More Republicans have defected from President Trump over his decision to shutter the federal government until congressional Democrats agree to pay for a wall along the southern border. But Trump continues to insist he won’t reopen the government until he gets the wall money. This is not a plan that can work!
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump hosted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and other Republican and Democratic congressional leaders at the White House. After reportedly offering everyone Butterfingers, Trump abruptly ended the meeting and stormed out when Pelosi and Schumer reminded him that they’re not going to fund his border wall, and they’re not going to negotiate over border security while the government remains closed.
“We saw a temper tantrum, because he couldn’t get his way,” Schumer said. “I asked him to open up the government…and he said, ‘If I open up the government, you won’t do what I want.'”
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Trump may have been extra cranky because earlier in the day, he visited Republicans on Capitol Hill in an effort to prevent further defections, and it didn’t work.
On Tuesday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Cory Gardner (R-CO) in calling on fellow Republicans to end the shutdown. On Wednesday night, Trump dispatched his top Middle East peace negotiator (Jared Kushner) to meet with Senate Republicans in the hope of quieting the rebellion. To everyone’s surprise, that didn’t work, either.
From Brian: Trump’s conservative allies are reportedly encouraging him to declare a phony state of emergency so that he can use the military to build a border wall on private land seized by the government, if only to force the courts to stop him, so he can claim he ran out of options before caving. Republicans think provoking a constitutional crisis is a small price to pay to serve Trump’s political needs, and between the debt limit, the Russia investigation, his other criminal exposure, congressional oversight, and the election, he will have many, many opportunities to provoke such a crisis over the next two years.