This week the government shutdown dominated the news cycle. The will-they-or-won't-they drama continued until Friday, when Congressional negotiations ceased without reaching a deal. The Senate produced a stopgap spending bill that Trump vowed to veto. House Republicans then attempted to pass a spending bill that included the $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall with Mexico that Trump demanded. Democrats refused to concede. Though Republicans currently have a majority, they do not have sufficient votes to override a potential Democratic filibuster. Meanwhile, after giving mixed signals for weeks, Trump eventually vowed to veto any Congressional spending bill that does not fund his wall.

Without a spending bill in place, funding for several key federal departments and agencies has lapsed, meaning that employees cannot work or get paid. The shutdown will last until the budget crisis is resolved. Negotiations will likely resume on Thursday after Christmas. Trump canceled his two-week Mar-a-Lago holiday over the shutdown. Trump has continually attempted to blame Democrats for the shutdown and has touted his wall as an effective feat of engineering, hyperbolically comparing it to the invention of "the wheel."

In another challenge to Trump's immigration policies, the Supreme Court shot down the Trump administration's attempt to preemptively reject all asylum bids made by immigrants who cross the border illegally, as federal law explicitly says that such claims of asylum need not be made at a "designated port of arrival."

Immigration is not the only area of trouble for Trump. Trump whined to aides that critics unfairly believe he is to blame for the recent market downturn. The stock market has been troubled since October, and will leave 2018 as the worst year on record since the 2008 recession and the S&P 500 with its worst month since December 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression. Trump was naturally far more willing to take credit for the market when it boomed earlier in 2018. Trump also signed a huge $867 billion farm bill to support American farm workers hurt by his Chinese tariff strategy. Trump also apparently asked if he could fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell over poor market performance, demonstrating the limits of his knowledge of his powers.

The president also unexpectedly and abruptly announced that American troops will be withdrawn from Syria. Experts have questioned the rationale and timing for the withdrawal, especially since Trump's administration has previously indicated that it wanted to remain in Syria long-term.

Trump's cabinet is also in turmoil. Reports indicate that Trump is already souring on his new White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, over comments critical of Trump within the past three years. Earlier this week, Trump's Secretary of Defense, John Mattis, announced that he will resign in February 2019. His widely-circulated resignation letter contained a harsh rebuke of the president for his divisive policies and behavior, and cited irreconcilable differences as the cause for Mattis' departure.

Trump again has new legal woes. An investigation revealed that his presidential campaign and his 2020 reelection campaign have purchased ads through a shell company in illegal partnership with the NRA, the gun-rights advocacy organization. This adds to the already monumental pile of known lawsuits and investigations relating to Trump.