Political scientist Larry Sabato is warning that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party may exploit the likely federal government shutdown, saying that the GOP, as the “anti-government party,” is “perfectly happy” when the government shuts down and “perfectly happy to eliminate quite a number of domestic policy programs.”

Republicans will “go after anything that Democrats normally favor, and they’ll probably try to do it in a way that will not be repairable once this shutdown ends,” warned Professor Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He noted that the Trump administration’s goals include shrinking or eliminating large parts of the federal government.

Calling it “a very real threat,” Sabato told CNN that the White House has already warned that a shutdown could provide “a pretext for laying off many more federal workers.”

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“They’re going to use this as best they can. Never let a crisis go to waste — that’s their theory.”

Sabato said it “would take a pocket full of miracles to stop what’s likely to happen at midnight,” and warned that “Trump is not bluffing.”

“The reason the implications are serious is because so much of what the U.S. government does grinds to a halt,” Sabato also said.

“Probably the most serious part of it is that the troops and the TSA officers and lots of other people, including air traffic controllers, while they have to show up, are not paid. So if this goes on for 35 days, there are a lot of families who are without food.”

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“But, look,” he added, “the only thing that could break this and keep it relatively short is if you had mass protests from, say, the TSA workers and the air traffic controllers.”

“Oh, and by the way, the military — none of them are paid during a government shutdown, yet they are mandated to attend work.”

“Well, you know, that tends to wear on people, especially if they can’t pay their weekly or monthly bills.”

America, Sabato said, is “headed for another disaster and another advertisement to the world that the American system no longer works.”

It might take a miracle to stop this shutdown… and I do not see anyone turning water to wine. pic.twitter.com/IV5RcnQtMP

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) September 30, 2025

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Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — claimed that Democrats want to shut down the federal government in order to obtain $1 trillion for health care for undocumented immigrants, who by law are not allowed to access programs like the Obamacare exchanges, Social Security, or Medicare.

Democrats are “threatening” to shut down the government “unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens,” Trump alleged last week.

He also wrongly claimed Democrats want to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

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In a rare moment, a reporter told the President that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for health care, and pressed him on what he meant.

“They’re not eligible for the healthcare subsidies that Democrats are demanding,” the reporter said. “So can you clarify, what are you talking about when you say, Democrats want to protect their healthcare?”

“So,” Trump responded, seemingly unaware of the law, “when an illegal person comes in, a person who came into our country illegally, therefore, breaking the law, and — look, we all have big hearts, I have a bigger heart than you do — they’re all breaking the law, and they’re coming into our country, and we just, as a country, cannot afford to take care of millions of people who have broken the law coming in.”

“We want them to come into our country, but we want them to come and legally,” he claimed, before going off on a tangent about the border.

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“I mean, we had a border that was reckless. We had a border that was a disaster. They were coming in by the millions. I say 25 million people, and you’re saying less, but I say 25 million people came in illegally.”

“And no system can take care of the healthcare of all of those people that came in our lifetime for that,” Trump added, again, apparently unaware that that is not what Democrats are asking for.

Reporter: They are not eligible for the healthcare subsidies Democrats are demanding.. so can you clarify what are you talking about when you say Democrats want to protect their health care?

Trump: We as a country cannot afford to take care of millions of people who have broken… pic.twitter.com/vCY49aJVTw

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 30, 2025

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 Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump warned all 800 of America’s top military leaders that there is a “war from within” and that the nation is “under invasion” — not by armies in uniform, he said.

“America is under invasion from within, we’re under invasion from within,” the Commander in Chief told the generals and admirals assembled at Quantico, Virginia.

“No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform, you can take them out. These people don’t have uniforms. But we are under invasion from within.”

According to The Hill, Trump “said defending the homeland was the military’s ‘most important priority.’ He signaled that the leaders in the room could be tasked with aiding in federal interventions in Democratic-led cities like Chicago and New York City.”

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“They’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one,” Trump continued. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”

Critics blasted the President.

Historian Federico Finchelstein, an expert on fascism, responded to the President’s remarks, writing: “The idea of the internal enemy was intrinsically connected to a notion about the inferiority, impurity, and treasonous nature of those who were considered different from the majority. Fascists disputed the idea that citizenship defined the community.”

Russian political activist Garry Kasparov warned: “And with ‘the enemy within’, and legitimizing violence, even declaring war, against it, Trump is officially using textbook descriptions of authoritarianism and fascism as a playbook.”

Arizona Democratic State Senator Priya Sundareshan wrote: “Completely unAmerican to reference US citizens and yearn for less due process to ‘take them out.'”

Other critics pointed to Trump’s recent executive order declaring Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.”

Trump: “America is under invasion from within. We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform you can take them out.” pic.twitter.com/v1z9H6IIBx

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) September 30, 2025

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