«It is up to me …»<\/b>
\nWill Donald Trump really be able to restrain himself from a high-profile fight over his top domestic-policy goal? \u201cMost likely,\u201d he told Fox News\u2019 Pete Hegseth at a live interview at last night\u2019s rally in Billings, Montana. Trump says he\u2019s willing to put off a funding fight over the border wall in order to protect the thin Republican majority in the House through the midterms \u2014 but he wants immediate action afterward:
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he \u201cmost likely\u201d will not shut down the government before this November\u2019s midterm elections over funding for his promised border wall, backing down somewhat from comments he made earlier this week hinting that he might take such a step.
Trump told Fox News\u2019 Pete Hegseth that he likely would not insist on funding for a border wall ahead of November\u2019s elections because he doesn\u2019t want to harm Republicans\u2019 electoral prospects.
\u201cIf it was up to me, I\u2019d shut down government over border security,\u201d Trump told Hegseth in an interview conducted live in front of a campaign rally audience in Montana. \u201cAnd I guess when you get right down to it, it is up to me,\u201d he continued, \u201cbut I don\u2019t want to do anything to hurt us or potentially hurt us.\u201d\u2026
\u201cWe\u2019ll do it right after the election where hopefully, frankly, it will be easy because we have more Republicans, not less,\u201d he said.
The answer wasn\u2019t particularly popular with the crowd, which cheered Hegseth\u2019s question in anticipation of a pugilistic response. Trump acknowledged that \u201cit is up to me\u201d to shut down the government if he doesn\u2019t get his funding, but that\u2019s it\u2019s not wise to do so. Trump also predicted that he\u2019ll have more Republicans to support it after the election, but that wouldn\u2019t be true until after the first of the year.
The most pressing reason for taking it up immediately after the election would be if Republicans lost control of the House in the midterms. That would leave them with control over a lame-duck session and a few weeks to get something passed in the House. If that\u2019s the case, though, Senate Democrats would likely dig in and filibuster anything coming out of the House, hoping to run out the clock on lame-duck bills. If the session ends without a House bill getting passed by the Senate, then the bill would have to be re-passed in the new session starting in January. And if that session is gaveled in by Nancy Pelosi, the chances of that happening are all but nil.
That means that Trump\u2019s best shot is probably before the end of September rather than the second week of January. And that\u2019s why \u201cmost likely\u201d is a far cry from certain.<\/p>\n

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