Donald Trump blamed for shutdown exactly one year after he took office
US President comes under fire as eleventh-hour negotiations fail, sparking lapse in federal funding
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has come under fire after the US Government was forced to shut down for the first time in four years.
On the anniversary of the US President’s inauguration, Congress found itself locked in a stalemate between spending priorities and immigration, sparking a lapse in federal funding.
The Senate had until midnight on Friday (5am Saturday GMT) to pass a short-term spending bill.
But the motion – that would have funded the government up to 16 February – was blocked, triggering a shutdown.
The hashtag #TrumpShutdown rocketed to the top of Twitter's worldwide trending topics on Friday, as citizens criticised the former real estate mogul for the impasse.
Mr Trump had earlier suggested that a shutdown might be inevitable as Democrats “want illegal immigration and weak borders”.
But Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Trump was fully responsible for the shutdown – the first under a one-party government in US history – saying it would go down in history as the “Trump shutdown”.
“This will be called the #TrumpShutdown. There is no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than President Trump,” Mr Schumer wrote on Twitter.
The Democrat also shared video footage from 2013, in which Mr Trump says a president would be blamed in the event of a government shutdown.
“If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States,” Mr Trump told the Today show. “He’s the one who has to get people together.”
More than 800,000 federal workers could be sent home as a result of the shutdown. But employees deemed essential, such as those in law enforcement, will remain on the job.
National parks and the Smithsonian museums could also be closed to visitors. But during some past shutdowns, some states have paid to keep their national parks open.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday suggested that Republicans may bear the brunt of political damage if a shutdown occurs.
Forty-eight per cent of the more than 1,000 people polled nationally, said they would blame Mr Trump and Republicans, while 28 per cent would blame Democrats.
An additional 18 per cent said they would blame both parties equally.
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