in Trump’s America, unprecedented disruption has become the new normal—a normal that threatens to shut out not just Govt services, but governance itself.
Trump is disrupting not only the world but his own country as well. His style of functioning has brought the Government of the United States of America to a standstill. In the United States, government shutdowns occur when funding legislation required to finance the federal government is not enacted before the next fiscal year begins. In a shutdown, the federal government curtails agency activities and services, ceases non-essential operations, furloughs non-essential workers, and retains only essential employees in departments that protect human life or property.
Today the USA finds itself in the grip of yet another government shutdown, thanks to Trump’s confrontationist approach to the Congress. With Congress gridlocked and 7,50,000 federal workers facing furloughs or may have to work without pay.
At the heart of the impasse lies President Trump’s hardline approach: his push to shrink government, slash departments, and cut down welfare programs. For him, shutdowns are not crises but tools. He has said bluntly that “a lot of good can come down from shutdowns.” This unapologetic weaponisation of deadlock has irked even Republican allies, who fear its political cost. On the other side, Democrats are holding out for extended health care subsidies, a demand rooted in protecting low-income families from being crushed by rising costs.
The consequences of this impasse, however, are borne not by politicians but by ordinary Americans. Many people working for the US government including military, and essential services may soon miss paychecks. Families depending on public services may have to wait endlessly.
But this crisis is not just confined to paychecks, it raises serious concerns about the US ability to manage the affairs of the world when it cannot keep its own government running. For decades, shutdowns were avoided at all costs, viewed as failures of leadership. But for Trump, they are negotiating tools, weapons to punish rivals and dramatise his agenda. It is governance by brinkmanship, where disruption is not the by-product but the strategy itself. Yet, shutdowns invariably end with compromise on both sides. No party can permanently hold the other hostage in a two-party democracy. The Senate’s procedural gridlock will eventually end but the damage —economic, reputational, and moral— is already done.
Trump’s style of governance is not one of consensus but of confrontation. It appeals to his base by signaling strength, defiance, and a refusal to “play politics as usual.” But in reality, it weakens the very institutions he presides over. The United States risks normalising crisis as the default mode of politics, where the machinery of government can grind to a halt not in spite of the President, but because of him. A government that cannot govern is a government that fails its people.
