White House officials, at the start of the shutdown, were certain the Trump administration was better positioned to battle the left during a funding lapse.

In early October, several Trump administration officials had a friendly pool going of how long the shutdown would last. The White House, at the time, was confident Democrats would quickly fold.

No one guessed more than 10 days.

The account, relayed by a person close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, underscores just how much the administration miscalculated the Democrats’ will to keep the government closed even amid furloughs and imperiled social programs like food assistance.

As the shutdown heads into its second month, Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated. On Thursday, he called for Republicans to abolish the filibuster to reopen the government — a plea he knows is futile, but that demonstrates his growing irritation with Democrats, said a second person close to the White House.

    • lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      22 days ago

      When you have no experience with real work, there’s zero chance you have the ability to accurately estimate work

    • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      21 days ago

      It’s almost like people who don’t understand how govt works shouldn’t be president. Or even be allowed to vote, for that matter. It seems like people think there’s a magic wand that the top guy can wave and everything just falls into place.

      • nickiwest@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        21 days ago

        I think that voter registration should work like driver licensing. And the test you have to pass should be the citizenship exam.

        • 5too@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          21 days ago

          Appealing as the idea is, the problem is who gets to control the exams.

          • nickiwest@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            21 days ago

            That’s a fair criticism. We know how poll testing has historically been used to disenfranchise minority groups.

            That’s why I suggested the citizenship exam, which is a well-established test with specific parameters and existing preparation programs.

            • 5too@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              20 days ago

              Sure, but who decides what’s on the citizenship exam? Who updates it? Who’s in charge of making sure it’s administered fairly?

              Right now there’s not really any power to be gained by subverting it, so it’s handled by people who are interested in keeping it working well. Make it the gateway to electoral control, and interest groups will worm their way into control of it - and then you have a variant on poll testing.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      21 days ago

      Draining the swamp – Vowed to clean up Washington fast, but faced entrenched bureaucracy and ethics scandals.

      Well, and some things are complete delusion on his part as well as conservatives. If anything, Taco created the swamp.

      Reviving coal jobs – Claimed fast resurgence, but the industry continued to decline.

      And some things, for instance, this and the wall and repealing ACA, and ruining/“overhauling” education, are just plain not worth doing.

  • Rakonat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    ·
    21 days ago

    The Republicans, with majority control of all three branches of government, have proven themselves inept, incompetent, irresponsible and generally incapable of successfully governing? Surely this is just a one time thing and not part of a continuing cycle that has repeated itself numerous times through the lifespans of the same voters who elected them! /s

    • Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      21 days ago

      Well what else would you vote for… gEnOcIdE?

      Don’t you know your vote is wasted unless you vote for Jill Stein to lose again? BIDEN IS HITLER!

      • Soup@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        20 days ago

        Frankly, people should be able to abstain from their votes to send a message because the alternative should not be any real support for crazy, obviously evil fascists.

        I’ve had phases all over the spectrum but I think I’m gunna lock in on “the only people to genuinely blame for the overtly evil party gaining power are the people who voted for them.” Yes, it is frustrating that there was no DNC primary(the actual issue on that side of the aisle) and that Trump won by a number of votes that theoretically could have been cancelled out but the fact remains that tens of millions of people happily voted for him. He and his party shouldn’t have been anything more than a joke.

        • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          20 days ago

          Frankly, people should be able to abstain from their votes to send a message because the alternative should not be any real support for crazy, obviously evil fascists.

          Should they be able to? In a perfect world, absolutely, I totally agree. However, when the alternative is fat Hitler, it doesn’t really work out that way.

        • Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          20 days ago

          Ultimately it’s the electorate but you are fucking the whole world over to limit it to single vote

          • Soup@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            19 days ago

            Just before a miscommunication happens: I’m a Canadian who votes in Federal, provincial, and municipal elections.

            I would have voted for Harris but I understand that many people felt, reasonably so, that she was forced upon them. They never got a chance to allow their voices to be heard and were simply told to deal with it. It was aggressively anti-democratic only so they could put a weak centrist in charge. The Dems lost because they told their base that they didn’t really give a shit about them and the country lost because there are tens of millions of piss-soaked cum rags who thought Donald Trump was gunna save them.

            • dvoraqs@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              18 days ago

              As bad as the party is, I do place a lot of blame on fickle voters, who were so offended by the undemocratic process that led to the candidate change that they abstained or voted for somebody else instead of rejecting the “evil” guy in the only effective way we have.

              Voting should be a duty we perform every election instead of something we need to get “excited” about in order to follow through with it.

              • Soup@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                17 days ago

                But you just said it right there. It wasn’t that people weren’t excited, it was because the DNC knew that people didn’t really like Biden all that much and yet kept him on way too late, then when they did switch it up they didn’t give anyone a chance. They spat in the face of democracy and I can totally understand why people are fed up and told them to go fuck themselves. I willing to bet many would have voted for Harris anyway if she had won a primary but that’s not what happened.

                Centrists are conservatives who only ever have one tactic and that’s where they threaten their voters with an even worse time so they can get away with bullshit. People are tired of that.

                • dvoraqs@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  17 days ago

                  Whatever. If you can’t tell, a “need for excitement” really means “unwilling to follow along if something happens along the way that I disagree with”.

                  Really, how can those voters who did not vote for Kamala but generally support the left be so short-sighted not to see the consequences? They wanted to punish Democrats but ended up punishing the country and the world. They let perfect be the enemy of good.

  • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    21 days ago

    Says the guy weaponizing the DOJ against his opponents right after accusing the other side of doing the same.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    21 days ago

    Frustrated they can’t just steamroll everything, the dems are forcing the republicans to own their shitty policy they are trying to get the dems to vote for.

    • Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      21 days ago

      BuT wHy Do YoU sUpPoRt GeNoCiDe?

      Biden is Hitler and Chuck Schumer is Donald Trump, so why don’t you vote for the populist republican?

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        21 days ago

        No no, it’s just don’t vote at all because Biden and Harris are genocides and no different or some shit

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    21 days ago

    Basic human rights is a hill to die on, and Republicans are trying to take everything away.

    Who the hell can even support them anymore? They would have to be living in a bubble.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    20 days ago

    My prediction is that it will end this week when federal ATC employees stop showing up for work, thus directly affecting the quality of life of republican lawmakers and their billionaire donors. That’s exactly why the last “longest shutdown in history” ended too.

    Starving people? Hardly an inconvenience to the ultra rich. Can’t fly their private jet? One phone call to Trump and the shutdown is over that afternoon.

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        20 days ago

        It started last week, but only amounted to flight delays. I anticipate that things are unlikely to improve and will only get worse as more and more ATCs call in sick in protest.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    20 days ago

    Trump lost the last shutdown in one of the most humiliating political defeats of his Presidency. Did he think this one would be different?