US begins government shutdown

Congress blew past a midnight funding deadline, triggering the US government’s first shutdown in nearly seven years — and the third under President Donald Trump.

The White House’s budget office ordered agencies to begin executing their plans for a funding lapse, shuttering the government aside from essential duties, disrupting the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Americans and upending many public services.

With the two parties locked in a stalemate over healthcare subsidies and using the moment to frame the 2026 midterm elections, the shutdown — and its economic effects — could be prolonged.

If the shutdown lasts three weeks, the unemployment rate could spike to 4.6%-4.7% from the 4.3% in August as furloughed workers are counted as temporarily unemployed, according to Bloomberg Economics.

Trump has suggested his administration would use this shutdown to conduct mass layoffs of federal workers beyond the temporary furloughs of an estimated 750 000 government