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November 13, 2025 , after 43 days of continuing political stalemate, President Donald Trump signed into law on the night of Wednesday 12 to Thursday 13 November the law ending the longest “shutdown” in the history of the United States. A record that deeply marks the American economy and millions of citizens.
On Wednesday 12 November, the American Congress definitively adopted a bill to lift the severe paralysis that had lasted for 43 days. This shutdown greatly affected the previous record of 35 days, set between December 22, 2018 and January 25, 2019, also under the Trump administration.
“We will never give in to Blackmail,” said the American president during the signing ceremony, to the applause of the Republican elected officials gathered in the Oval Office. Seeking to emerge victorious from this interminable tug of war, Donald Trump attacked “extremists from the other party”, accusing them of bringing the government to a halt for “purely political reasons.”
After adoption by the Senate on Monday, the House of Representatives approved the budget bill with 222 votes in favor and 209 against. Six elected Democrats joined the presidential majority, while two Republicans disagreed.
A handful of Democratic Senators ended up “giving up their arms” on Monday, after more than 40 days of continuing impasse, by approving with their Republican colleagues a new bill that extends the previous budget until the end of January. This reversal aroused anger in the Democratic camp, some denuncing a “capitulation” to the Republicans.
The Shutdown Figures Speak for Themselves According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, at least 670,000 federal agents were put on unpaid leave, while nearly 730,000 others continued to work without receiving pay.
At airports, the situation had become critical. More than 10,000 delays and nearly 3,000 flight cancellations were registered during Sunday alone, according to data from the FlightAware site, due to shortages of air traffic controllers who refused to work without pay.
Food Aid has also been severely impacted. The SNAP program, which benefits more than 42 million Americans, saw its payment severely disrupted during the fiscal paralysis.
The text provides for the reinstatement of civil servants dismissed since the start of the shutdown and includes funds for the SNAP food aid program until September, thus preventing this aid from being frozen in the event of a new paralysis at the end of January.
However, one major point of contention remains: the future of Obamacare. The text leaves the extension of subsidies for “Obamacare”, the health insurance of low-income households, in the dark, to the dismay of the grassroots and many elected Democrats.
Without their extension, health insurance costs are expected to more than double in 2026 for 24 million Americans who use “Obamacare”, according to KFF, a think tank specializing in health issues.
Donald Trump was clear about his intentions, describing this device as a “disaster” and a “nightmare” that should be eliminated, judging that instead of subsidizing a collective system, funding should be redistributed “directly” to Americans.
The shutdown amplified partisan divisions in Washington as the White House took unilateral actions, including cancelling projects and trying to fire federal workers, to put pressure on Democrats.
The agreement reached is only temporary: government funding only runs until the end of January 2026, leaving the threat of a new fiscal crisis looming in a few weeks. The central problem that caused this shutdown, namely the cost of health care, is not going away anytime soon.
Donald Trump thus becomes the president with the most days of government closure in American political history: 77 days in total, an unenviable record that illustrates the depth of political divisions in the United States.
