Democrats left bruised after historic shutdown yields little

After 43 days, the longest US government shutdown in history is coming to an end.

Federal workers will start getting paid again. National parks will reopen. Government services that were reduced or completely suspended will resume. Air travel, which has become a nightmare for many Americans, will once again become downright frustrating.

After the dust settles and the ink dries on President Donald Trump's signature on the funding bill, what has this record shutdown achieved? And what did it cost?

Senate Democrats via their use of the parliamentary filibusterwere able to force a shutdown despite being a minority in the House by refusing to agree to a Republican measure to temporarily fund the government.

They drew the line by demanding that Republicans agree to extend health insurance subsidies for low-income Americans that are set to expire at the end of the year.

When a handful of Democrats broke ranks to vote to reopen the government on Sunday, they received little in return – the promise of a Senate vote on the subsidies but no guarantee of Republican support or even the necessary House vote.

Since then, members of the party's left flank have been furious.

They accused Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who did not vote for the funding bill, of secret complicity in the reopening plan or simply incompetence. They felt that their party had disintegrated even after the success of the off-year elections showed that they had the advantage. They feared that the sacrifices associated with economic shutdowns were in vain.

Even more conservative Democrats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the shutdown agreement “pathetic” and a “capitulation.”

“I’m not going to punch anyone in the face,” he told The Associated Press, “but I don’t like that in the face of this aggressive species that is Donald Trump, who has completely changed the rules of the game, we are still playing by the old rules of the game.”

Newsom has presidential ambitions for 2028 and could be a good barometer of party sentiment. He was a loyal Joe Biden supporter who stood by the then-president even after his disastrous debate performance against Trump in June.

If he runs for Pitchfork, that's a bad sign for Democratic leaders.

As for Trump, in the days since he broke the Senate deadlock on Sunday, his mood has swung from cautious optimism to celebration.

On Tuesday, he congratulated congressional Republicans and called the vote to reopen the government “a very big victory.”

“We are opening up our country,” he said at a Veterans Day celebration at Arlington Cemetery. “It should never have been closed.”

Trump, perhaps sensing Democrats' anger toward Schumer, joined the group during an interview with Fox News on Monday night.

“He thought he could break the Republican Party, and the Republicans broke him,” Trump said of the Senate Democrat.

While there were times when Trump seemed to give in (he last week berated Senate Republicans for refusing to scrap the filibuster and reopen the government), he ultimately emerged from the shutdown without making few significant concessions.

Although his poll numbers have fallen over the past 40 days, there is still a year left before Republicans have to face voters in the midterm elections. And, barring some kind of constitutional change, Trump will never have to worry about running for office again.

After the end of the quarantine, Congress will return to its regular programs. Although the House has been effectively frozen for more than a month, Republicans are still hopeful that they can pass some significant legislation before next year's election cycle begins.

While the deal to end the shutdown will fund several government departments through September, Congress will have to approve spending for the rest of the government by the end of January to avoid another shutdown.

Democrats, licking their wounds, may be yearning for another chance to fight.

Meanwhile, the issue they've been fighting over – health care subsidies – could become a pressing issue for tens of millions of Americans who will see their insurance costs double or triple at the end of the year. Republicans ignore addressing such voter pain at their political peril.

And this is not the only danger Trump and the Republicans face. The day that would have been marked by the House vote on government funding was spent reflecting on latest revelations surrounding late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Later Wednesday, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn into her congressional seat and became the 218th and final signer of a petition that will force a House vote ordering the Justice Department to release all of its files on the Epstein case.

That was enough to prompt Trump to complain on his Truth Social website that his success in government funding was being overshadowed.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein hoax again because they will do everything they can to distract from how poorly they handled the shutdown and many other topics,” he wrote.

All of this was a very clear reminder that the best laid plans and political strategies can be derailed in the blink of an eye.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's Weekly. US policy is not promoted newsletter. Readers in the UK can register here. Those outside the UK can register here.