WASHINGTON: Donald Trump loves to make the pistol gesture when pronouncing his
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump loves to make the pistol gesture when pronouncing his “You’re fired” catchphrase. But in the tussle with Democrats over the longest US government shutdown in history, the legendary dealmaker may have shot himself in the foot.
So much of the president’s brand is linked to the aura of decisiveness he embodied as star of the long-running “Apprentice” television show that it’s hard for many to imagine him as anything less than a hardball businessman.
However, the shutdown, which Trump finally ended Friday, after 35 days, brought home that the White House is not the same as a real estate magnate’s boardroom, let alone a reality TV set.
With growing numbers of unpaid federal employees in financial trouble, airports clogging up and even the Secret Service agents guarding the White House missing a second paycheck, Americans were crying out for leadership.
Instead, what they got for five weeks from both Trump and his Democratic opponents were playground-level arguments and political drift.
Finally Trump, who’d vowed not to “cave,” did just that, agreeing to reopen government for three weeks while dropping his demand for immediate funding of a controversial US-Mexico border wall.
It was the rarest of things for a man who has often boasted of his ruthlessness and ego: a personal retreat for the greater good.
– Siege mentality –
The big climbdown capped a rough day.
