Here's what her latest (Nov. 10) newsletter says about it:

[chia]

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-10-2025

You may agree or disagree with her, but it's a good explainer and I respect her, as always.

But here's something I didn't expect:

President Donald J. Trump did not want the shutdown to end this way. He was trying to use the pain he was inflicting on the American people to force Republican senators to end the filibuster and pass a series of measures that would essentially have made him a dictator. The Republican senators were clear they didn’t want to do that. And now, they haven’t. They chose a way out of the shutdown fight that did not support Trump’s ambitions. After nine months in which they appeared to do his bidding, that’s an interesting development.