The government shutdown has now officially become the longest in American history, entering its 36th day as Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked. Millions of Americans are experiencing reduced or delayed food assistance, and healthcare subsidies are set to expire soon, intensifying the strain on struggling families.
President Donald Trump has so far refused to engage with Democratic leaders to find a resolution. In an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Nov. 2, he stated that he would not be “extorted” by Democrats pushing to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which are due to lapse at year’s end for millions of Americans.
Trump accused Democrats of having “lost their way” and predicted they would ultimately have to yield to Republican demands. “I think they have to,” he said. “And if they don’t vote, it’s their problem.”
The president also urged Republican leaders to change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster, a move Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republicans have resisted.
On Tuesday, Nov. 4, the Senate failed for the 14th time to pass a short-term funding measure that would reopen the government. The bill fell short of the 60 votes required to advance. Only three Democratic caucus members — Sen. John Fetterman, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, and Sen. Angus King — voted in favor.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed frustration after the vote. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long,” he said during a daily briefing. “We couldn’t have imagined it’s now tied with the longest shutdown in history.”
Trump and other Republicans have consistently targeted the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, since it was enacted under former President Barack Obama. In his 60 Minutes appearance, Trump once again called Obamacare “terrible,” though he offered no alternative plan to address rising healthcare costs. The ACA was designed to reduce the number of uninsured Americans.
As the shutdown continues, more than 600,000 federal employees remain furloughed, while approximately 700,000 others are working without pay.
The previous record-setting shutdown occurred from December 2018 to January 2019, during Trump’s first term, when he demanded congressional funding for a U.S.–Mexico border wall. That impasse ended only after the president relented amid mounting travel delays and after hundreds of thousands of federal workers missed multiple paychecks.
