Donald Trump just got his ass kicked
As this week was unfolding, we pointed out that Donald Trump had bet all his remaining chips on the idea that taking immigrant kids hostage and locking them in cages would somehow turn around his dying presidency. It’s the same mindset that prompts a criminal to take a room full of people hostage as the police are closing in; it’s desperate and illogical and it very rarely works. Sure enough, Trump just got his ass kicked.
While the white supremacists in Donald Trump’s support base (and in his administration) wanted these kids tortured like this simply for not being white, Trump seemed intent on using the kids as a perverse bargaining chip so he could finally build his stupid wall. Perhaps in his mind, if he managed to pull off his loudest campaign promise, it would strengthen his grip on the presidency enough to keep him from being ousted for a bit longer. This was always just a fantasy – but it’s turned into a nightmare for him.
Due to the kind of overwhelming public pressure that was about to turn into marches in the streets and a shutdown of the entire country, Trump had to cave yesterday and sign an executive order which weakened his own position. When his GOP allies in the House tried to pass a bill today that would have funded his wall, it failed badly. Even dozens of House Republicans voted against it. And why would they stick their necks out for him at this point? He had already begun giving up his leverage on the issue.
This isn’t over, not from a political or a humanitarian aspect. The kids are still locked in their cages. The administration is now trying to push the idea that it’ll merely stop separating more families, and that the current kids in cages will remain there. This is still the biggest crisis in modern American history. And yes, Trump will try yet another, even more desperate attempt at trading his hostages for a border wall. But his plan here is falling to pieces. Today was a terrible day for him, and it’ll be all terrible days for him from here on out.
