From December 22, 2018 – January 25, 2019, President Donald Trump has led on the 35-day government shutdown, the longest in American history. During the month it was down, American politics became chaotic, almost panicked as both sides went to take the upper ground on the pressing issue at the time, Trump’s border wall. One of his many campaign promises, the border wall was a promise made by Trump because of the supposed crisis at our U.S. – Mexico border. The wall is supposed to prevent drug flow and human trafficking from coming through the southern border but most importantly, it aims to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing. One of Trump’s main campaign selling points was the devastation caused by illegal immigrants coming through our southern border. Due to this, around a month ago the president decided to shut down the government in order to get the funding needed for the wall (approximated to be over $5 billion dollars).

Of course, Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed back, consistent in stating that they won’t spare Trump a dollar to his wall. “A dollar? A dollar? Yeah, one dollar,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). During all this, little to no one acknowledged the hundreds of thousands of workers that were essentially out of a job throughout the whole shutdown, some who rely on that paycheck just to get by. Trump and the Democratic leaders were ignoring them. In fact, the congressmen and congresswomen were trying to pass a bill that allowed workers to get their first paycheck of 2019, but there just weren’t enough votes to get it through.

It was disgusting to read about while Trump and Pelosi had a petty argument in which Trump sent a letter preventing Pelosi from going to Brussels and Afganistan. It has presented a trend among the leaders of both parties showing how little they seem to care about the people and more about their own policies that assure their next term in office, most notable among them being President Trump.

Our president seems so focused on what he promised to do back in 2016 that he’s forgetting, or completely ignoring, the issue of early 2019. It’s obvious that he’s more concerned about checking off his list, making sure he follows through with his promises to the millions of people who voted for him back in late 2016. From my point of view, the democratic leaders seem to be repeating themselves over and over, especially with Trump’s recent temper tantrum. They’re stuck in a cycle of bickering where Trump does something that is somewhat immature and the Democrats respond in the exact same way. It has become ridiculous listening and seeing the different headlines saying, “Trump did this,” or, “Pelosi did this,” while people are dealing with their jobs after the shutdown.  In the background of this political mess is the new debate about late abortions, throwing more turmoil in between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Recently around 17 senators, both Republican and Democrat, have been working together on a deal covering the issue on illegal immigration. While the right is keeping their ground, the left is making steps towards bipartisanship saying they’ll fund $1 -2 billion dollars, far off of Trump’s $5.7 billion dollars Trump is demanding. In exchange, they wanted a cap on the number of beds in detention centers raised so ICE can go out and pursue illegal immigrants that have actual criminal records rather than immigrants who have overstayed visas who pose no threat to society. Even then, Trump said that the Democrats have become “irrational” as if he didn’t think they were already. So now Trump has finally called the State of Emergency he’s been threatening for weeks now. 

It allows our President to tap into military funds to fund our his border wall, which is the only reason he would call the state of emergency unless there’s an actual reason to call a state of emergency. Which he’s already had the chance to do during the month-long wildfires that spread across California, burning down entire towns and taking dozens of lives. It’s ridiculous how both sides are acting, it shows a new immaturity from the leaders of the right and left which I fear can become a trend among the newer and younger people in the House of Representatives and the Senate.