Government Shutdown Is the First Skirmish in the Battle Over Trump’s 2026 Budget

Leslie is joined by Dr. Robert Shapiro, Chairman of Sonecon, an economic advisory firm, and a Senior Fellow of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. The two discuss his latest blog, "The Government Shutdown Is the First Skirmish in the Battle Over Trump’s 2026 Budget." (Link: https://www.sonecon.com/the-government-shutdown-is-the-first-skirmish-in-the-battle-over-trumps-2026-budget/) In it, Dr. Shapiro argues that the current federal government shutdown marks the opening move in a much larger struggle over the fiscal direction of the federal government under Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal. It contends that what appears to be a short-term fight over spending bills is in fact a strategic effort to reshape federal priorities—cutting large swaths of domestic programs while boosting defense, border security and deregulation. The shutdown is portrayed as both a bargaining tactic to force concessions from Congress and a signalling device to markets and stakeholders about how aggressively the administration intends to pursue its agenda. The blog warns that the deeper economic and institutional damage will come once the shutdown ends and the budget battle truly begins, with Congress and the administration locked in a clash over the size, scope and role of the federal government. Dr. Shapiro's website is Sonecon.com and his handle on X is @RobShapiro.