Democrats have successfully framed what is now the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history around the issue of health care. Some three weeks in, it remains solid ground for the party, and it seems unlikely that they will budge.

Especially when considering another important reason why this will likely become the longest government shutdown ever and stretch on with no end in sight: President Donald Trump has usurped Congress’ power to appropriate and direct government spending and refuses to give it back. In doing so, Trump has broken any semblance of trust that Democrats may have that his end of any deal they strike will be honored after a bill is passed.

Since taking office, Trump has unilaterally impounded funds appropriated by Congress, frozen funds for scientific research, canceled grants for infrastructure largely in Democratic-run states, fired tens of thousands of government workers, shuttered whole agencies and attempted to shutter others. And he’s ramped up these practices, which range from provocative to outright illegal, during the shutdown.

Most ominously, Trump redirected funds within the Department of Defense from research and development to pay the salary of troops who would otherwise not be paid during the shutdown. This money was appropriated by Congress for one purpose and is now, at Trump’s unilateral direction, being used for another. That is neither legal, nor constitutional. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“President Trump has done the most broad set of illegal budget actions of any president in U.S. history,” said Bobby Kogan, a former Office of Management and Budget official under President Joe Biden who is now the senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal nonprofit. “This is his most illegal budgetary action by a mile — by a parsec.”

These actions, many of which are illegal and unconstitutionally usurp Congress’ power of the purse, show why it’s near impossible for Democrats to make a deal. What’s the point of making a deal when Trump will either refuse to spend money that Democrats want spent or decide to spend that money on something else entirely? The normal process for funding the government involves deal-making as members and parties haggle to get their priorities funded. If that breaks down, then what is Congress for, anyway?

President Donald Trump and OMB Director Russell Vought (center) have engaged in "the most broad set of illegal budget actions of any president in U.S. history," Bobby Kogan said.

SAUL LOEB via Getty Images

Congress is the sole body empowered by the Constitution to appropriate money to be spent by the government. The president can neither spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress, nor refuse to spend money that Congress has appropriated except in very limited circumstances. The Constitution’s grant of this power to Congress is backed by laws including the Impoundment Control Act, which limits how the president may refuse to spend money, the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prohibits the executive branch from spending money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress and the Purpose Statute, which limits agencies to only spend money on “objects for which the appropriations were made.”

“He’s now breaking both ends of spending by not spending money that he doesn’t feel like spending and spending money he doesn’t have to spend,” Kogan said. “It kind of renders all appropriations optional. How are you supposed to make a deal in that context?”

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) put it more bluntly. “We have a trust issue,” he previously told HuffPost.

The usurpation of Congress’ spending power by taking money from one account to spend on another is just the latest in his egregious push for unitary power.

During his first term, Trump was impeached after he withheld funds from Ukraine, a violation of the Impoundment Control Act, in pursuit of dirt on his 2020 rival Joe Biden. When he ran for reelection in 2024, he campaigned on the promise of challenging the constitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act in court. Within days of taking office, Trump’s OMB impounded billions of dollars in funds. Already, the Trump administration has committed seven violations of the act, according to decisions by the Government Accountability Office. While the total amount of impounded funds won’t be known until later in 2025, the GAO is currently investigating no less than 46 cases of impoundment by the Trump administration.

Trump and Vought have since claimed to use the shutdown to exact pain on their political foes. They’ve canceled billions in grants to Democratic-leaning states and fired thousands from “Democrat agencies.” They’ve engaged in mass layoffs, although their court filings belie their claims that this is related to the shutdown. And they’ve cast doubt on the future reliability of any deal Democrats may strike to fund the government by stating they would cut funds as they saw fit through rescission legislation. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) didn’t help either when he said on Oct. 10 that, “A rescissions package is part of our process.”

The decision to use an R&D budget to cover troop pay compounds this problem even further: It shows that the administration is willing to go even further in its law-breaking than its efforts to challenge the Impoundment Control Act.

“Now they appear ready to set aside the Antideficiency Act,” said Cerin Lindgrensavage, counsel for Protect Democracy, a pro-democracy nonprofit. “To the extent that they were already line-crossing, that is another line that I don’t think I expected them to cross so blatantly.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says that House Republicans would consider cutting appropriated funds through a rescission package, further undermining any trust Democrats may have in striking a budget deal.

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The problem Trump and Vought have created goes beyond deal-making. The appropriations process is not only a means to fund the government, it is also an important constitutional mechanism for one branch to check another. If Congress does not approve of a president’s policies or how they are administering the government, they can change how they fund it or put additional limitations or strings on what the president may do with the money Congress allocates. But when the president unilaterally refuses to spend money appropriated by Congress or spends money not appropriated by Congress, as Trump is doing, Congress’ whole purpose and the constitutional design of the entire government is undermined.

Even some Republicans acknowledge the problems that Trump is creating for Congress by usurping the power of the purse.

“If you’re a Democrat — even just like a mainstream Democrat — your predisposition might be to help negotiate with Republicans on a funding mechanism,” Rep. Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said to Politico. “Why would you do that if you know that whatever you negotiate is going to be subject to the knife pulled out by Russ Vought?”

“[Democrats’] concern right now, and it’s a legitimate concern, is that, how can we agree to any deal when our OMB director will just impound the funds and say we’re not going to spend them there?” Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican appropriator from Idaho, told Bloomberg Government.

“If you’re a Democrat, you’re looking at it, and you’re saying, ‘Why am I going to try to be helpful, if Mr. Vought and OMB is just going to do a backdoor move and rescind what we’ve been working on?’” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters on Oct. 14.

Once upon a time, Congress maintained a sense of institutional identity whereby its members, no matter the party, protected its constitutional grants of power from intrusion by the president. At times, Congress chose to cede power or created new power-sharing arrangements with the president, but this was done in service of maintaining congressional power amid changing circumstances. That all appears to be going out the window as the Republican Party embraces a strongman theory of the presidency.

Congressional Democrats did place some restraints on Trump’s abuse of appropriations into their continuing resolution to fund the government. These include limiting the fast-track process for rescission legislation, ending pocket rescissions and extending the availability of funds frozen by Trump’s OMB. Now, this has no chance of becoming law, as Republicans are lockstep with Trump, who would also veto such legislation.

The question is when, if ever, Congress regains a sense of self-respect and defends its turf as it has done in past confrontations with the executive.

“What’s it going to take for Congress to get to the point where it’s institutionally ready to explore ways to hold the administration accountable for not following the laws,” Lindgrensavage said. “And that’s still what we have not yet seen.”