The US government began shutting down after midnight Wednesday as lawmakers and President Donald Trump failed to break a budget impasse during acrimonious talks that hinged on Democratic demands for health care funding.

It is the first shutdown since the longest in history — lasting 35 days — almost seven years ago, and it will stop work at multiple federal departments and agencies, affecting hundreds of thousands of government workers.

Trump blamed Democrats over the stalled talks and threatened to punish the party and its voters during the stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts. “So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

He said a “lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” and suggested he would use the pause to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things.” (AFP)