Each time President Donald Trump—nominally the leader for the entire country—has been asked about the government shutdown, he has replied with the rhetorical equivalent of a shrug, claiming that the situation is hurting “Democrat things” and that he is protecting the paychecks and priorities of his supporters. “The Democrats are getting killed on the shutdown because we’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we were opposed to,” he told reporters last Tuesday. “We’re not closing up Republican programs, because we think they work.”

Those words are backed by actions. The president has taken extraordinary steps over the past three weeks to weaponize the closure of the government, steering federal funds to shield his chosen beneficiaries from the shutdown’s harms even as he op

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