Donald Trump may shut down the government to try to sabotage Robert Mueller, but it won’t work
This week Donald Trump suddenly began threatening to shut down the federal government – by way of refusing to sign off on a budget – if Congress refuses to provide funding for his wall. It’s a bizarre threat, even by his standards, and one that has no chance of succeeding. Funding his pointless wall would require sixty Senate votes, and the Democrats simply aren’t going to give it to him, shutdown or not. But as it turns out, Trump may have an entirely different motive.
So why would Trump want to shut down the entire government in defiance of both parties, knowing that his wall idea is unpopular with the public to begin with, and knowing that he would take the full blame for the shutdown? There’s now scattered buzz that his real motivation for the shutdown is to sabotage the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. After all, if no one is getting paid, Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s assorted crimes would have to take a hit, right?
I don’t know if this is why Trump is trying to ensure a government shutdown. Maybe he’s just that resentful that his wall will never get built, and he wants to punish everyone, even at his own expense. But if he is trying to shut the government down in order to sabotage Mueller, it won’t work. Anyone who has so much as watched The West Wing knows that even during a shutdown, key personnel and essential services remain funded.
Furthermore, Congress could simply decide to keep Mueller’s office funded during a shutdown. And it’s not as if Mueller, and the dozen-plus respected prosecutors who have joined his team, care about whether their government paychecks show up. They didn’t take this gig for money. So if this is Trump’s latest strategy, it merely shows how desperate he is, and how thoroughly he’s run out of viable ideas. If Trump shuts down the government, it’ll just drive his approval rating even lower.
