How Trump rewrote the government shutdown playbook

The current government shutdown is like no previous shutdown in that, this time, the president has labored to reduce the pain on everyday Americans, putting the suffering almost exclusively on federal workers and congressional Democrats’ pet projects.

During the shutdown’s first three weeks, President Trump took steps to shield federal law enforcement officers, military service members and welfare recipients from shutdown hardships.

At the same time, Mr. Trump shifted the burden of the shutdown onto civil servants and Democratic-controlled states. He fired thousands of workers and slashed programs that Democrats favor.

On Friday, the White House paused $11 billion in Army Corps of Engineers’ projects in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore, which are all Democrat-led cities in Democrat-led states.

It’s a glaring dichotomy. He’s protecting many who rely on federal services, such as assistance for poor women and children. He is also targeting the pain at Democratic politicians, whom he blames for the shutdown.

Previous presidents ensured the pain of government shutdowns was felt by as many people as possible to increase pressure on Congress to reopen the government.

In 2013, President Obama reduced government services far and wide beyond the legally required minimums. National parks, museums and monuments were shuttered and operated on a threadbare staff.

Park Rangers barricaded open-air memorials like the World War II and Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital, even though they are normally unstaffed. A private citizen began mowing the lawns and cleaning out the trash bins near the national memorials because National Park Service employees were not doing it.

In an embarrassing public relations spectacle for the Obama administration, a group of veterans stormed the barricades of the World War II Memorial in protest of its closure.

Perhaps more significantly, federal law enforcement officers, including the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and Border Patrol agents, stayed on the job to protect the nation without paychecks during the shutdown.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, maneuvered funds to keep paychecks flowing for federal agents.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday that Mr. Trump had “found a way” to pay the bureau’s 1,811 special agents during the shutdown. However, Mr. Patel did not disclose how the president found the funds to pay the agents.

The FBI Agents Association thanked Mr. Trump for paying the special agents, though it noted the bureau’s civilian employees – including translators, analysts and scientists – are working without pay.

Mr. Trump also redirected $300 million of tariff revenue to a food aid program that helps 6 million low-income women and children. The move will keep afloat the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which was in danger of running out of money because of the shutdown. It also prevents states and local governments from having to step in and cover the program and be reimbursed by the federal government later.

Mr. Trump directed the Pentagon to use “all available funds” to ensure active duty U.S. troops are getting paid during the shutdown, a maneuver he did not enact with any other agency.

Under the directive, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth was instructed to use any unspent funds appropriated by Congress to pay military personnel.

So far, the moves have been politically popular. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said Tuesday he supported paying military members during the shutdown, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, dared Democrats to stop the president from doing so.

Outside of the beltway, political analysts say the moves have helped safeguard the president from any potential political backlash.

In Oklahoma, which has the 14th-highest number of federal workers in the country, the shutdown hasn’t altered the political calculus in the deeply red state.

Pat McFerron, co-founder of CMA Strategies, a polling and campaign consulting group, said some of Oklahoma’s 18,737 military members and their families may be unaware of the political maneuvering to get their paychecks.

“Voters may not know these changes are happening. The absence of a loss of a paycheck will keep the issue from being elevated,” he said.

Mr. McFerron pointed to Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Republican Rep Tom Cole’s bid for reelection in the state, which is being touted proudly by the Cole campaign.

Mr. Cole’s district includes Tinker Air Force Base, the National Weather Center, Fort Sill and a lot of Federal Aviation Administration employees live there because the agency has a nearby training facility and support center, all of which employ thousands of government workers.

“If there was any concern of pushback over the president’s endorsement because of the government shutdown, the Cole campaign wouldn’t be touting it,” he said.

But if Mr. Trump is making strides to mitigate the damage to the military and law enforcement, he’s being punitive to civil servants and Democratic-run states.

The administration has used the shutdown to lay off roughly 4,000 workers from various agencies, though about 700 were reinstated and a federal judge blocked the layoffs, saying the administration unlawfully used the lapse in funding to justify the terminations.

The White House remains undeterred. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said Wednesday the administration could ultimately fire more than 10,000 employees during the shutdown.

In addition, the Trump administration has slashed funds across a range of programs, saying the money is being spent wastefully or needs further review.

On the first day of the shutdown, Mr. Vought canceled the delivery of $26 billion in previously approved funds and a separate tranche of money totaling about $8 billion, which he claimed was going to fuel “the left’s climate agenda.” The move affected projects in 16 states, most of which are led by Democrats.

Separately, the Trump administration halted about $18 billion in approved infrastructure funding for two transportation projects in New York City, which is represented by Mr. Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, both Democrats, who have been heavily criticized by Mr. Trump.