Shutdown blame follows governing party

Voters tend to pin shutdown responsibility on the party visibly running Washington (a trifecta), regardless of the tactical trigger. Current polling shows more blame for Republicans/Trump even though Senate Democrats withheld the votes needed to pass the bill. This suggests attribution is anchored to who’s in charge, not who blinks. — It refines shutdown brinkmanship strategy by showing blame assignment is structurally biased toward the governing party, not the last mover in negotiations.