Donald Trump is missing one key thing in his budget war with the Democrats, something that gives him more in common with other Republican presidents than he would ever be comfortable with. He’s missing an exit strategy. He has no way out of the fight without looking foolish and more importantly to him, without losing.
The thing is, that might not have posed as much of a problem for prior presidents. Even George Bush was humble enough to know when he needed to back off and let politics happen around him.
That is NOT a possibility with Donald Trump. Nothing has ever mattered to him in this presidency or, frankly, in his entire life more than looking good to other people. Looking successful. Being correct. And when that can’t or won’t happen, Trump throws a fit.
That’s what’s at the center of a report by Gabe Sherman of Vanity Fair, who reports that Trump has “convinced himself he can’t win re-election in 2020 unless he gets a lot of the wall built,” according to a former official who spoke to the journalist.
Unfortunately for Trump, the absolute closest he could get to anything like that would be securing funding for the wall — since building an actual barrier along the southern border would take far more time than he even has left in his tenure — and getting that money does not look promising:
Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2019
But those surrounding Trump has a much larger fear than another tantrum from the President. His lawyer Rudy Giuliani reportedly is in a panic, and he’s telling friends what he fears the most — that despite the fact that Trump is mishandling the shutdown, his ineptitude on that could be overshadowed completely by what Giuliani fears is a “horrific” report coming from Bob Mueller at the end of his investigation, and the fact that, according to Vanity Fair‘s source from the White House, “[you’re] already hearing people speculate Trump could do a deal and resign.”
That would be good for America — but boy, do Americans want to see Trump go to prison instead.
Featured image via screen capture
