 states that voted last year for Kamala Harris, the freezing of $18 billion in funds for infrastructure projects in the New York metropolitan area and the freezing of another $2.1 billion for such projects in Chicago."
Polling shows that most Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, but the differences aren't stark enough to give Democratic leadership much comfort.
"Recent history suggests that the party that prompts a shutdown — in this case, Democrats — is usually most bruised by it," Bruni wrote. "In addition, the party’s reputation is in tatters. An average of recent polls gives Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, an approval rating of about 26 percent. Trump’s is above 40, and his methodical, mischievous, relentless domination of public attention makes it nearly impossible at times for Democrats to be heard, let alone to make their case."
But, he added, Trump's glee threatens to "come back to bite him."
"While such irreverence and vengeance have their ardent MAGA audience, they offer nothing to voters in the middle — you know, the ones who may well decide the most competitive House elections next year and who are smarting from, if not seething about, grocery prices that have not, as Trump promised, come down," he wrote.
"There’s at least some slender hope for Democrats here."