Though the filibuster confounds this somewhat, it really is telling that the only consolidated government shut downs occurred during Carter (and that among the shortest on this list) and twice now with Trump.
Can we get this graphic with whether there’s a filibuster-proof majority in the senate?
He’s gotta OWN the libs – set a NEW RECORD! Nobody’s ever had a better government shutdown, folks. People are saying it’s the BEST shutdown in HISTORY. Total WIN! 💯🇺🇸 #MAGA #Winning /s
The most tremendous shutdowns.
And yet, Trump blames the Democrats for it 😅
To be accurate, the 35 day long Trump 2018/2019 should have a mixed House color, the House was under Republican control for like the first 10-12 days of that that 35, before the Democratic majority was sworn in in early January of 2019.
The 2018-19 is misleading: the shutdown started with republican unified control of government and ended with a democratic House. Showing the government makeup at the end of the shutdown overstates democrats’ contribution to it (which in reality was none – Trump was vetoing bipartisan bills to shut it down).
I just donated to my local food pantry and it made me so mad. Not that I mind donating, but I would rather do it because I want to and can help supplement rather than because I know the government is so non-functional at this point they can’t even hand out SNAP benefits to people that are starving.
If they are still taking my money through taxes but stopping the benefits, where is my money going to then? Serious question.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the big upswing in both frequency and duration started in 1995, immediately after Newt Gingrich rode into the House speakership. His no-compromise, take no prisoners, approach to governance started the GOP on its current trajectory.
Note that this graph starts in 1980, when the opinion of an attorney general invented them. Before that, shutdowns did not exist.
So basically, half of the time that the government has *ever* been shut down, was under Trump’s watch.
I’d love to see some data showing what the actual negative impacts are when these shutdowns happen. I.e. is it exponentially worse the longer it goes?
I don’t feel like this provides any clear conclusions about government shut downs except that we’ve been majority Republican controlled for most of the modern era of politics, so almost all shut downs were under majority Republican governments
Can we go back to 1964 please?
But have you guys seen the Epstein Ballroom?
Is there any other country that has this problem with their design of democracy ?
So far 68 days of shutdown under trump leadership and 51 days of shutdown over every other president in our history combined?
5 out of the last 6 government shutdowns were when Republicans were in the majority
I don’t know how else to tell folks, modern Republicans want to gum up the works and fundamentally do not believe government is designed to serve the people
‘If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.”
Donald Trump, 2013
He wanted to be better than Obama in something
So this is only the third time that the president’s party has had majority control of both branches of Congress and still had a shutdown (and the second time under Trump).
I always find US government shutdowns wild. Where I’m from in the Westminster system, if you fail to do the basic level of governing called passing a budget, the government falls and there are new elections called (or because there are more than two parties the crown calls on another party to try to get confidence of the house).
But you don’t just sit there letting government fall apart.
The fact that the Government shuts down and the politicians still get paid is what pisses me off.
The government will remain shut down until either the epstein files release or we collectively give up on them.
Every shutdown since at least Clinton was caused by conservatives. The Clinton shutdown was because Republicans wanted to cut social security. Obama was because Republicans didn’t want people to have health care. Trump 1 was because Republicans wanted to throw out children for being brown. Trump 2 is because Republicans wanted to throw away money to build a fence. Trump 3 is because Republicans want people to die from unaffordable existence.
So, we now know for sure that the current White House resident is consistently the best at one thing.
Lovely graph. Trump will say it’s A1.
Your whole political system and structure is a joke. In Europe, particularly european democracies, this would be unthinkable. And we would be taking it to the streets immediately.
Just do something, you’re being played so damn easily.
![Government shutdowns in the U.S. [OC]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/717hbtwva9yf1-1876x1024.png)
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Created in Illustrator, data gathered from Wikipedia Oct. 30, 2025: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdowns_in_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdowns_in_the_United_States)
Though the filibuster confounds this somewhat, it really is telling that the only consolidated government shut downs occurred during Carter (and that among the shortest on this list) and twice now with Trump.
Can we get this graphic with whether there’s a filibuster-proof majority in the senate?
He’s gotta OWN the libs – set a NEW RECORD! Nobody’s ever had a better government shutdown, folks. People are saying it’s the BEST shutdown in HISTORY. Total WIN! 💯🇺🇸 #MAGA #Winning /s
The most tremendous shutdowns.
And yet, Trump blames the Democrats for it 😅
To be accurate, the 35 day long Trump 2018/2019 should have a mixed House color, the House was under Republican control for like the first 10-12 days of that that 35, before the Democratic majority was sworn in in early January of 2019.
The 2018-19 is misleading: the shutdown started with republican unified control of government and ended with a democratic House. Showing the government makeup at the end of the shutdown overstates democrats’ contribution to it (which in reality was none – Trump was vetoing bipartisan bills to shut it down).
I just donated to my local food pantry and it made me so mad. Not that I mind donating, but I would rather do it because I want to and can help supplement rather than because I know the government is so non-functional at this point they can’t even hand out SNAP benefits to people that are starving.
If they are still taking my money through taxes but stopping the benefits, where is my money going to then? Serious question.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the big upswing in both frequency and duration started in 1995, immediately after Newt Gingrich rode into the House speakership. His no-compromise, take no prisoners, approach to governance started the GOP on its current trajectory.
Note that this graph starts in 1980, when the opinion of an attorney general invented them. Before that, shutdowns did not exist.
So basically, half of the time that the government has *ever* been shut down, was under Trump’s watch.
I’d love to see some data showing what the actual negative impacts are when these shutdowns happen. I.e. is it exponentially worse the longer it goes?
I don’t feel like this provides any clear conclusions about government shut downs except that we’ve been majority Republican controlled for most of the modern era of politics, so almost all shut downs were under majority Republican governments
Can we go back to 1964 please?
But have you guys seen the Epstein Ballroom?
Is there any other country that has this problem with their design of democracy ?
So far 68 days of shutdown under trump leadership and 51 days of shutdown over every other president in our history combined?
5 out of the last 6 government shutdowns were when Republicans were in the majority
I don’t know how else to tell folks, modern Republicans want to gum up the works and fundamentally do not believe government is designed to serve the people
‘If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.”
Donald Trump, 2013
He wanted to be better than Obama in something
So this is only the third time that the president’s party has had majority control of both branches of Congress and still had a shutdown (and the second time under Trump).
I always find US government shutdowns wild. Where I’m from in the Westminster system, if you fail to do the basic level of governing called passing a budget, the government falls and there are new elections called (or because there are more than two parties the crown calls on another party to try to get confidence of the house).
But you don’t just sit there letting government fall apart.
The fact that the Government shuts down and the politicians still get paid is what pisses me off.
The government will remain shut down until either the epstein files release or we collectively give up on them.
Every shutdown since at least Clinton was caused by conservatives. The Clinton shutdown was because Republicans wanted to cut social security. Obama was because Republicans didn’t want people to have health care. Trump 1 was because Republicans wanted to throw out children for being brown. Trump 2 is because Republicans wanted to throw away money to build a fence. Trump 3 is because Republicans want people to die from unaffordable existence.
So, we now know for sure that the current White House resident is consistently the best at one thing.
Lovely graph. Trump will say it’s A1.
Your whole political system and structure is a joke. In Europe, particularly european democracies, this would be unthinkable. And we would be taking it to the streets immediately.
Just do something, you’re being played so damn easily.
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