The federal fiscal year started out with a bang or a whimper, depending upon one’s perspective. The government, for the third time during Donald Trump’s two presidencies, shut down a few hours ago.
This time, President Trump threatens to fire furloughed government workers rather than rehire them with back pay. This would seem the ultimate checkmate against the party of big government. But given that Americans currently face the choice of supporting the party of bigger government or the party of biggest government, both parties regard such a checkmate as toppling its own king.
The president’s gambit, if it works, may forever provide Republicans a tool to shrink government — and give Democrats pause in playing games.
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Daniel J. Flynn, a senior editor of The American Spectator, serves as a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution for the 2024-2025 academic year. His books include Cult City: Harvey Milk, Jim Jones, and 10 Days That Shook San Francisco (ISI Books, 2018), Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America (ISI Books, 2011), A Conservative History of the American Left (Crown Forum, 2008), and Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas (Crown Forum, 2004). In 2025, he releases his magnum opus, The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer. He splits time between city Massachusetts and cabin Vermont.
