Does Trump have a 'self-serving motivation' for wanting a government shutdown?

25 September 2023

With the possibility of a federal government shutdown drawing closer and closer, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) is still trying to work out a last-minute funding deal with far-right members of his caucus. But the chances of a shutdown being avoided aren't looking good.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on September 25, attorney Dennis Aftergut — a former federal prosecutor — emphasizes that one Republican who is actively hoping for a shutdown is Donald Trump.

The former president, Aftergut explains, has a "self-serving motivation" for wanting a shutdown: a belief that it could slow down his legal problems. Trump is facing four criminal indictments as well as a variety of civil lawsuits.

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In a September 20 post on his Truth Social platform, Trump described a shutdown as "the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me." And he urged "Republicans in Congress" to "defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden's weaponized Government."

"He wants a shutdown to stop government preparations for his pending trial in Washington, D.C. on charges relating to his attempt to overturn the election," Aftergut explains. "His reasoning seems to be that a shutdown could result in a delay of the trial's scheduled start date, and that any delay helps him. After all, the further that the trial is pushed into the 2024 election season — it's currently scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024, the day before the Super Tuesday primaries — the likelier that he can depict the trial as a political persecution."

Aftergut adds, "And if he could push its scheduling to the fall, the Justice Department policy of 'sensitivity' to taking actions close to the time of an election might get the trial postponed until after November. That would be his ideal outcome, so that if he wins the 2024 general election, he could take the oath of office and instantly kill any federal effort to prosecute him. So, as ever, Trump's strategy is delay, delay, delay. And he doesn't mind taking the economy down with him."

Read Dennis Aftergut's full article for The Bulwark at this link.

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