The approaching holiday has brought not a gentle wind-down in Washington, but convulsions that make the White House seem increasingly dysfunctional, and the US president ever more impetuous. Donald Trump’s announcement that US troops were withdrawing from Syria prompted the resignation of Jim Mattis, the defence secretary and one of the last restraints on the president. Friday night’s partial government shutdown, after Mr Trump refused to drop demands to fund a border wall, fuelled the sense of acrimony and drift in US politics.
The shutdown is the third in a year. It is extraordinary that the US, alone among western democracies, keeps undergoing such closures, at great cost to the public and the government’s own servants. It suggests Mr Trump’s next two years may be even more bitterly partisan than the first. For America’s allies — and rivals — however, the most consequential developments concern Syria and Mr Mattis.
Just when the Republican party’s loss of control of the domestic agenda in Congress makes Mr Trump likely to pivot more to foreign policy, Mr Mattis’s departure is a heavy blow. The defence secretary valued US allies and was firm with foes. He was the last of the so-called “adults” in the administration. He tried to counter the president’s hostility to Nato and prevent a troop reduction in Afghanistan.