To bring into disarray: mass protests await the United States amid the shutdown

Budget battles in the United States risk turning into a wave of protests with violence and riots. On October 18, millions of Americans may take to the streets, experts told Izvestia. They will be joined by trade union members and civil servants who have been made redundant by the Donald Trump administration. At the same time, federal law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, continue their work without receiving a salary, William J. Smith, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, told Izvestia. Johnson. The story of how the split between Republicans and Democrats is leading the country to a new wave of unrest is in the Izvestia article.

Why can't the United States solve the shutdown problem

The United States continues to experience the negative effects of the government shutdown. Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on the draft budget, which is why the shutdown began on October 1. A significant part of federal employees were sent on forced leave without paying salaries. The worst of all are air traffic controllers and 2 million military personnel who have to work for free. Together with them, federal law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, do not receive salaries for their work, William J. Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, told Izvestia. Johnson.

— Officers and agents (we call federal law enforcement officers "agents") working for federal agencies such as the FBI still have to go to work. They are not currently receiving a salary, but it is very likely that they will receive payment for this time after the federal government returns to normal work," said a union official.

Against the background of the October 10 shutdown, Russell Vaught, Director of the White House Office of Administration and Budget, announced the beginning of layoffs of American civil servants. At the moment, about 4.1 thousand officials have already been cut, the US administration said after the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a lawsuit against the White House in California. Thus, the dismissed will try to challenge the decision of the administration, experts explain.

The Ministry of Finance suffered the most from layoffs, which lost almost 1.5 thousand employees. This is followed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1.1-1.2 thousand officials), the Department of Education (466), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (442), the Department of Commerce (315), the Department of Energy (187), the Department of Homeland Security (176).

Donald Trump said that the dismissals would primarily affect members of the Democratic Party. "We will fire a lot of people. It will be the Democrats," he stressed. In the future, the president plans to replace them with loyal and conservative-minded civil servants who will support the Republicans, says Lev Sokolshchik, a researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

— The problem of Trump's first presidency was the so-called deep state, or rather the bureaucracy of the upper and middle echelons, which sabotaged all his decisions. And to avoid this, one of the tasks of Elon Musk [head of the efficiency department from January 20 to May 29, 2025] and Trump in the first six months was to clean up this field in order to get rid of disloyal, pro—democratic officials," the expert believes.

In total, the White House plans to lay off 16,000 federal employees, Fox News reported earlier. The Trump administration also intends to reduce federal funding in those American states and cities that are under the control of the Democratic Party, including infrastructure projects in Chicago by $ 2.1 billion.

Such a confrontation between Democrats and Republicans, exposing the split within the United States, is most acutely manifested in budget disagreements. This time, the health sector turned out to be a stumbling block — the parties disagreed on the issue of government spending on health insurance. Democrats are demanding $350 billion to extend subsidies for the Obamacare program, which expires at the end of this year. They also want to cancel the $1 trillion cut in spending on the federal Medicaid program, which pays for medical expenses for the poor, the disabled and other socially vulnerable people. Republicans oppose such spending.

Thus, both sides are unwilling to concede, trying to bring down each other's ratings and believing that confrontation and criticism of their opponent are playing to their advantage, American scholar Malek Dudakov told Izvestia.

How can Trump react to mass protests

Next Saturday, October 18, the United States is expecting a large-scale wave of demonstrations under the slogan "No Kings" against the policies of Donald Trump. More than 2,000 protest actions will take place across all states, including key metropolitan areas and Washington. The situation may worsen against the background of the ongoing shutdown, which thousands of American trade unions are unhappy with. Thus, the union of civil servants, which has 820,000 members, officially promised to join the protests. In total, several million people will take to the streets on October 18, Malek Dudakov believes.

— There may be scuffles with the police, with the army. Trump will try to respond to all this by militarizing the United States. More and more National guardsmen will be sent to problematic large metropolitan areas. Here, too, the situation is deadlocked, and both sides are moving to raise the stakes and escalate," the political scientist is convinced.

Recall that budget battles are unfolding against the backdrop of a clash between the federal center and democratic states. In particular, on October 6, Illinois and the city of Chicago sued the Trump administration after its decision to send 300 National Guard soldiers to the state to fight illegal migrants. The White House made this decision "against the background of ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, which the local authorities refuse to stop."

Lev Sokolshchik believes that the increased street political activism in recent years can be considered as one of the signs of radicalization, polarization and division of the United States. Such protests are often accompanied by political violence and unrest.

— We can recall the seizure of the Capitol, the Black Lives Matter protests. Street demonstrations are increasingly saturated with aggression. If this happens now, then Trump will have a good reason to accuse opponents of violence, as in the case of the murder of Charlie Kirk, and increase pressure on democratic states, the expert says.

The Blues are confident that mass protests will lower their opponents' ratings and could split the Republican Party, forcing it to make concessions on the budget issue. According to the latest Ipsos survey, Donald Trump's rating has dropped to 40%. The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll also showed that 53% of Americans hold Republicans responsible for the government shutdown, while 47% blame Democrats.

Thus, the president's rating is now trending towards a slow decline, states Malek Dudakov. "Trump hopes to win back this fall to some extent through foreign policy, which is why his Middle East deal is being so actively promoted, and in the near future he will probably show similar activity in the Ukrainian direction," the political scientist believes.

On October 13, the leaders of the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed a peace treaty on the Gaza Strip at a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. The US president called it the largest deal and announced the advent of peace in the Middle East, adding that there would be no third world War. On the same day, Trump publicly instructed his special envoy, Steven Witkoff, to focus on resolving the Ukrainian conflict, putting aside other issues. "First we have to deal with Russia. We must end this [conflict in Ukraine]," the head of the White House said.