The U.S. federal government shutdown has entered its 36th day, the longest in American history, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid and triggering widespread service disruptions.
President Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for the stalemate, saying they are “getting killed on the shutdown because we’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we were opposed to. So, we’re being — and they’re never going to come back in many cases.”
He added, “This is all caused by the Democrats, they asked us to do something unreasonable… This is what [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer wants, this is what the Democrats want.”
The prolonged shutdown has forced the Federal Aviation Administration to cut flight capacity by 10 per cent at about 40 major airports, causing travel chaos. Economic losses are mounting as welfare programs stall and congressional talks remain deadlocked.