US government shutdown crisis tests Musk’s influence and Trump’s struggle to push through his agenda

US government shutdown crisis tests Musk’s influence and Trump’s struggle to push through his agenda

The nerves on display, the backstabbing, the usual representatives seeking the spotlight, the reporters running through the narrow halls, the last-minute commitments and the more or less happy ending… Almost nothing that happened in the Capitol on Friday, a frantic day that ended with the approval of a temporary spending measure to avoid a government shutdown, was a surprise for the veteran spectators of the great theatre of Washington. And yet the negotiations between both parties to avoid the spending tap being cut off at midnight ― which would have left some 875,000 federal workers without their Christmas pay ― offered valuable clues about the difficulties that await Donald Trump and his government of billionaires to push through their agenda in a hurry with a Congress that Republicans control only by a narrow margin.

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