Could a government shutdown benefit Trump?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Potential government shutdowns seem to happen every few months. But this time, the stakes feel especially high. Democrats are getting pressure from their base to stand up to President Donald Trump; in exchange for voting with Republicans to keep the federal government funded, Democrats hope to extract money for health care premiums. Meanwhile, White House officials are promising mass firings of federal workers if the government shuts down.
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with the Post’s White House economic policy correspondent Jacob Bogage and Early Brief newsletter writer Dan Merica about the optics and politics heading into next week’s Oct. 1 government funding deadline.
Today’s show was produced by Josh Carroll and Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and Laura Benshoff and mixed by Sean Carter.
You can watch this podcast episode on YouTube here.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | People in their everyday lives run their lives effectively, or at least attempt to run their lives effectively. |
| 0:06.0 | And then they look to Washington, and it is all out chaos, it is blame. |
| 0:10.0 | And that's why people are looking at our institutions, like, looking down at our institutions. |
| 0:14.0 | It's because of that. |
| 0:15.0 | And there is such a stupid routine to this that you will find people around Washington who plan their vacations around potential shutdowns |
| 0:22.9 | because they know they're not going to be working. |
| 0:24.4 | There are bars downtown |
| 0:25.9 | who plan drink specials around government shutdowns. |
| 0:29.7 | I mean, this is... |
| 0:31.6 | Pretty dark. |
| 0:32.1 | It's choreographed, and it is so immensely stupid. |
| 0:40.1 | From the Newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Report's weekly politics roundtable. |
| 0:45.5 | I'm Colby Eckowitz. It's Friday, September 26th. |
| 0:49.1 | Today, we're bringing you all things government shutdown. |
| 0:53.1 | And we're going to be talking about why Democrats in particular are in a really tough spot |
| 0:58.8 | whether the government shuts down or not. |
| 1:01.1 | So I have two great guests with me today. |
| 1:03.6 | I am thrilled to be joined this week by the post White House Economic Policy Correspondent, |
| 1:09.0 | Jacob Bogage. |
| 1:10.7 | And back with me, Dan Marica, the co-anchor of our |
| 1:13.7 | politics newsletter, The Early Brief. Thank you both so much for joining me. |
| 1:17.6 | We're happy to be here. Great to be here. Yeah. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.