Shutdowns are a repeat feature of US politics – but this one feels particularly bitter due to political dynamics and bad blood between the two parties.
Some government services are temporarily suspended, and about 750,000 people are expected to be put on unpaid leave as Republicans and Democrats can’t agree a way forward on a spending bill.
Votes aimed at ending the impasse have repeatedly failed, and it is hard to see an off-ramp this time because both parties – as well as President Donald Trump – can see some merit in digging in.
These are the four ways in which things feel different in 2025.
1. For Democrats, it’s about Trump – not just healthcare
The Democratic base has been demanding for months that their party more forcefully fights the Trump administration. Well, now the party leadership has a chance to show they have listened.
In March, Senate leader Chuck Schumer was fiercely criticised for helping pass a Republican spending bill to avert a shutdown. This time he’s digging in.
This is a chance for Democrats to show they can take back some control from an administration that has moved aggressively on its agenda.
Refusing to back the Republican spending plan this time comes with political risk that the wider public will grow frustrated as the dispute drags on and consequences begin to mount.
The main Democratic demand is to renew expiring health insurance subsidies which they say will hit American families. Republicans say they will discuss the subsidies when the government reopens.
But a secondary demand from Democrats is very much focused on Trump and his use of executive powers to rescind or withhold money approved by Congress, which he has done with foreign aid and other programmes.
2. For Republicans, it’s an opportunity
Trump and one of his key officials, Russell Vought, have made little secret of the fact that they smell a chance to make more of the cutbacks to the federal workforce that have featured in the Republican’s second presidency so far.
Trump himself said last week that the shutdown had afforded him an “unprecedented opportunity”, and that he would look to cut “Democrat agencies”.
The White House said it would be left with the “unenviable task” of mass lay-offs to keep essential government services operating if the shutdown continued. They say they need to save taxpayers’ money being spent on waste and fraud. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said this was just “fiscal sanity”.
The scope of the potential lay-offs remains unclear, but the White House has been in discussions with the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, which is headed by Vought.
Vought has already announced the suspension of federal funding for Democratic-run parts of the country, including New York City and Chicago.
[Bloomberg via Getty Images]
3. There’s little trust on either side
While previous shutdowns have been characterised by late-night talks between the two parties in an effort to get government services running again, there appears to be little of the same spirit of collaboration this time.
Instead, there is rancour. The bad blood continued over the weekend, with Republicans and Democrats blaming each other for causing the impasse.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, accused Democrats of not being serious about negotiating, and holding out over a deal “to get political cover”.
Meanwhile, Schumer levelled the same accusation at the other side, saying that a Republican promise to discuss healthcare subsidies once the government reopens can not be taken seriously.
Trump himself has inflamed the situation by posting a controversial AI-generated image of Schumer and the top Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, in which Jeffries is depicted with a large Mexican-style sombrero and a moustache.
Jeffries and other Democrats called this racist, which was denied by Vice-President JD Vance.
4. The US economy is fragile
Analysts expect about 40% of the federal workforce – more than 800,000 people – to be put on unpaid leave as a result of the shutdown.
That will depress spending – and also have wider ramifications, as environmental permitting, patent approvals, payments to contractors and other kinds of government activity tied to business comes to a halt.
A shutdown also injects new uncertainty into an economy already being roiled by changes ranging from tariffs, earlier cuts to government spending, immigration raids and artificial intelligence.
Analysts estimate that it could shave as much as 0.2 percentage points off US economic growth for each week it lasts.
But the economy typically recoups most of that lost activity after a shutdown ends, as it would after disruption caused by a natural disaster.
That could be one reason why the stock market has appeared largely unfazed by the current stand-off.
On the other hand, analysts say that if Trump carries out his threat of mass firings, the damage could be more long-lasting.
