On Tuesday, President Donald Trump broke with typical Republican protocol and openly announced that he\u2019d be willing to shut down the government if it meant securing funding for his border wall.<\/b>
\nOn Tuesday, President Donald Trump broke with typical Republican protocol and openly announced that he\u2019d be willing to shut down the government if it meant securing funding for his border wall. Facing down incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in the Oval Office, Trump dismissed calls to negotiate behind closed doors and announced that he\u2019d be more than willing to take the blame for such a shutdown. \u201cI will be the one to shut it down,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI will take the mantle of shutting it down\u2026 I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.\u201d
Trump was obviously irritated with Pelosi and Schumer \u2013 but particularly Schumer, who insisted on ignoring Trump and talking directly to the cameras. Trump has demanded $5 billion for the building of a border wall. Democrats insist that Trump only be funded to the tune of $1.3 billion for border protection. \u201cIf there\u2019s not border security, I won\u2019t take it,\u201d Trump stated.
Pelosi responded, \u201cUnfortunately, this has spiraled downward\u2026 You will not win.\u201d Schumer slammed Trump by stating that he was being babyish because \u201cyou can\u2019t get your way,\u201d adding, \u201cthe last time you shut it down you got killed [politically].\u201d
Pelosi and Schumer were ecstatic after the meeting that Trump had announced he would own the shutdown; even in the meeting, Pelosi dropped the term \u201cTrump shutdown\u201d in an initial branding attempt. She told Democrats that Trump had been pushed into acknowledging \u201cthat the shutdown was his,\u201d and then added that Trump\u2019s wall was \u201clike a manhood thing for him\u2026 as if manhood could ever be associated with him. This wall thing.\u201d
As of December 21, a partial government shutdown will commence, particularly affecting the Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Agriculture, State and Justice.
So, here\u2019s the question: if the government shuts down, will that truly spell doom for the Republicans? Republicans have always assumed that the answer is yes \u2013 that the American people will be so annoyed by a government shutdown that they will insist that Republicans cave to Democratic priorities. But this is precisely the reverse of the logic Republicans should apply. Republicans, after all, insist that the government is too big and does too much; when the government shuts down, zombies don\u2019t walk the streets, nor do pensioners go without Social Security checks, nor do Medicaid recipients end up collapsing on the streets. Mandatory spending continues; only non-essential workers are furloughed.
All of which means that Republicans shouldn\u2019t be shy of a shutdown. They should say that they\u2019d prefer not to shut the government down, but that we\u2019re not going to sacrifice border security for a little more temporary government comfort.
With that said, Trump shouldn\u2019t claim the shutdown \u2013 he should obviously state that the government is shutting down only because Democrats refuse to hand over funding to secure the nation. That happens to be the truth. By saying he\u2019d \u201cown\u201d the shutdown, he\u2019s given Democrats a golden sound byte they will use no matter what, claiming that Trump himself knows that the default position is non-funding for the border wall.
That\u2019s bad politics. But it certainly wasn\u2019t bad politics for Trump to go toe-to-toe with the Democrats over the border security issue. Most Americans can\u2019t understand why it should be controversial to properly fund border security, with or without a wall. That\u2019s a winning issue for Trump, if he can only play his hand correctly \u2013 and Trump has yet to go up against Democrats publicly and come away looking significantly worse.<\/p>\n