Trump is threatening to go further than past administrations, though, raising the stakes and the partisan posture of federal agencies, said Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at The Brookings Institution.“The government itself has never taken sides in these things,” said Kamarck, who saw a shutdown up close when she worked in former President Bill Clinton’s administration. “This is totally new, this is totally unprecedented.”Trump’s second term has been marked by an aggressive agenda that has tested the limits of executive power.  A big part of that has been his push to overhaul the federal government, an effort initially led by the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk.DOGE’s moves were among the most consequential aspects of the early part of Trump’s second term. They included mass layoffs of federal workers and the shuttering of whole agencies.Now the government shutdown could dramatically boost such efforts, with Trump threatening to target programs he views as left-leaning.”A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” Trump said Sept.