The federal government is shut down. Parks and museums are closed, more than half a million workers are furloughed, and those still doing their jobs will be unpaid until the situation is resolved.
Such showdowns between whichever party was in government and the opposition used to be the highest drama US politics had to offer – with the battle between Republicans and Democrats as to who was to blame dominating news shows and front pages alike. This time, it’s relegated to the inside pages.
Because of Senate procedure, the White House needs the votes of at least seven Democrats to approve spending to keep the government running. Democrats faced a dilemma as to whether to agree to that – it is hard for them to say that Donald Trump is shredding the constitution, ruining lives, and turning America into an authoritarian state, and then agree to continue funding his government.
On the flip side, Democrats don’t want to be blamed for the misery a shutdown causes, so they decided to make it specifically about Trump’s cuts to health insurance for low-income Americans. Trump made the blame game easier for them by refusing to meet with Democrats, even as he demanded their votes.
At a time when ICE agents are raiding housing blocks en masse, allegedly zip-tying children, and assaulting people in the street – even as they are filmed – all of this looks weirdly like politics-as-usual. Government funding and healthcare are important issues, but there is a sense that Democrats in Congress are failing to meet the moment of Trump’s mounting authoritarianism, and the violent enforcement of it he’s bringing to cities like Chicago and Portland.
Instead, that challenge is being met by Democratic governors. In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker managed to deter the White House from deploying the national guard to Chicago by warning of legal repercussions for anyone involved in the decision – and using his platform to hammer the message that troops were not needed in his city.
As clashes between ICE, local law enforcement, and protesters intensify in Chicago, Pritzker remains at the forefront of that battle – which has included demanding answers from ICE over their fatal shooting of a man in a Chicago suburb.
On the other side of the country, California’s Gavin Newsom is similarly becoming a figurehead of resistance to Trump’s decisions to move in federal and ICE agents against the will of his state’s government.
Newsom has mounted multiple legal challenges against the deployments, has given press conferences on the topic almost daily, and perhaps most memorably has dedicated his social media accounts to an uncannily accurate parody of the President’s aggressive and outright conspiratorial style. “HAS ANYONE SEEN DOZY DON SINCE HE SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT? ARE STAFF POSTING SINCE ‘THE STROKE?’” asks one recent post.
He has also joined recent legal challenges by Oregon’s less well-known Governor, Tina Kotek, to resist the deployment of troops to Portland – which was recently blocked in court by a judge appointed during Trump’s first presidential term.
For now, the courts are still playing a significant role in curbing the most outrageous actions of Trump’s administration: reversing cuts, putting stays on certain actions, and preventing him from firing one of the leaders of the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank. The rule of law is just about holding, for the moment.
Judges are not suddenly acting as heroes of the resistance, though – they are bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court, and time and again that court has proven itself to be utterly loyal to Trump, who appointed three of its nine members. The 6-3 conservative majority on the court has repeatedly limited the ability of lower courts to restrict Trump’s overreach, and judges follow the instructions of that. Judges are playing a role, but it is a limited one.
The Democratic Party’s leaders in Congress seem unable to take the battle to Donald Trump. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have led their caucuses to historic unpopularity among their own members, and seem to be struggling to find a message to oppose Trump. Even rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seem to be struggling to break through the noise.
At this moment, there is a real reminder that America is a nation made up of 50 states, each with their own constitutions, governments, and governors – and as Trump concentrates his ire on Democratic states and cities, it is the governors of those places who are becoming Trump’s most visible and most effective foes.
At a time when Democratic voters are looking to their leaders to stand up against an increasingly tyrannical Trump, that will matter. When the party comes to choose its candidate for president in the 2028 election, it will look at what people did in 2025 and 2026. Governors Pritzker and Newsom know that – and they’re standing up.
James Ball is political editor of The New World
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