Government Shutdown

President Trump told Democratic leaders on December 11 he would be "proud" to shut down the government if he doesn't get the $5 billion in border wall funding he's demanding in a year-end spending bill: "I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck [Schumer]. ... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down."

The following week, with a government shutdown looming as Trump and Congress struggle to agree to a budget deal, Trump flip-flopped:

Trump was about to sign a short-term deal with congressional Democrats to keep the government open until New Year's without the wall funding when he suddenly reversed himself. What happened?

What happened is that his base exploded in rage at the idea that he would go back on his campaign promise to build the wall. "Trump gets nothing," Rush Limbaugh complained, "and the Democrats get everything!" Ann Coulter said Trump's White House would become "a joke presidency that scammed the American people" if he didn't build the wall, adding that "he'll have no legacy whatsoever."

As Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said on NBC, "[Trump] says it is an issue of border security. I think we know better. It's an issue of his own political insecurity. When the right-wingers start screaming at him, he just backs off and dissembles in front of us."

 
The shutdown began December 22, and since then lots of blame and finger-pointing has been made:

The government shutdown is now gone on so long that news media have apparently decided the number of hours, minutes and seconds is irrelevant — and has moved to using just a day count.

hours minutes seconds

days hours minutes

days