Democrats’ shutdown strategy hinges on a risky bet

The Trump administration will use a government shutdown to gut the Democratic Party’s favorite federal agencies.

Or at least, this is what the president wants Democrats to believe, as they negotiate over a bill to prevent federal funding from lapsing on October 1.

Last week, White House budget director Russell Vought instructed federal agencies to consider mass firings, in the event of a shutdown. Vought specified that such downsizing should be confined to departments that President Donald Trump does not care much about: Agencies vital to the president’s agenda — such as Homeland Security and Defense — should be spared.

This led the Washington Post to declare that a shutdown may yield “a federal government dramatically reoriented to defense, immigration and law enforcement — and not muc