Trump is using the shutdown to make life tougher for millions of workers | Steven Greenhouse

Food stamps are in danger and hundreds of thousands of federal workers may go unpaid, as thousands more are laid off

For many Americans, government shutdowns are a painful experience, but in the current shutdown, Donald Trump - that supposed champion of workers - has gone out of his way to make things more painful for millions of workers and their families.

As part of his effort to clobber the Democrats in the shutdown showdown, the US president has repeatedly treated workers like pawns by employing a callous calculus that the worse he makes things for workers, the greater the pressure on congressional Democrats to cry uncle and end the shutdown on his terms. Not only are several of Trump's shutdown moves blatantly anti-worker, but legal experts say many of them violate federal law.