Andrew Leyden/AP

Mass federal layoffs that could soon become permanent. Food aid programs facing imminent disaster. Mounting recession indicators in an already stalling economy. The effects of the government shutdown, now in its fourth week, are becoming more pronounced with each day.

But while previous shutdowns saw late-night efforts at the White House to try and break the impasse, several high-profile Trump administration officials, including the president himself, are spending lavishly on self-serving priorities.

Consider the shocking images that emerged on Monday of demolition crews tearing down parts of the East Wing despite President Trump’s repeated assurances that he would not interfere with the White House’s existing facade as he pursues construction for his long-desired $250 million state ballroom. It was a broken promise, perhaps the most visceral, literal kind, that evinced a president ever preoccupied with gilded priorities, even as economic pain swells around him.

The same wildly out-of-touch priorities were again on........

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