President Donald Trump is seen Wednesday in the Roosevelt Room...

President Donald Trump is seen Wednesday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Credit: Bloomberg/Al Drago

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain off the job for what is now a record-long shutdown. They essentially are locked out, but with some still working temporarily for no pay.

Their date of return will depend on negotiations at the highest levels. Proposals have been floated, but talks are at an impasse.

This has acquired the feel and flavor of a massive labor dispute. But, in fact, the federal employees did not walk out. They don't control their fate.

President Donald Trump, whose career made him a landlord and employer, seems to be the one on strike. He keeps banging the proverbial table, demanding his $5.6 billion in border wall money — or else operations will stay at a standstill.

As the nation's top public manager, he's supposed to make sure the executive branch carries out its many functions, from tax services to small-business financing.

Both majority caucuses in Congress at different times approved unconditional funding for the agencies. But for more than a month, Trump hasn't managed to assure his government has the resources to operate.

"I'll be the one to shut it down. I will take the mantle. And I will shut it down for border security," he said on live television on Dec. 10.

Another part of Trump's job as assigned in the Constitution is delivering formal messages to Congress.

Ordinarily he would do so in the annual State of the Union address. But this week he tweeted, "I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over." He blamed the delay on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who indeed said she didn't want her chamber to host his speech until a budget agreement was reached. He could have held it elsewhere or simply sent a written message.

Some cynical Twitter activists suggested Trump speak instead at the Carrier air conditioner plant in Indiana, where he claimed to have saved jobs but did not. Or he could read the messages at one of his rallies, where supporters wear MAGA caps in the style of labor demonstrations.

Seeing the situation through this labor-dispute lens provokes unique questions. If Trump settles for, say, only a billion dollars in border security funds, will his wall-devoted base emotionally "ratify" or "reject" it? Are Pelosi and the Democrats the "management" here, or could it be a sly Trump bargaining posture to portray them that way? Isn't it the public that hires the federal employees and is therefore being struck against?

Trump himself has said he prefers the term "strike" to "shutdown," but he left unexplained who was supposed to be on the picket lines when the workforce is shut out. It's another instance where subordinates would not or could not explain what he was talking about.

Strikes and lockouts generally lack popularity among the affected citizens. The same may be said for Trump's solo job action. Just before the shutdown, a Marist poll showed Americans were 57 percent to 36 percent in favor of Trump compromising on the border wall to prevent government gridlock. As the outage drags on, Marist says, his job approval ratings have declined.

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