diff -r 1ea89e5f40cf Lib/test/test_textwrap.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_textwrap.py	Tue Aug 13 12:54:29 2013 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_textwrap.py	Tue Aug 13 23:47:37 2013 +0800
@@ -833,6 +833,18 @@
     def test_first_word_too_long_but_placeholder_fits(self):
         self.check_shorten("Helloo", 5, "(...)")
 
+    def test_all_whitespaces_in_placeholder(self):
+        text = "Hello there, how are you this fine day? I'm glad to hear it!"
+        self.check_shorten(text, 0, "", placeholder="     ")
+        self.check_shorten(text, 4, "", placeholder="     ")
+        self.check_shorten(text, 5, "Hello", placeholder="     ")
+        self.check_shorten(text, 12, "Hello there,", placeholder="     ")
+
+    def test_placeholder_with_whitespaces_on_the_left_right_and_middle(self):
+        text = "Hello there, how are you this fine day? I'm glad to hear it!"
+        self.check_shorten(text, 4, "$  $", placeholder="  $  $  ")
+        self.check_shorten(text, 11, "Hello  $  $", placeholder="  $  $  ")
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()
diff -r 1ea89e5f40cf Lib/textwrap.py
--- a/Lib/textwrap.py	Tue Aug 13 12:54:29 2013 +0300
+++ b/Lib/textwrap.py	Tue Aug 13 23:47:37 2013 +0800
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 import re
 
-__all__ = ['TextWrapper', 'wrap', 'fill', 'dedent', 'indent']
+__all__ = ['TextWrapper', 'wrap', 'fill', 'dedent', 'indent', 'shorten']
 
 # Hardcode the recognized whitespace characters to the US-ASCII
 # whitespace characters.  The main reason for doing this is that in
@@ -313,6 +313,7 @@
 
         Collapse and truncate the given text to fit in 'self.width' columns.
         """
+        placeholder = placeholder.rstrip()
         max_length = self.width
         if max_length < len(placeholder.strip()):
             raise ValueError("placeholder too large for max width")