President Donald Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), are blaming Democrats for the shutdown. But MSNBC's Steve Benen, in an October 1 column, laments that Trump did nothing to prevent the shutdown and is only "making matters worse" now that the shutdown is underway. "The day before the government shutdown deadline," Benen explains, "Donald Trump left little doubt that he was not serious about trying to avoid a crisis. This was not the move of a responsible adult trying to prevent a breakdown. The "Rachel Maddow Show" producer describes Trump as "the wild card" in the shutdown debacle.