Democrats had sought to prevent Trump from continuing his efforts to stifle spending.

Its harshest provision will force the city of Washington, D.C. to cut $1 billion from its budget, potentially meaning layoffs for hundreds of teachers and police officers.

Past government shutdowns, on the other hand, have resulted in thousands of federal workers being sent home without pay, with interruptions to nonessential functions such as food inspections, customer service at national parks and benefits verification at the Social Security Administration. Of its own initiative, of course, the Trump administration has been sending workers home and considering potentially major alterations to the way Social Security interacts with beneficiaries.

The limited public polling indicates voters were set to blame Republicans for the shutdown. A Quinnipiac University survey released Thursday found just 32% of registered voters would have blamed congressional Democrats for a shutdown, while 31% would have blamed congressional Republicans and 22% would have blamed Trump.

On social media, a wide range of liberal pundits, including many frequently loyal to the Democratic Party, called for a primary challenge to Schumer, who is not up for reelection until 2028.

The criticism did not exclusively come from the party’s left wing. Stefanie Feldman, a longtime aide to former President Joe Biden, did not directly name Schumer but suggested on social media that Democrats were doing little but giving up congressional authority.

“The shutdown is already happening. It is called Trump and Musk’s demolition of our government,” she wrote. “The question is whether Congress will cede its remaining checks on the powers of the president.”

Among the few Democrats willing to defend Schumer was Adam Jentleson, a former top aide to Sens. John Fetterman and the late Harry Reid, who argued Democratic leverage in the moment is minimal.

“Schumer is right. Dems are understandably spoiling for a fight but this was not it,” Jentleson wrote on social media. “The idea that there was leverage in a shutdown was magical thinking – it’d be a gift to DOGE, more people would be hurt and it would’ve ended with a worse deal.