Author: Annie Karni / Source: New York Times
Transportation Security Administration agents are among the federal workers not getting paid during the shutdown. Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — He has talked about the need for “protection” along the country’s southern border. He has said he is willing to keep the government shut down indefinitely to ensure the funding of the wall he says will provide that protection.
And he has complained about spending the holidays alone in the White House, with no one around with whom he could negotiate.The one thing President Trump has not talked about publicly during 13 days of the partial government shutdown is the 800,000 federal workers who are not being paid because of it.
Mr. Trump’s apparent indifference to the Transportation Security Administration agents, correctional officers, scientists and other federal employees caught in the cross hairs of a political standoff presents a remarkable contrast with how other presidents have made a point of trying to demonstrate their empathy during other shutdowns. In 2013, for instance, President Barack Obama wrote an open letter to the workers affected when the government was closed.
“None of this is fair to you,” he wrote, adding, “You and your families remain at the front of my mind.”
Even Ronald Reagan, the president best known for taking on government unions, acknowledged during a 1981 shutdown the “temporary hardship” it caused for government workers. But so far, Mr. Trump has not publicly recognized even that.
“It reflects something broader,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the executive vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million members. “A lack of comprehension of what everyday Americans go through to survive.”
Mr. Trump’s one mention of government employees in his daily Twitter blasts in recent weeks made it clear that he viewed many of them as a hostile force, part of the “deep state” he and his supporters mistrust.
“Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?” Mr. Trump
Mr. Trump’s view of a predominantly Democratic work force, however, is an “unproven statement,” according to Paul Light, a professor at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. “The inference is because federal employee unions have a large foothold in the federal work force, and unions are Democratic. But I’ve never seen a survey that asks that question.”
Bill Samuel, the director of government affairs for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said the political breakdown of his 12.5 million members is bipartisan and mirrors that of any large cross-section of America. “He seems to see them as well-paid professionals working in downtown Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Samuel said. “But on average, politically, we’re like the rest of the country.” About 79 percent of federal employees work outside the Washington area, with Texas, Virginia, California and Maryland having the largest number of government workers.
But Mr. Trump has little sense of the life of a typical government employee, and views them negatively overall, according to former White House…
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