The federal government was in its thirtieth day of a shutdown that would last until November 13th. Trump and Republicans have refused to extend premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which would have led to an astronomical increase, at least doubling for 22 million people, with millions struggling to pay and 4.2 million losing coverage entirely, according to federal government data. Congressional Budget Office. More than a million federal employees were left without pay. With air traffic controllers working for free, flights to 40 major airports were cut by 10 percent. Perhaps most alarmingly, especially amid a party celebrating the excesses of the 1920s, food benefits for 42 million people, including 16 million children, under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be cut on November 1st.
Trump sat poolside like the sultan at Mar-a-Lago, idolized by his guests and exuding smugness. Sitting at his desk with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News talk show host wearing a gold headdress, Trump grinned approvingly at guest
wearing an orange jumpsuit with “STATE PRISON” written on the back, possibly dressed as a migrant about to be deported. (A few days later Pirro lose a misdemeanor case she sued a D.C. jury against the “Sandwich Man” who threw a wrapped Subway salami sandwich at an ICE agent in protest.)
Trump believed there could be no consequences for anything he wanted to do – whether it was sending the military into American cities, imposing tariffs on any country without considering Congress, pardoning political allies and those with the resources to buy his family's cryptocurrency business, indicting his enemies, cutting food stamps, increasing health insurance premiums, enriching himself by about $3.4 billion, according to Trump's estimates. New Yorker investigation—or order his Justice Department to hide Epstein's files.
