White House officials, at the start of the shutdown, were certain the Trump administration was better positioned to battle the left during a funding lapse.
In early October, several Trump administration officials had a friendly pool going of how long the shutdown would last. The White House, at the time, was confident Democrats would quickly fold.
No one guessed more than 10 days.
The account, relayed by a person close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, underscores just how much the administration miscalculated the Democrats’ will to keep the government closed even amid furloughs and imperiled social programs like food assistance.
As the shutdown heads into its second month, Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated. On Thursday, he called for Republicans to abolish the filibuster to reopen the government — a plea he knows is futile, but that demonstrates his growing irritation with Democrats, said a second person close to the White House.


Whatever. If you can’t tell, a “need for excitement” really means “unwilling to follow along if something happens along the way that I disagree with”.
Really, how can those voters who did not vote for Kamala but generally support the left be so short-sighted not to see the consequences? They wanted to punish Democrats but ended up punishing the country and the world. They let perfect be the enemy of good.
Where I’m at, a lack of excitement means people are apathetic and don’t feel enegaged or like their vote matters. Strategic voting and the ever right-ward shifting of the centre is a huge reason why Canada and the US are the way they are.
You talk about being short-sighted but the only thing strategic voting has ever accomplished has been the ever right-ward shift of the center. Do you really believe that people don’t understand that there will be consequences? Do you really believe that votes made out of desparation fear are “good”? The centrist threaten the population with the alternative and they don’t genuinely represent anyone because they know you’re too scared.
They didn’t primary Harris, they just shoved her onto the ballot and told everyone to deal with it. There is nothing good about that behaviour.