Moving Fast/rev III

National Guard troops patrol the grounds of the Washington Monument, with the Capitol seen in the distance, as part of President Donald Trump's order to impose federal law enforcement in the nation's capital, in Washington, Thursday, August 28, 2025 [J Scott Applewhite/AP Photo]

Al Jazeera nails it in an insightful article titled 
How much extra power would a government shutdown give Trump?

Plenty as layoffs along with consolidation of yet more power becomes the calculus here as the TA wants the shutdown to happen in order to pull the trigger on both agendas. As often stated before, Trump is Gladstone Gander personified as like Donald Duck's quietly obnoxious cousin, the Donald always has luck on his side although the grim reaper will have the final say on the orange menace residing in the White House.

Gladstone

Backgrounder: Gladstone Gander is a cartoon character created in 1948 by Carl Barks for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. He is an anthropomorphic gander (male goose) who possesses exceptionally good luck that grants him anything he desires as well as protecting him from any harm.

The gambit

A fight between Republicans and Democrats in the US could lead to an October 1 federal government shutdown.

Democrats are trying to leverage the must-pass bill to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies; the Trump administration is tying a shutdown to potential mass federal worker layoffs.

If the government shuts down, President Donald Trump and his administration – which has already defied norms on executive power – likely will seek to exert more power.

Trump’s Office of Management and Budget under Russell Vought has moved with more executive authority over spending, which is typically left to Congress. The administration took steps to cancel foreign aid and asserted power to withhold billions in domestic spending.

“I would expect this shutdown to look different than any other shutdown,” said Joshua Sewell, Taxpayers for Common Sense director of research and policy. He said he expects that the Trump team’s actions would be guided by what they believe achieves the most for them politically.

If lawmakers can’t reach a deal, Stier wrote, Trump and Vought “will have enormous latitude to determine which services, programmes and employees can be sidelined – decisions that could go far beyond what has occurred during past shutdowns”.

Beyond the Antideficiency Act, which says the government cannot spend money or incur debts without Congress’s authority, the shutdown process has historically been guided by traditions, not laws.

Moving fast/rev III applies. Read the entire Al Jazeera article. You will learn a lot. I certainly have.