{"id":170612,"date":"2025-11-04T14:09:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/donald-trumps-long-winter-americans-set-to-deliver-their-verdict-as-us-grinds-through-record-shutdown-livemint-com\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T14:09:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:09:02","slug":"donald-trumps-long-winter-americans-set-to-deliver-their-verdict-as-us-grinds-through-record-shutdown-livemint-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/donald-trumps-long-winter-americans-set-to-deliver-their-verdict-as-us-grinds-through-record-shutdown-livemint-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s long winter – Americans set to deliver their verdict as US grinds through record shutdown – livemint.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump isn\u2019t on any of the cards today, but his presidency and policies are one of the key things people are voting on. As millions of Americans cast their ballots in gubernatorial and local elections across New Jersey, Virginia, and New York, President Donald Trump faces a pivotal moment.
The nation is now entering the 35th day of a government shutdown \u2014 tying the longest in US history \u2014 as frustration mounts over stalled negotiations in Washington and uncertainty about the administration\u2019s next move.
The lengthy standoff between President Donald Trump and congressional Democratic leaders is poised to become the longest government shutdown in American history this week.
Election Day on Tuesday, when voters will head to the polls in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, will tie the record for the longest shutdown.
If the shutdown continues into Wednesday, which lawmakers believe is almost certain, it will shatter that record, set during Trump’s first term. That 35-day federal closure in late 2018 and early 2019 resulted from a fight over Trump\u2019s demand for a border wall, which Democrats refused to fund.
Tuesday\u2019s elections mark the first major public verdict on President Trump\u2019s second term, with voters in key states heading to the polls amid a prolonged political standoff that has left federal workers unpaid and critical services stalled.
Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, alongside a New York City mayoral race and a California redistricting initiative, offer early signs of how Americans are reacting to Trump\u2019s leadership \u2014 and whether public dissatisfaction might translate into political change.
\u201cThere are plenty of reasons not to read too much into these races,\u201d analysts caution, noting that opposition voters often turn out in higher numbers during early cycles. Still, the results will serve as a barometer of political mood heading into next year\u2019s crucial midterm elections.
The 35-day federal shutdown \u2014 triggered by Donald Trump\u2019s standoff with congressional Democrats<\/a> over spending priorities \u2014 has already tied the record set during his first term in 2018\u20132019. If it extends another day, it will become the longest in US history.
Trump\u2019s administration remains defiant, with the president insisting that \u201cpain for millions\u201d will end only when Democrats concede. Speaking to 60 Minutes, Trump maintained that the impasse was \u201ca necessary stand for America\u2019s future,\u201d even as polls show growing discontent.
Critics, however, describe the crisis as a self-inflicted wound, emblematic of a presidency defined by confrontation. As Trump \u201cblasts suspected cartel speedboats out of the oceans\u201d and \u201csends troops into American cities,\u201d observers note a growing pattern of executive overreach.
Democrats, buoyed by anger over the shutdown and the president\u2019s polarising rhetoric, are rallying voters around issues of affordability, healthcare, and governance. In New Jersey, Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot, has directly tied her campaign to opposition against Trump.
\u201cHe\u2019ll do whatever Trump tells him to do, and I will fight anybody to work for you,\u201d Sherrill declared during her debate with Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, branding him a \u201cTrump clone.\u201d
Former President Barack Obama, campaigning in support of Sherrill, delivered one of the party\u2019s sharpest rebukes yet of Trump\u2019s record.
\u201cThere is absolutely no evidence that Republican policies have made life better for the people in New Jersey<\/a>,\u201d Obama said. \u201cThey have devoted enormous energy to entrenching themselves in power, punishing their enemies, enriching their friends, silencing their critics… But what they haven\u2019t done is help you.\u201d
If the Trump political wall begins to crumble, observers say the first cracks could appear in New Jersey, where Ciattarelli faces a difficult balance: energising Trump\u2019s base while appealing to moderate voters uneasy about the president\u2019s style.
Ciattarelli has defended his alignment with Trump on policy grounds: \u201cHe\u2019s right about securing the border; inflation is much lower than under Biden; he halted offshore wind; he\u2019s pushing back on New York\u2019s congestion pricing; and he quadrupled the SALT deduction.\u201d
But analysts note that Ciattarelli\u2019s path is tougher than that of Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia Republican<\/a> who won four years ago during an anti-Democratic wave. \u201cThe cultural issues that helped propel Youngkin to Richmond appear to have lacked the same resonance for Republicans this fall,\u201d one expert observed.
According to Kristoffer Shields, director of the Eagleton Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University, local factors like \u201cutility rates and property taxes\u201d are driving the New Jersey race. However, he added, the contest could provide broader lessons about the national mood.
\u201cNew Jersey has arguably moved to the right over the last couple of election cycles,\u201d Shields said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be really interesting to see if that continues in this race or if the reaction to the Trump presidency pushes it back to the left.\u201d
For Democrats, Shields suggested, the challenge lies in unity: \u201cWhether the fractured Democratic Party is able to come together and really drive turnout for a fairly moderate candidate is a key question.\u201d
On the Republican side, he added, the results could test the transferability of Trump\u2019s charisma. \u201cThere is a sense that Trump Republicans show up to vote for Trump, but don\u2019t always show up when other Republicans are at the top of the ticket.\u201d
In 2024, Trump made measurable gains among Black and Hispanic voters, fuelling Republican hopes of a long-term realignment. The question now is whether that support will endure without Donald Trump himself on the ballot.
In Passaic County, New Jersey \u2014 where Latinos make up around 43% of the population \u2014 Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly three points last year, after losing the same area by 16 points in 2020. Yet analysts caution that enthusiasm may wane in his absence.
A larger-than-expected Republican drop-off could signal the limits of Trump\u2019s appeal, especially amid criticism of his immigration policies and the faltering economy.
Should Democrats notch strong wins tonight, the results may fall on deaf ears inside the Oval Office. Donald Trump has long surrounded himself with loyalists who tell him what he wants to hear<\/a> \u2014 \u201ca Cabinet of yes-men and yes-women,\u201d as critics put it.
Still, political tides are hard to resist. As one observer noted, \u201cAmerican politics never stands still, even for a president like Trump who tries to defy it.\u201d
If Trump weathers the storm with minimal losses, he will once again demonstrate his remarkable political durability. But if tonight\u2019s elections swing decisively against him, the message from voters will be unmistakable: the Trump era may be entering its most fragile phase yet.
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Donald Trump isn\u2019t on any of the cards today, but his presidency and policies are one of the key things people are voting on. As millions of Americans cast their ballots in gubernatorial and local elections across New Jersey, Virginia, and New York, President Donald Trump faces a pivotal moment.The nation is now entering the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}