US President Donald Trump walks in the Rose Garden of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg/Getty Images

President Donald Trump believed the government shutdown would deliver Republicans a swift and decisive political victory. But with the stalemate now likely to spill into a second week, that calculation is looking increasingly shaky.

The opening stage of the high-profile funding fight has emboldened Democratic lawmakers and left voters split over who to blame for the impasse, raising quiet concerns within Trump’s orbit that the politics of the shutdown may prove more complicated than they initially hoped.

Democrats are still largely unified behind their demands, defying some Republicans’ p

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