President Donald Trump had his fun, with red carpet welcomes, impromptu dances, the gift of a golden crown and a yet another Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

But the trophies from his Asia tour won’t count for much when he arrives home Thursday just as the monthlong government shutdown takes its bitterest turn yet amid the worst domestic political crisis of his second term.

His return and a confluence of suddenly harsher consequences for millions of Americans mean the next few days may represent the only way out of the increasingly damaging impasse before the run-up to Thanksgiving.

“We’re pretending that everything is OK,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said this week, berating her colleagues in both parties for failing to act. “We’re pretending that people are not being impacted by this shutdown.”

Senate Democrats triggered the showdown, withholding support for a temporary government funding bill last month in an attempt to force Republicans to guarantee extensions for expanded subsidies for millions of Affordable Care Act health plans.

But Republican leaders are standing firm. They’re offering to discuss extending the credits, but only when Democrats agree to open the government.

A pitiful lack of trust between the parties, the unwillingness of either side to accept the political cost of a climbdown and Trump’s stunning indifference to his own shuttered government led to this stalemate.

And the ramifications of the shutdown are getting quickly worse as the political duel becomes a test of which unfortunate Americans can bear the most pain.

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