Donald Trump's presidencies have now accounted for approximately 58 shutdown days out of the 97 total shutdown days in U.S. history since the modern budget process began in 1976, sources who can count confirmed Monday.
The current 20-day shutdown, which began October 1, brings Trump's total to over 60% of all government closure days across nearly five decades and nine presidents, a mathematical reality that political analysts described as "fairly straightforward" and "not particularly ambiguous."
Trump's record includes the longest shutdown in American history—35 days from December 2018 to January 2019—during which the president told Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi "I am proud to shut down the government" and clarified "I will take the mantle" of responsibility. The shutdown ultimately cost the U.S. economy an estimated $3 billion in lost GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The 2018 shutdown ended without Trump securing the border wall funding he demanded, though he did get roughly 55 miles of replacement fencing. The president walked out of negotiations after 14 minutes when Pelosi refused to fund his wall, telling reporters the meeting was "a total waste of time."
Trump's first term also featured a three-day shutdown in January 2018, while his second term has utilized the current shutdown to terminate thousands of federal workers, a strategy administration officials characterized as "government efficiency" rather than "just not having a government."
Political observers noted that voters who elected Trump specifically to fix Washington's dysfunction have been presented with empirical data regarding his approach to governance, though the connection between voting decisions and their consequences remained a subject of apparent mystery.
Reagan, Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Obama combined for approximately 39 shutdown days across multiple decades. Trump has achieved 58 days across two terms, a pace experts described as "technically impressive" from a purely quantitative standpoint.
