Trump is reportedly telling people a government shutdown could help him politically

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last updated 1 December 2017

President Trump is looking at the bright side of a government shutdown, telling people close to him he thinks it could be a good thing for him politically, several people who have spoken to him in recent days told The Washington Post.

Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, but Trump told his confidants that should there be a shutdown, he's going to blame it on Democrats. He plans on focusing much of his attention on his base, one person told the Post; Trump was proud of the work he did with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in September, but after advisers told him his supporters didn't like this show of bipartisanship, he's decided to go all in on immigration and securing money for a border wall.

A White House official speaking on behalf of Trump told the Post that the president does not want the government to shut down. White House aides are worried it wouldn't help Trump's already low poll numbers, and several leading Republicans, who know they need Democratic support to pass spending legislation, also said a shutdown would be a terrible thing. "When you run for office and you get elected and you are given the opportunity to govern, it strikes me as a bad idea to shut the government down," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. "That seems like an abdication of responsibility." Read more about Trump's state of mind and the behind-the-scenes spending talks going on between Democrats and Republicans at The Washington Post.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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