President Trump leaving West Palm Beach to return to Washington on Sunday. For weeks, the Trump administration has played a game of winners and losers with the shutdown.
Even as the government shutdown stretched into Wednesday and surpassed the record for the longest in American history, President Trump showed no interest in negotiating with Democrats.
Instead, as the two sides entered their 36th day at an impasse, the administration signaled it planned to ramp up the pain.
The president threatened on social media on Tuesday to deny food subsidy payments for 42 million Americans until the end of the government shutdown, in apparent defiance of a court order. (The White House press secretary later said the administration would comply with the court.)
Mr. Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, warned he might have to close parts of the national airspace next week because of the potential “mass chaos” with air traffic controller shortages.
And the White House again left open the possibility it might not follow its legal obligation to restore back pay to furloughed workers who have missed payche
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