Story
Shutdown threat
Confidence 5/5
★★★☆☆Fuckup rating 3/5
Major mess
The president would not rule out letting the government run into a November funding crisis, reviving the same hostage politics that had already produced one painful shutdown earlier in the year. The timing was awful: Democrats were deep into the impeachment inquiry, and the White House was effectively inviting a fresh round of self-inflicted chaos. Even by Trump standards, it was a needlessly destructive way to begin a holiday month.
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Story
Tax secrecy
Confidence 4/5
★★☆☆☆Fuckup rating 2/5
Noticeable stumble
On the back end of the November 3 news cycle, Trump’s effort to keep his tax records away from investigators kept looking shakier. The case was part of a larger pattern: every time he tried to seal off his financial history, a court or legal development dragged the issue back into the open. For a president obsessed with secrecy around his money, that was a meaningful and ongoing embarrassment.
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