Contact Jordan LaPier Director (202) 495-3320 jlapier@ourpublicservice.org The shutdown is giving some Trump advisers what they’ve long wanted: A smaller government January 14, 2019 President Trump has cast the shuttering of federal agencies as a standoff over his plan to build a wall on the southern border. But for many White House aides and allies, the partial shutdown is advancing another long-standing priority: constraining the government.