Report 43-day authorities shutdown tops 2025’s political controversies

As temperatures drop within the nation’s capital and politicians hunker down for the vacations, right here’s a glance again at a few of the political controversies that despatched a chill by way of Washington, D.C., this 12 months.

1. Shutdown showdown: 43 days that froze Washington

The federal government was shut down for 43 days in 2025, setting the file for the longest shutdown in U.S. historical past.

Republicans blamed Democrats and Democrats blamed Republicans, leaving Capitol Hill at a standstill for a staggering stretch that put Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) advantages, federal paychecks and even air-traffic security in jeopardy.

TRUMP SAYS ECONOMY WILL ‘ROCKET’ AFTER SIGNING ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’: ‘IT’S GOING TO BE REALLY GREAT’

Congress failed to seek out widespread floor on a short-term spending invoice as Senate Democrats refused to help any plan that didn’t embrace extensions of enhanced Obamacare subsidies set to run out at 12 months’s finish.

Finally, eight Senate Democrats broke with management to achieve a bipartisan deal to reopen the federal government, and 6 Home Democrats adopted go well with — ending the shutdown with out securing the subsidies their occasion had demanded.

TRUMP SAYS ECONOMY WILL ‘ROCKET’ AFTER SIGNING ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’: ‘IT’S GOING TO BE REALLY GREAT’

2. DOGE days: Trump & Musk tackle the forms

President Donald Trump signed an govt order on Inauguration Day establishing the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) with a mandate to chop waste, fraud and abuse throughout the federal authorities.

Trump tapped Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a “particular authorities worker” to spearhead spending reductions.

In line with DOGE, the company has saved roughly $214 billion by way of asset gross sales, contract cancellations, improper cost recoveries, grant terminations, regulatory rollbacks, and workforce reductions.

As Musk slashed spending, the company overhauled federal operations, shedding tens of 1000’s of staff, reducing foreign-aid packages, together with america Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID), and shaking up world well being efforts such because the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Reduction (PEPFAR).

3. No Kings Days: Protest actions erupt nationwide

The DOGE disruptions and Trump’s sweeping second-term agenda triggered a wave of protest actions throughout the nation.

In February, the 50501 Motion, a coalition of activists rejecting Trump’s “govt overreach,” organized nationwide “Not My President’s Day,” or “No Kings Day,” demonstrations. From Austin to Orlando and Boston to Phoenix, crowds marched with handmade indicators, chanting and singing in protest. Greater than a thousand gathered on the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., on President’s Day.

As Musk led efforts to slash authorities spending, some protesters focused Tesla automobiles, dealerships, and showrooms as Legal professional Common Pam Bondi labeled the assaults as “home terrorism.”

By Oct. 18, hundreds of thousands of People joined one other “No Kings Day,” because the protest motion confirmed no indicators of fading all through Trump’s second time period.

4. ICE unleashed: Backlash on deportations

Throughout Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign, he promised to hold out the biggest mass deportation operation in American historical past.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement delivered on that pledge this 12 months, launching an aggressive nationwide effort to deport unlawful immigrants.

Whereas Republicans celebrated what they seen as a long-overdue restoration of safety on the southern border, many People rejected the crackdown, protesting mistaken removals, due-process considerations and ICE’s enforcement surge.

Democratic lawmakers and native officers joined demonstrations at ICE processing facilities and immigration courts, urging constituents to know their authorized rights.

Trump deployed the Nationwide Guard to Los Angeles as anti-ICE protests escalated into riots in June. It was the primary time in additional than 60 years {that a} president overrode a governor and federalized a state’s Nationwide Guard for a home law-enforcement mission.

5. Troops within the streets: Trump’s crime crackdown

After federalizing the Nationwide Guard in Los Angeles in June, Trump deployed troops to the nation’s capital in August as a part of the administration’s nationwide crime crackdown.

The White Home then moved to deploy the Guard to different Democratic-led cities, together with Chicago and Memphis, and tried the same rollout in Portland earlier than courts intervened.

Democrats and progressive activists denounced the technique as harmful federal overreach, arguing that importing troops into native jurisdictions would escalate tensions somewhat than calm them.

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Tensions reached a boiling level on Nov. 26, when two Nationwide Guardsmen — U.S. Air Pressure Workers Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, and Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20 — have been shot simply blocks from the White Home. Beckstrom later died from the accidents. Federal authorities are investigating the assault as a possible act of terrorism.

“God bless our Nice Nationwide Guard, and all of our Army and Regulation Enforcement. These are actually Nice Folks. I, as President of america, and everybody related to the Workplace of the Presidency, am with you!” Trump mentioned in response.