Government Shutdown Gives Trump Yet Another Opportunity to Expand His Power

As crucial services grind to a halt and federal workers go without pay, Donald Trump is using the ongoing government shutdown to do what he does best: grab more power.

Last week, as the shutdown loomed, Trump gloated that his administration would use it as an excuse to shutter “Democrat agencies,” whatever that means. It was, the MAGA leader said, an “unprecedented opportunity” that had been gifted to him by “Radical Left Democrats.” Meanwhile, Russell Vought, an intellectual architect of Project 2025 and the current head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), made it clear that the shutdown was an opportunity to simply axe congressionally approved spending mandates, especially if they involved money that disproportionately flowed to blue states. In a memo sent out to all gover