Federal shutdown threatens these Trump voters’ livelihoods but not their political loyalties

By Julia Harte

-From federal paychecks to public benefits, the longest U.S. government shutdown in history is cutting off lifelines to millions of Americans, many of whom voted for President Donald Trump.

But interviews with five Trump voters, part of a group of 20 whom Reuters has interviewed monthly since February, show that while the shutdown has disrupted their lives, it has not diminished their views of Trump’s performance as president.

Both Democrats and Republicans fear the political consequences of the shutdown. But Reuters interviews with a panel of Trump voters show little change in pre-existing ideological divisions as a result of the shutdown.

Most of the 20 voters on the panel are among the two-fifths of Americans, and the latest Reuters-Ipsos poll found Democratic lawmakers are to blame for the shutdown because they are refusing to vote to reopen the government until Republicans agree to extend expiring health benefits through the Affordable Care Act. Few people think both sides are at fault for the shutdown or object to Trump’s use of the shutdown to lay off thousands of federal workers: an effort that federal judges have blocked for now.

Here’s how five voters experienced the shutdown:

‘DOMINO EFFECT’

Joyce Kenney, a 74-year-old retiree who lives in Prescott Valley, Arizona, rents one of her properties to her goddaughter, a federal worker who helps low-income Americans receive social services.

After his goddaughter went on leave in early October, Kenney urged her to apply for other jobs and sign up for unemployment benefits so she could cover her bills, including the $2,000 she owed Kenney for rent each month. But the unemployment benefits he receives cover only two-thirds of that; food and other monthly expenses aside.

“It’s a domino effect,” Kenney said. “He doesn’t get paid, so I don’t get paid either, and then I have to cut my belt and maybe some of the people behind me don’t get paid either, and so on.”

The shutdown also halted a refund check Kenney’s relatives were due to receive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a ranch in Montana. “And they say, ‘We were really counting on this. We have bills to pay, too,'” he said.

Kenney blames Democrats for the shutdown over Vice President J.D. Vance’s allegations that health benefits that Democratic lawmakers intended to extend would be fraudulently used to benefit undocumented immigrants; these claims are rejected by Democrats and most congressional budget analysts.

BLOW TO SMALL BUSINESSES

The shutdown has already cost Tampa-based promotional product distributor Steve Egan $4,000 in sales. The Veterans Affairs hospital asked Egan to provide thousands of beaded necklaces for a ceremony at January’s Gasparilla Pirate Festival, one of the region’s largest celebrations. But Egan said the closure forced the hospital to close.

Flight delays and longer customs clearance times caused by the closure have also caused Egan to shorten the delivery time it gives customers before ordering products overseas.

When a local sheriff’s office told Egan, 65, in October they needed 300 T-shirts for a November event, he saw an overseas supplier offer a good deal. Normally, Egan’s customer could wait up to 45 days to accept the deal and receive the shirts on time, but with the new uncertainty in shipping schedules, he could only give them half that time to decide; This turned out to be a very tight time frame.

“If someone has to have a strict deadline right now, then I tell them they need to give themselves more time to work,” he said.

Egan, who said he regretted previously voting for Trump, blames both Republicans and Democrats for the shutdown. But when it comes to Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats are trying to extend, he said he wishes Republican lawmakers would “just fund it and let it continue.” Egan was receiving health insurance through the ACA marketplace until she signed up for Medicare last August.

WORKERS ON LEAVE AND JOB SEEKERS ARE UNDER STRESS

Furloughs and the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off tens of thousands of federal workers during the shutdown worry 34-year-old Robert Billups and his mother.

Billups, an accountant looking for his next job in Washington state, fears new federal cuts will make an already shrinking job market more competitive. His last interview was for a government contracting job that required a security clearance, and Billups said he suspects it went to a recently fired federal employee who had a current employee.

According to Billups, his mother, a contractor with the Internal Revenue Service, has been on unpaid leave since the second week of October; This added to the job anxiety he has felt since the Trump administration began reducing the federal workforce in early 2025.

Billups said his mother was “very resourceful” and saved money for unexpected situations like this. “But if it continues any longer, it’s going to become a problem,” he said. “I would imagine anything longer than two months would lead to him saying ‘okay, I have a problem.'”

Billups said he appreciates Republicans’ drive to limit spending, even though his mother blamed Republicans for not supporting health subsidy extensions that Democrats sought before voting to reopen the government.

But in his eyes, neither side “wins” the closure. “It’s so polarized that it almost harms both,” he said.

UNAUTHORIZED WORKERS ARE ALSO ANXIOUS

⁠Amanda Taylor, 52, an insurance company worker near Savannah, Georgia, said she worried her husband’s paycheck would pause if the shutdown lasted long enough.

Her husband’s job at the federal agency (which Taylor asked not to be identified to avoid creating problems for himself) has not been affected so far. But Taylor said “we’d be in big trouble” if she was furloughed because her salary was covering most of the couple’s expenses, including the new mortgage on a house they bought earlier this year.

At Taylor’s workplace, he has noticed an increase in “hardship claims” from customers who work for the federal government and can no longer pay monthly premiums on insurance plans such as auto or home insurance.

Taylor voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 and said she has complaints about Trump’s presidency but holds Democrats “100%” responsible for the shutdown.

“It is absolutely ridiculous that Democrats are tying Obamacare boosts to the passage of this budget,” he said. “These haven’t expired yet. Do they need to be worked on? Absolutely. But can we pass the budget before we get into this?”

PUBLIC BENEFITS WERE INTERRUPTED

Juan Rivera, 26, has seen and felt the closure in many ways, from his friends whose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits ended in early November to relatives in the military who feared going on leave to the dental surgery he had postponed.

Rivera, a content creator in Southern California, is insured under the state’s Medicaid program and had scheduled a wisdom tooth extraction for October. But her doctor recommended she reschedule after the shutdown, saying low staffing levels could cause the public insurer to delay her claim being approved and processed.

Rivera said it was hypocritical for Democrats to vote against Republican-backed temporary bills to reopen the government, known as “continuing resolutions,” because they have voted for such measures under Democratic administrations.

“I have to blame the Democrats because they voted to pass a clean bill in past events,” Rivera said. He added that he was disappointed that California’s Democratic lawmakers and governor “accused the Trump administration of shutting down the government.”

Democrats’ efforts to expand health benefits for Americans under the Affordable Care Act do not impress Rivera. His parents are among the 24 million Americans who get health insurance through the ACA, but according to Rivera, their plans were never as affordable as they expected and the entire system needs to be reformed.

(Reporting by Julia Harte in New York; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Claudia Parsons)