This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Every government shutdown is a game of a chicken between Democrats and Republicans, or sometimes between Congress and the White House. And every administration tries to use its power to squeeze opponents, moving around money to keep some programs running and closing others. After Republicans shut down the government in 2013, for example, the Barack Obama White House closed National Park Service sites. Although it sounds quaint today, this caused a huge stir at the time, and Republicans in Congress called it a brazen political ploy. But the ploy worked: Many voters blamed the congressional GOP for the closures.Donald Trump’s version of this is, as one might expect, both more dramatic and more vicious. This week, he and his administration have threatened to withhold SNAP funding, deploying starving children and seniors as political weapons, and moved to throw airline travel into disorder by reducing flights through major hubs. Like Obama’s National Park closures, the justifications offered are semi-plausible, but the Machiavellian way the president is messing with essential services and infrastructure demonstrates the dangers of the vision of big government that Trump has pursued. An executive branch unbound by Congress or the courts has a unique ability to inflict and prolong pain on the people.The president’s approach to SNAP, commonly known as food stamps, has been especially mercurial. On the eve of the shutdown, the Agriculture Department posted a memo saying that emergency funding would cover any shortfall. “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue,” the memo stated. But late last month, the administration yanked down the memo and announced that funding would end on November 1.Last week, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore the funding. The administration responded by saying that it would pay out only half of SNAP benefits in November. On Tuesday, Trump said he would defy the court, posting on Truth Social that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” Fortunately, the White House basically ignored him. Yesterday, the judge ordered the administration to pay out full benefits rather than only half, saying that it had created the gap “for political reasons.” As if to prove his point, the administration appealed the order today, seeking to keep essential food aid in limbo.The Federal Aviation Administration also announced on Wednesday that it would mandate a 10 percent reduction in flights at some of the nation’s busiest airports. The move was framed as a safety measure, to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers who are working temporarily without pay, some of whom have reportedly taken a second job to make ends meet. The multiplying stresses within the nation’s air-traffic system are genuine problems (though the Trump administration’s record on them is not encouraging), but the way the FAA is handling them doesn’t suggest an orderly, methodical approach. After announcing the reduction, the FAA went radio silent until last night, leaving airlines and airports scrambling to guess what steps they’d need to take.If Trump’s goal is indeed to inflict political pain on Democrats, he’s attempting a tricky bank shot. In the past, shutdowns have typically been instigated by Republicans in Congress, usually with a Democratic president. That made it relatively straightforward for the White House to put the blame on the GOP. This time, although Democrats forced the shutdown, polls consistently show that more voters blame the Republicans than the Democrats. Trump even said so after Democrats swept elections on Tuesday night. “If you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor, negative for Republicans,” he said at a meeting with GOP senators this week. Yet the White House wants to continue making things worse for more people and hopes that Americans will flip whom they blame instead of blaming the administration even more.That might work, but it’s dubious. Even though Republicans didn’t start the shutdown, the White House has displayed obvious glee for cutting various programs since it began. In some cases, Trump or other officials explicitly described moves as punishment for Democrats or Democratic-led states; the president also posted an AI video of Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the Grim Reaper. Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, has refused to bring the House back until an agreement is struck or to swear in Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who won her seat six weeks ago. Nor are Trump’s moves hurting only Democrats: Millions of the people who depend on SNAP live in red states and districts.One reason Democrats decided to shut down the government was to protest Trump’s circumvention of Congress. The administration has cut off or moved funding around without Congress’s say-so, and Vought has argued for refusing to spend money that Congress has appropriated, in violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which he maintains is unconstitutional. Democrats argued that they couldn’t make a deal with Trump if he might simply refuse to honor it or use the rescission process to undo it with only GOP votes later.A shutdown was a risky way for Democrats to make a point, because it gave the executive branch even more discretion in the short term. But Trump’s aggressive use of that leeway has helped prove their point—and demonstrated why checks and balances aren’t just an abstraction.Related:This could be how the shutdown endsAmericans on food stamps have no good options.Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:Democrats have a new winning formula, Derek Thompson argues.Just when it looked like the shutdown might endTulsi Gabbard’s quest to bring the “deep state” under her controlToday’s NewsThe Trump administration asked an appeals court to block a judge’s order for full SNAP payments, claiming that funding is needed for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs, after the administration said that it would provide only partial SNAP benefits.More than 800 flights have already been canceled as the Federal Aviation Administration begins reducing flights at 40 major U.S. airports due to the government shutdown. Reductions are expected to increase throughout the day and into the weekend.Cornell University struck a deal with the Trump administration to restore frozen federal research funds, ending federal investigations into alleged anti-Semitism and racial discrimination in admissions at the university. The agreement includes a $30 million fine to the government and a $30 million investment in programs that will improve agriculture and farming.DispatchesThe Books Briefing: Pop culture is obsessed with female friendships, Emma Sarappo writes.Explore all of our newsletters here.Evening ReadIllustration by Paola SalibyThe Most Useless Piece of Parenting AdviceBy Olga KhazanPossibly the most frustrated I ever got during my pregnancy was when I read a tip in a baby-advice book that said something like, “Swap child care with one of your friends—it takes a village!” At the time, I lived an hour from most of my friends, almost none of whom had kids. I didn’t have a village, but now I had another thing to feel bad about.Read the full article.More From The AtlanticJonathan Chait: What the left still doesn’t get about winningThe epidemiologists are running for office.Democratic momentum could be a mirage.Arash Azizi on the battle Iranian women are winningTrump’s Ozempic deal has a major flaw.Dick Cheney didn’t care what you thought, Mark Leibovich writes.Culture BreakIllustration by Lauren Tamaki. Source: Evening Standard / Getty.Read. Sammy Davis Jr. had an astonishing, confounding career. Questlove writes about what he learned from the great showman.Watch. In Die My Love (out now in theaters), a struggling new mom loves her child—but can’t stand anyone else, Shirley Li writes.Play our daily crossword.Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.