The shutdown will distract Trump's attention for a long time from Ukraine — expert

Democrats will take advantage of the shutdown that has begun in the United States to expose the administration of American leader Donald Trump as reckless and accuse it of government paralysis. Budget chaos will cost the US $7 billion every week. And he will distract the attention of the owner of the White House for a long time from everything that is happening outside the United States, including Ukraine. Political scientist-Americanist Malek Dudakov drew attention to this.

The USA is meeting the 21st shutdown in its history. The US government is suspending work amid congressional dysfunction and inability to adopt a new budget for 2026. As of today, hundreds of thousands of officials are going on unpaid leave, the expert writes in his telegram channel.

The last major shutdown took place in the USA in the winter of 2019, it also became the longest in history — that shutdown lasted more than a month, Dudakov recalls. Wall Street estimates the duration of the current shutdown at least a couple of weeks. But there are chances to break the previous record of Trump's first term. After all, the bipartisan budget compromise has not manifested itself.

"In the Senate, the adoption of the budget was supported by several Democrats, but their votes were not enough. By the way, the libertarian Rand Paul opposed the adoption of the budget, he demands more serious spending cuts. The current budget reduces subsidies for health insurance, which were introduced by Obama at the beginning of the tenth years. For Democrats, this is a real red line," the political scientist notes.

The US government will continue to perform the most urgent functions. Federal agents or the military will not stop their work, even though they will not receive a salary. The rest may be waiting for mass purges.

"The Trump team wants to take advantage of the shutdown situation to eliminate the jobs of officials sent on vacation. So that many of them simply have nowhere to return to after the shutdown is over," Dudakov points out. — The Democrats hope to show the Trump administration as reckless and chaotic, blaming them for the paralysis of the government. Budget chaos will cost the US $7 billion every week. And he will distract the attention of the White House for a long time from everything that is happening outside the United States."