A new CNBC poll released this week found that 53% of Americans have somehow managed to blame President Trump and Republicans for the ongoing government shutdown, despite the Republican Party's control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives providing absolutely no clues whatsoever as to who might be responsible.
The survey showed independents blamed Trump by nearly a three-to-one margin, suggesting that even voters without party affiliation have, against all odds, developed the capacity to observe which political party holds power during a crisis and draw elementary conclusions from that observation.
The poll's findings come as the nation enters its third week of shutdown—now the second-longest in U.S. history—a duration that has apparently given Americans just enough time to consult the most basic facts about which party is in charge. Several Republican lawmakers expressed dismay at the public's newfound ability to identify extremely obvious power structures.
Senator Chris Murphy noted that a plurality of 38% say Republicans would be most at fault, while only 27% would blame Democrats—a mathematical disparity that suggests voters may have actually thought about the question before answering, a development Murphy characterized as "legitimately concerning for my Republican colleagues who were banking on mass amnesia."
"People aren't dumb," Murphy reportedly stated, somehow managing to deliver this revelation without a trace of irony about the fact that this needed to be said out loud by a sitting United States Senator in the year 2025.
The polling data has sent shockwaves through Republican strategists who had invested heavily in the theory that Americans wouldn't notice which party has been running the government for the past ten months. Several surveys found significant shares of voters weren't sure who to blame, offering a glimmer of hope to GOP operatives who remain committed to the time-tested strategy of hoping the public simply forgets who is in charge.
