Donald Trump hits the wall

| 10:04 pm EST January 2, 2019
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Donald Trump gambled that he could somehow get Congress to fund his border wall by forcing a government shutdown during the transition period. He’s now officially lost that gamble. As of Thursday morning, the transition period is over. Trump didn’t get his wall. He’s failed to generate public support for a wall, and he’s failed to convince most Americans that the shutdown is the fault of the Democrats. Now he’s hit the proverbial wall, and he knows it.

Not that he’s going to admit it, of course. Even as the Democrats formally take control of the House tomorrow, and Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House, she and her party are facing virtually no public pressure at all to give in to Trump’s wall demands. In fact they’ll immediately pass legislation to reopen the government with no wall funding, and assuming the Senate sticks to its current position, Trump will have to decide whether he wants to use a veto to force the government to remain closed.

Trump seems to know he’s lost his gambit. Instead of trying to pretend he’s won his fight against the Democrats, he’s reverting to his earlier lies: “Mexico is paying for the Wall through the new USMCA Trade Deal. Much of the Wall has already been fully renovated or built. We have done a lot of work. $5.6 Billion Dollars that House has approved is very little in comparison to the benefits of National Security. Quick payback!”

Really? Donald Trump still expects anyone outside of his clown show base to believe that Mexico is somehow paying for the wall even as he’s demanding that the Democrats pay for the wall? Now the wall has already been renovated? Does anyone even know what that means? Trump certainly doesn’t. He’s hit the wall – or perhaps he’s hit a steel slat barrier.