President Donald Trump departs Air Drive One on October 30, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump was returning to Washington following a multi-nation journey to Asia throughout the ongoing authorities shutdown.
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With the federal government shutdown dragging into its second month and rising extra painful by the day, President Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This is not an remoted journey for the president. He has spent practically two full weeks outdoors of Washington because the shutdown started.
There are missed paychecks for federal staff, journey disruptions and SNAP meals help is in danger for thousands and thousands of People. The White Home and Republicans in Congress blame Democrats within the Senate for refusing to assist a short-term funding invoice that may re-open the federal government.
“They’ve misplaced their minds,” Trump mentioned of Democrats from Air Drive One on his technique to Florida. “All they should do is say the federal government is open, and that is the top of it.”
Trump spent lower than 24 hours in Washington, D.C. this week. Many of the week, he was in Asia, on a 3 nation journey that began in Malaysia. He was greeted there by a brass band and brightly clothed dancers. Trump obtained in on it too, doing his signature Trump dance, swaying with clenched fists.
This prolonged overseas journey, Trump’s second time abroad throughout this shutdown, marked a major break with how previous presidents, together with Trump himself, have approached authorities shutdowns. They’ve sometimes averted the dangerous optics of skipping city throughout a disaster.
In 1995, President Clinton canceled a deliberate journey to Japan throughout the federal government shutdown so he may keep on the White Home for talks with Republicans who managed each the Home and Senate.
“We spent plenty of days within the Oval Workplace principally negotiating … making an attempt to see if we may discover a technique to resolve it,” mentioned Leon Panetta, who was Clinton’s chief of employees on the time. “As a result of the very last thing we wished to do was to have the federal government shut down. That, sadly, is now not the case.”
Throughout a prolonged shutdown in 2013, then-President Obama canceled a four-nation Asia journey. And in 2019, President Trump had a visit deliberate to the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland.
“If the shutdown continues, I will not go,” Trump mentioned.
The shutdown continued. And he did not go. Again then, although, Trump was speaking about negotiating. He was making an attempt to get border wall funding added to a authorities funding invoice.
“Look, that is actually one thing that needs to be bipartisan,” Trump mentioned as that shutdown dragged on. “And we’ll see whether it is. I hope it’s.”
2019 versus 2025
That shutdown lasted 35 days, the longest on document. An NPR evaluation finds that in that interval, Trump solely left Washington for six days. He traveled to:
- Iraq to greet the troops round Christmas
- Dover Air Drive Base in Delaware for the dignified switch of People killed in an assault in Syria
- Camp David in Maryland for a day
- The U.S.-Mexico border to make the case for border wall funding
- New Orleans to talk to the American Farm Bureau
There have been no visits to Mar-a-Lago resort.
This time is sort of completely different. For the reason that begin of the shutdown on October 1, Trump has seemingly made no changes to his journey plans and regular routines. His travels have included:
- Two journeys to Florida
- Golfed twice at his course close to Washington, D.C.
- Israel and Egypt to mark the signing of the Gaza ceasefire settlement
- Stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea throughout a six day journey
Not counting his golf outings in Virginia, Trump spent all or a part of 14 days outdoors of Washington throughout the first 31 days of the shutdown.
President Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Drive One en path to South Korea on October 29, 2025.
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Republicans say there may be nothing to barter till the federal government reopens
Simply earlier than Trump returned to the White Home from Asia, Vice President JD Vance held a press convention to reassert the administration’s place.
“We’re not going to present in on coverage calls for underneath the specter of hostage taking,” he mentioned. There can be no negotiations till Democrats vote to reopen the federal government.
“We’d like 5 extra affordable Democrats to place the American folks first and reopen the federal government. That is all that we’re asking,” Vance mentioned.
And it is not simply Trump. The GOP-controlled Home of Representatives was away all the month of October. The Senate has voted 13 instances on the identical funding invoice, failing every time due to an absence of assist from Democrats. Senators went residence for the weekend on Thursday, with a lot of them encountering flight delays associated to the shutdown.
Democrats, who up to now have supported payments just like the momentary funding measure Trump and Republicans are insisting on, say they need to negotiate. However, thus far Republicans are sticking with their place that there’s nothing to barter till the federal government is open.
“Trump can behave nonetheless he needs on this state of affairs,” mentioned Doug Heye, who was deputy chief of employees to a prime home Republican throughout the 2013 authorities shutdown. “Whether or not he will occasions in overseas international locations or simply kind of dwelling life, none of that interferes with what the core argument is, which is Republicans saying, ‘we have finished our job, Democrats step up and do yours.’ To do something completely different would truly reduce towards their very own messaging.”
President Trump greets Chinese language President Xi Jinping forward of a bilateral assembly at Gimhae Air Base on October 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea.
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Additionally, he mentioned, Trump clearly is not all that involved with political threat from wanting like he is not engaged in ending the shutdown. Even when Trump retains teasing a 2028 run for an unconstitutional third time period, the president is governing like he has nothing to lose, mentioned Heye.
“He’s YOLO [you only live once] and he’s going to do what he needs, wherever he needs and he’s going to push the boundaries so far as he can, as a result of no matter he talks about, he is not going to be on the poll once more,” mentioned Heye.
However Panetta, who served in congress and a number of Democratic administrations, sees it in a different way. He says what’s occurring now could be an abdication of a primary duty to control.
“We have elected these folks and so they’re not there. They’ve left Washington. They are going on journeys,” mentioned Panetta. “They’re principally strolling away from the very duty that they need to be exercising as elected officers. I imply, that is what’s miserable about all of this.”
White Home spokesperson Anna Kelly defended the president’s journey nearly as good for the nation.
“Whereas Democrats flail, President Trump will not cease delivering historic wins for our nation whereas concurrently discovering inventive methods to pay our troops and cut back the struggling on account of Democrats’ far-left priorities,” Kelly mentioned of Trump’s Asia travels.
