Trump inauguration anniversary marred by shutdown, protests
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Donald Trump’s first anniversary as US president was marred by chaos Saturday as lawmakers traded bitter recriminations over a government shutdown while mass demonstrations erupted in cities across the country.
The famed Statue of Liberty was among the federal sites that were shuttered on Saturday. But the real impact of the shutdown won’t be fully felt until Tuesday, when hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are set to stay home without pay.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Saturday night tried to head off that possibility, setting a key vote for a funding measure for 1 a..m (0600 GMT) Monday.
“I assure you we will have the vote at 1 a.m. on Monday, unless there is a desire to have it sooner,” he said in a statement.
Highlighting the deep political polarization, crowds estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands took to the streets of major US cities to march against the president and his policies.
“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present,” Trump, who is in Washington instead of celebrating at his Mar-a-Lago resort as originally planned, wrote on Twitter in reference to the shutdown.
“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he tweeted, later accusing the opposition party of “holding our Military hostage.”
The impact of the shutdown would be felt acutely if it lasts into the coming work week.
Essential federal services and military activity are continuing, but even active duty troops will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.
There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.
“We’re just in a holding pattern. We just have to wait and see. It’s scary,” Noelle Joll, a 50-year-old furloughed US government employee, told AFP in Washington.
Joll was also affected by the 2013 shutdown, but “this one feels a lot more ominous,” she said.
A deal had appeared likely on Friday afternoon, when Trump — who has touted himself as a master negotiator — seemed to be close to an agreement with Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on a measure to prevent the expulsion of undocumented migrants who arrived in the United States as children.