If the President, for instance, feels the shutdown helps him, the shutdown will continue. If there is significant gain from the shutdown to at least one party, the shutdown will drag on. On Friday, 800,000 federal workers did not receive paychecks, even though many must keep working as a condition of their employment. Next on the scale of intensity of losers are communities and businesses who depend on federal workers. There is good historical and on-the-record evidence on how the President and Republicans may be perceiving gains and losses from the shutdown.

Source: Forbes January 13, 2019 15:30 UTC