[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The United States federal government has officially shut down after Donald Trump shared a behind-the-scenes photo from his failed negotiations with Democrats. The strike of midnight on Wednesday ushered in the first federal government shutdown since December 2018, when a standoff over border wall funding during President Trump’s first term led to a historic 35-day stoppage.
The Senate plans to vote on the twice-failed funding bill again on Wednesday morning, but most House Republicans are not even in Washington, leaving a timeline for a resolution an open question.
At the heart of the standoff is Democratic Party demands that Republicans agree to restoring cuts to healthcare that were enacted over the summer.
The shut down came just hours after the president kept trolling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries over the breakdown in talks.
All three, plus Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, were pictured in an image Trump posted to Truth Social late Tuesday.
In the Oval Office, The president placed 'Trump 2028' hats on the Resolute Desk beside a pair of ice-cold Diet Cokes, his favorite drink.
He offered the Democrat leaders the hats as gifts, which they reportedly rejected, according to Punchbowl News.
Jeffries even asked JD Vance, who was in the room at the time, what he thought of the president running for a third term, to which the vice president said: 'No comment.'
However, despite the friendly-seeming negotiations, the Democrats blocked any deal to keep the government open from moving forward.
It follows the president's controversial post from the night before which used AI to manipulate Schumer's speech and photoshopped a sombrero and mustache onto Jeffries.
The lapse in funding could result in hundreds of thousands of government workers getting furloughed, while millions of federal employees will be on edge as they await to know whether or not they are deemed 'essential' and need to work during the shutdown. The 1.3 million U.S. military personnel will go without pay as well.
For everyday Americans, services like passport offices, federal loan offices and food inspections will come to a grinding halt, as these services are deemed non-essential. Museums and National Parks will close, too.
President Donald Trump has already warned of dire consequences for Democratic priorities, signaling little willingness to negotiate with the minority party.
'We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible - that are bad for them and irreversible by them - by cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,' Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
'A lot of good can come from shutdowns,' he said later in the day.
Typically, Congress is supposed to pass a dozen separate appropriations bills to fund the government, but this has not happened in years; instead, lawmakers have opted to pass continuing resolutions (CRs), which largely maintain funding levels as previously established in the passed funding bills.
Economically, the shutdown is poised to impose temporary disruptions but its long-term effects are expected to be limited, according to many analysts. Layoffs could dampen consumer spending and slow services such as health inspections, veterans' assistance and Social Security inquiries.
Essential operations, including border security, law enforcement and medical care will continue.
The impasse has arisen because Republican and Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have yet to strike a deal on spending levels.
House Republicans under Johnson passed a CR earlier this month to keep the government's lights on through November. However, Democrats in the Senate are opposing the Republican-led CR over its lack of healthcare funding provisions.
As it stands, the GOP proposal resides in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass and head to President Donald Trump's desk, where he would need to sign it before midnight Wednesday to avoid a shutdown. All signs point to that not happening.
Schumer and Senate Democrats have openly said for weeks that they are not willing to support the measure unless provisions are added to make permanent tax cuts from the Affordable Care Act, which are slated to expire by the end of the year.
Democrats are also pushing to repeal parts of Trump's domestic policy agenda, the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which resulted in cuts in rural hospital funding and Medicaid.
There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, so any proposal would need at least seven Democratic votes to pass.
Republicans, meanwhile, have said they want to pass government funding first, then they will be open to negotiating subsidies.
