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The Democrats are holding firm, so far, on their demand that any budgeting bill extend the ACA (Affordable Care Act) subsidies, and eliminate cuts to Social Security and Medicaid. Without those compromises, the shutdown will continue.

The Trump administration seems to be fine with the shutdown, and is looking to use the shutdown to impose permanent mass firings of government employees.^{1 2 3 4}

Currently in the sixth day of the shutdown, there are no talks scheduled. It is estimated that every day the government is shut down, the US economy loses $400bn. When asked about the whether government employees would be fired, Trump responded “It’s taking place right now and it’s all because of the Democrats.”

“The Democrats are causing the loss of a lot of jobs,” Trump declining to answer a question about which agencies are subject to the cuts, according to the AP. While shutdowns usually have consequences for government employees and contractors, using the shutdown as a means to institute mass firings is something that has never been done.

Democrats, however, have reason to balk at a temporary resolution to continue funding the government. By signing on to a temporary resolution, they lose bargaining power. Currently, various polls show that the American public blames Republicans more for this shutdown than Democrats. Democrats have branded this the “Trump Shutdown”. If their messaging on this holds, pressure will continue to build on Republicans to come to the table. But only six days in, that pressure is not yet sufficient to get either side to move. The longest shutdown to date was the 35-day shutdown during Trump’s last administration, over funding for extending barriers on the US/Mexico border. So there’s a long way to go before the steam has built up enough in the political pressure cooker to make a difference.

1. https://apnews.com/article/trump-democrat-schumer-shutdown-thune-jeffries-3891740009c19847590be2a0fd6d1fd4 ↩︎
2. https://apnews.com/article/government-shutdown-congress-trump-health-care-54b2a584657a0b619bc8326708a05604 ↩︎
3. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/06/trump-administration-news-updates-today-latest ↩︎
4. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-congress-government-shutdown-99d4cafe53209f6dc6ae5562c2ac79d2 ↩︎