You may recall the president and Republicans, despite their long history of shutdown tantrums over Obamacare and other issues, were suddenly scandalized at Senate Democrats’ attempt to hold the president to an earlier deal that included protection for DACA recipients. Democrats eventually folded and agreed to a short-term spending bill in exchange for a dubious promise from GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring a DACA bill to the floor that includes increased border security.
Now Trump seems to be suggesting that if he doesn’t get his way on immigration issues he’ll be the one to shut his own government down.
Whoa– Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) clashed with Trump at the WH today over him saying he'd love a govt shutdown. Via pool: pic.twitter.com/E9CO37QxQM
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) February 6, 2018
Good luck with that!
President Deals probably thinks signaling his willingness to walk away from the table is a tough negotiating tactic, but it doesn’t work when you’re essentially negotiating with yourself. Republicans control every branch of government and they’ll own a government shutdown. Demanding Democrats cave on immigration restrictions and border security or else you’ll shut the government down is, frankly, insane.
But the larger problem is either that Trump doesn’t actually know what he wants or that he can’t stick to a position long enough for any kind of deal.