In Which The White House Overdoes It Trying to Prove Trump Is Working Through the Shutdown
On Saturday—which, in case you've forgotten, was both the anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration and the first day of the government shutdown—the White House published several photos of the President in and around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, all exceedingly staged, including one in the Oval Office. The dissemination of this particular photo seems, one gathers from its caption, to have had two goals: first, to highlight that the President was working on Saturday, and second, to double down on the branding of the GOP-led Senate's failure to pass a new spending bill as the "Democrat shutdown." Not one of Trump's strongest mean nicknames but ok.
It is also, of course, an objectively ridiculous photo. Twitter users were quick to comment on the many absurdities it highlights: the absence of anything needed for actual work on the desk, the decision to include a MAGA hat, the fact that the photo was taken and sent out at all. The whole thing devolved into a highly fruitful caption contest on Twitter, the likes of which you should definitely sit down and enjoy.
Pulitzer-worthy captions aside, as the beginning of the workweek looms, Congress has still not reached an agreement about immigration. The last government shutdown was in 2013, lasted 16 days and cost the American economy an estimated $24 billion. For the sake of those government employees financially impacted—and as the future of the Dreamers hangs in the balance—let's hope Trump spends less time posing for ill-advised photoshoots and more time governing.
Related Stories:
-What Is a Government Shutdown and Will It Affect You?
-Donald Trump Once Said Government Shutdowns Are the Result of Incompetent Presidents
