The shutdown fight has left Democrats with few options, and none of them are good.

Faced with President Trump’s refusal to negotiate, they can either cave after weeks of tough talk and support the Republicans’ spending bill, or they can hold firm against it and watch the government shut down.

The first option is politically fraught, providing an endorsement, however reluctant, of the Republicans’ go-it-alone budget strategy while ensuring a sharp backlash from a liberal base that wants to see Democrats fighting tooth and nail against the president.

The second is practically perilous, since a shutdown is guaranteed to hurt the economy — a dynamic Democrats have invoked over a long history of battling with Republicans to keep the government open.

Over the long term, none of that may matter. Republicans control all the power in Washington, and most voters have historically blamed the majority party for shutdowns — a sentiment that could help Democrats in several high-stakes state elections in November, if not the midterms next year.

In the near-term, however, the debate is creating a dilemma for Democratic leaders, who want to stand firm against Trump and his policy agenda — particularly his cuts to health care — without helping the administration’s ongoing effort to gut the federal government of the workers and programs Democrats hold dear.

“There’s no good option,” said one Senate Democratic aide, arguing that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) support for a GOP spending bill in March has put them behind the 8-ball in the current fight. “It took a lot of people in the caucus by surprise, so people now feel like they’ve got to make up for that and satisfy the base.”

“It’s doubly made no good because it’s very clear that Republicans want [a shutdown]. Trump wants it. He’s fine with that, happy to have it,” the aide continued. “I don’t really know what your good option here is when they want one.”

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