’90 Day Fiance’ Production Could Be Halted By Trump’s Government Shutdown, Per ‘Page Six’

TLC’s hit show 90 Day Fiance could be halted by Donald Trump’s partial government shutdown in a strange twist pitting a former reality star against a current reality show cast.

Page Six reported that due to the shutdown and departments that are currently shuttered, the show could find itself in a quandary as they look to hire a new cast of participants for Season 7, which was announced in mid-January.

“It could cause significant delays in visa processing, and it’s going to be a new challenge for reality producers looking to cast the upcoming seventh season,” an insider told Page Six.

90 Day Fiance centers on Americans finding love while vacationing abroad or through foreign dating sites. Their partners then apply for K-1 visas, which allow them to live with them in America.

The couple then has 90 days to marry or have their partner sent back to their home country.

“The casting process is going on right now. In a sense, it’s holding up production, because, without a locked-down cast, we can’t film,” said a source to Page Six.

“The stories are contingent on a good cast, so it’s harder to find available couples because it’s following people who have already been approved. The wait is longer,” the source noted.

The partial government shutdown is now in its 34th day, and it is effectively the longest shutdown in United States history.

CNBC reported the Republican-led U.S. Senate planned votes for Thursday on competing proposals, one broadly backed by Democrats and the other by Republicans, to end the partial government shutdown.

Both are unlikely to end the shutdown, which has affected more 800,000 federal workers, leaving them without pay and struggling to make ends meet.

Donald Trump triggered the shutdown by demanding $5.7 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, opposed by Democrats, reported CNBC.

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has passed similar bills but Trump has rejected legislation that does not include the wall funding, reported the news outlet.

Trump recently brought to the table an offer where he insisted on wall funding and included a temporary extension of protections for “Dreamers,” hundreds of thousands of people brought to the United States illegally as children.

Democrats rejected the offer, saying they would not negotiate on border security before re-opening the government and “would not trade a temporary extension of the immigrants’ protections in return for a permanent border wall they have called ineffective, costly and immoral” stated CNBC.

TLC renewed 90 Day Fiance after the sixth season of the series scored record ratings for the network and was the most trended topic on Twitter during its finale.