Trump just gave a speech about the government shutdown that came in three parts. The first thing he said is being accurately reported as a “cave.” He basically endorsed the Democratic position of opening the government for three weeks in order to allow for negotiations on border security to take place. In other words:
the government was really shut down for 35 whole days for no ass reason
— Terron Moore (@Terr) January 25, 2019
Trump spent the bulk of his time repeating the racist lies he has been spouting for years now to create the myth of a crisis on our southern border and suggest that a wall is needed to solve it.
In the end, the president said that if congress fails to give him funding for a wall, he will either shut the government down again or declare a national emergency, giving him the power to build it. I see no indication that Democrats will bend to his will, so Trump will either have to make a deal without a wall or follow through on his threat.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that even Trump is not dumb enough to try another government shutdown in three weeks. So if he doesn’t try to wiggle out of his demands, he’ll declare a national emergency, which will send the whole thing to the courts and we can get back to wondering what’s going to happen when Mueller submits his report.
What the president needs to realize is that there’s a new sheriff in town.
I think people may be underestimating the significance of Pelosi—and the midterm results—crushing the widespread assumption that Trump has a mystical grasp on the pulse of the electorate and is politically invulnerable
— Adam Serwer ? (@AdamSerwer) January 25, 2019
