Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in an interview over the weekend that he believes President Donald Trump likes the fact that the government is closed.

Trump believes he can exercise “king-like” powers during the shutdown, opening parts of the government he wants and paying employees he believes are loyal to him, Murphy said during a Sunday interview with CNN’s State of the Union, according to The Hill .

“I mean, this is a leader who is trying to transition our government from a democracy to something much closer to a totalitarian state,” Murphy said. “And so this is part of what happens in totalitarian states. The leader, the regime only, decides what things get funded and what don’t, often in coordination with their oligarch friends.”

The federal government shut dow

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