Ok, this is all guess work, I'm hoping some fellow liberals can help me flesh out this possible conspiracy theory.

If we assume that Trump is working for Putin, which seems obvious to me after he announced removing US troops from Syria.

Add the fact that Trump said he'd let the Shutdown go for a year plus.

I think Putin ordered Trump to shut down the government, and leave it shut down until all the federal workers quit since they need money to live. He even announced after the shutdown begin that he was cancelling all federal pay raises.

Imagine the chaos that would proceed if there was NO USA government. It could even be a prelude to an actual Russian attack.