October 01, 2025 12:50 PM UTC

Trump Uses Government Websites to Blame "Radical Left" for Shutdown

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republicans and President Trump are trying really, really hard to blame Democrats for the government shutdown that began at 12:01 am today. The Trump administration, in fact, is violating the “Hatch Act” in an attempt to sway public opinion.

As CBS News reports:

Ahead of Wednesday’s government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday posted a banner in large type on its homepage blaming the shutdown on the “Radical Left,” an allegation that an ethics group said was a “blatant violation” of the Hatch Act.

“The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands,” the message read. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”

A complaint filed Tuesday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel by the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen alleged that the banner on HUD’s website was a “blatant violation” of the Hatch Act, describing it as “highly partisan” and seeking to “idolize the Trump administration … without attributing any blame for the lack of compromise causing the shutdown.”

We’re not going to pretend that anyone in the Trump administration gives two shits about the “Hatch Act,” which was established in 1939 as “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.” Trump infamously ignored the Hatch Act in 2020 when he accepted the Republican nomination for re-election literally on the lawn of the White House. But as a government ethics expert tells CBS News, this shutdown messaging should be tough for regulators with eyeballs to ignore:

“This is such an obvious violation of the Hatch Act that it raises the question: ‘How on Earth does HUD think they can get away with this?'” Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen, who filed the complaint on behalf of his group, said in a statement. [Pols emphasis] “The answer is that the Trump administration has managed to neuter the ethics enforcement offices in the executive branch. Those who are responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act — namely, the Office of Special Counsel, followed by the Office of Government Ethics and the Attorney General’s office — have all been taken over by Trump loyalists or those who are intimidated by Trump.”

“The sheer crassness of this partisan advertisement by HUD using taxpayer dollars to campaign against Democrats and promote the Trump administration is going to make it exceedingly difficult for even a neutered ethics office to ignore,” Holman added.

As NPR reports, it’s not just HUD that is pushing this message:

Wednesday morning, a banner added to the top of Department of Justice websites reads “Democrats have shut down the government” with a link to its shutdown plans.

Also on Wednesday morning, employees at the Small Business Administration were provided “suggested” language to include in their out of office automatic replies mirroring the partisan accusations made by OMB before the shutdown. In an email blast to the entire agency, the SBA suggested employees write that “I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R.5371) leading to a government shutdown,” and that “as soon as the shutdown is over, we are prepared to immediately return to the record-breaking services we are providing under the leadership of the Trump administration,” according to a screenshot shared with NPR.

Staffers at multiple agencies and Cabinet departments received emails on Tuesday from the White House Office of Management and Budget. Many shared screenshots of those emails with NPR, or confirmed the text of the message they received. The messages said any lapse in government funding would be “forced by Congressional Democrats.”…

…Similar messages were received by staff at the Departments of the Interior, Commerce, Labor, State, Treasury, Justice, Agriculture and Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, the General Services Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of Personnel Management and the National Labor Relations Board, according to screenshots shared with NPR.

The Trump administration is trying hard to reshape public opinion on the shutdown, given that Republicans are getting most of the blame in recent polling. Trump is no doubt sensitive to the fact that he was President during the longest government shutdown in American history (Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019), which ended when TACO Trump caved on his demands to fund construction of a wall along the southern border. It is also patently absurd to suggest that Democrats should be to blame for a shutdown when Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

Democrats are unwilling to budge on funding the government unless Republicans agree to act on preventing what would be a skyrocketing increase in health insurance costs for Americans in 2026. As The New York Times explained on Monday, Republicans are claiming — falsely — that Democrats are actually trying to help undocumented immigrants access health care benefits:

The Democrats’ budget proposal seeks to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, and roll back Medicaid cuts in the tax cut and domestic policy law signed by President Trump in July. But the proposal does not provide free health care for unauthorized immigrants. [Pols emphasis]

Unauthorized immigrants are largely barred from federally funded health care programs. They cannot buy health care plans on government exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act and therefore cannot receive any subsidies. They are also ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Democrats’ budget proposal does not make them eligible for these programs.

The Republican message is also hurt by the simple fact that the House GOP isn’t even bothering to convene for discussions on the budget. As House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) explained on Monday:

Republicans in the U.S. Senate did actually convene for work on Monday, but Democrats (including Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper) voted against a proposal for a “continuing resolution” after Republicans refused to negotiate.

Republicans are demanding Democratic support for legislation that they won’t even discuss, which makes for pretty easy messaging from Democrats. Some Americans will no doubt believe what they see from official government websites and emails, but we would imagine plenty of folks will also see right through the partisan nonsense.

The shutdown blame game will continue, with Democrats firmly on the side of reality. The question remains as to how much “reality” still matters.