So what does this genius of a president do? He threatens to hold the whole government hostage, with but a week to go before shutdown-time, unless Congress gives him money for his (in)famous Wall.
How is this stupid? Let me count the ways.
He was sure to lose. A government shutdown would be damaging politically. But so is backing down. It was a good bet that he’d back down, and he did.
The North Koreans are watching. Whether they’re crazy or not, surely the North Koreans can see that Trump has a pattern of caving on his threats. When the commander-in-chief becomes the bluffer-in-chief, he’s playing this present hand in a way that undermines his ability to play some much more important hands in the future.
Nobody wants this wall. Well, some of his base does (or at least they enjoy seeing regular advertisements for something that nobody will ever buy). But the public as a whole doesn’t. The people in the region of the proposed wall don’t. The Senators and Representatives from the border states don’t. So why go to the mat for something so unpopular. Does it make sense for a president to further turn off the 60% in order to cater to his faithful 40%?
Raising the Wall issue with a focus on the money just calls attention to how bogus his whole “Mexico will pay” theme was. He’s still saying that Mexico will pay some time, some how, in some alternate universe. But can even his base believe that. Why would a president press the Wall issue in a way that exposes all the more what a fraud he is?
I’ve read that his most devoted supporters still eat this up. “He’s trying,” some report his base concluding from this. Really? I guess the base has bought so much nonsense, it’s hard to know where their gullibility ends, and reality kicks in. But wasn’t this guy supposed to be a Winner? Wasn’t it a big selling point that he was going to deliver victories until we all were sick of them?
There’s a name for trying without result. It’s called “Failure.” There’s a name for getting defeated on effort after effort. It’s called being a “Loser.”
Won’t failing and losing quickly corrode what support this most unpopular president still has?
Maybe not. There’s a kind of crazy loose in the land. We’ve got millions of people who have witnessed the past 100 days and are still glad to have voted for Trump.
But if this Wall play of Trump’s wasn’t bone-headed, I’ll have to look into whether I’m the one living in an alternate universe.
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