"Washington Braces for Showdown as Shutdown Looms and GOP Plays Politics"

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are set to engage in a direct showdown as far-right House Republicans push for a government shutdown. Trump is goading his loyalists to shut down Washington in an effort to sow dysfunction on Biden's watch and advance his political goals for a potential 2024 run. Meanwhile, Biden and Trump will campaign in Michigan, a swing state, with Biden facing a strike in the auto industry that exposes a fault line between his support for union workers and his plans for an electric vehicle revolution. The GOP's deepening civil war risks making the country ungovernable, and the rebels are demanding massive spending cuts that they have no power to force the Democratic-run Senate and White House to accept.