Tyler Pager

He has focused on other things during this period.

He's referenced the shutdown and discussed the shutdown, but he has not made it a priority of his to end.

The White House feels confident that the shutdown ends.

is more harmful to Democrats than it is to the president and his political party.

If the fortune changes there and Trump decides he wants to end this once and for all, I think that will be a key turning point.

And also, I think one of the things is the administration is unlikely to be able to continue to move funds around to keep programs open and troops paid.

And so that pain point has been nullified for the time being.

But White House officials have privately conceded to me that is not a long-term solution.

And so... When that runs out.

When that runs out.

And when might that be?

I think that's unclear.

Some officials have posited to me that they could do it through the end of the month.

But given the sort of unique and nontraditional ways they've been doing it and the lack of transparency, we don't even precisely know exactly how the money is being found to pay them right now.

It's hard to exactly predict how much longer they're able to do this.

But it's not a forever solution.

And so should that run out, that could be a turning point as well.

Thanks so much, Michael.

Thanks, Michael.

Thanks.