How did we get here?
It takes two to tango
Pelosi and Schumer are a disaster, they will lead to another four years of the narcissist in the white house
5
I have been watching some of the clips of him talking about the wall and the wheel, among other border related stuff. He just seems incredibly stupid. The examples he comes up with to make a point are lame, stupid and don't make sense. I keep wondering why we go to such lengths to analyze him or to try to understand him. He simply does not have the mental capacity to be president let alone all the emotional traits I'd like to see in a President such as compassion.
34
Nancy is smart; Trump is stupid.
Other than that, nothing will get done before We the People take to the streets.
Though the writing is on the wall, McConnell can't read it.
The Republican Party is doomed.
17
Even NYT seems unable to understand this "crisis" clearly. For 2 years Republicans controlled 3 branches of government - and now in the first week we have a Democratic House Trump makes a huge battle out of funding his wall? Why didn't he get it funded a year or two ago? The answer is obvious - this is a totally fake crisis generated solely for political advantage in the next election. Also an attempt to suck the air out of the looming House investigations into Trump crimes. He shouldn't get away with it, unless Democrats and the press fail to understand and communicate to the public, clearly and repetitively, what is going on.
28
This article seems to link to both Washington Post articles as well as NY Times ones. Is it a joint editorial?
2
Donald Trump is meaner than a junk yard dog.
8
To quote his Secretary of State - minus the expletive - he’s a moron. That doesn’t make him any less a danger to himself, America and the Earth. Perhaps he should be committed?
20
Um, by being greedy and stupid.
7
Hold out for no wall funding and DACA citizenship. Let the red state patriots experience life without their federal welfare.
13
It might end the shutdown sooner if you could get Fox to issue a bulletin that the drug lords in Mexico are laughing their chops off at a President and his followers who shut down his own government for a wall they can easily tunnel under, fly over, or blast through.
16
"Mr. Trump loves to boast that he leads with his “gut.”
What that really means is that when he enters a room his gut shows up about 10 minutes earlier.
It's huuuge, you know.
So we now will get to see t rump try to manage what Nancy Pelosi will be bringing and try to manage what Robert Mueller is going to be bringing. All at the same time. And this by someone who can't walk and chew gum at the same time.
As Frank Bruni warns in his piece today the so called man might just spontaneously combust.
6
NYTimes is being far too tender with Mr. Trump. The man is an unmitigated tragedy for this country! Why not just tell the truth and say it? Hoping he will get better is by this time is a fool's errand. GET HIM OUT OF HERE!
14
Meanwhile, Hothouse Earth is coming. Sooner than you think.
7
He is playing to his constituency, very few of whom read anything resembling the New York Times. They listen to Fox News and evangelical radio.
14
Want to end the shutdown? Let the White House staff walk out. I'd give it 24 hours before he folds.
3
The Republican's need enemies to fire up their base. In addition to a smorgasbord of villains (immigrants, socialists, and the Obamas) a fetish of their hatred includes Big Government. Trump's Shutdown feeds the Red Hats' heuristic for why America needs to become great again.
2
That the President is a bald-faced liar could actually offer him another way out: President Trump already lied about starting the wall; he should lie again to say the wall is done! His shutdown is no longer needed!
5
Having a two party system that represents the will of the people and allows for opposing ideas to be debated is crucial to our democracy. Nether party should be allowed to declare "national emergencies" or hold the American people hostage as a means to achieve what they could not get done through the legislative process. We cannot normalize or accept this kind of behavior because you don't have to look very far down the road to see where this will lead if we do not stand up and stop it now.
9
He does lead with his gut - Certainly not with his brain.
"To chase monotony, he should exercise of his brain,
That is assuming that he's got any". (Sgt. Willis, Iolanthe, G+S.)
3
Having a two party system that represents the will of the people and allows for opposing ideas to be debated is crucial to our democracy. Nether party should be allowed to declare "national emergencies" or hold the American people hostage as a means to achieve what they could not get done through the legislative process.
We cannot normalize or accept this kind of behavior because you don't have to look very far down the road to see where this will lead us if we do not stand up and stop it now.
3
...that you're no president,Mr President.
3
Trump could cut through a lot of this useless back and forth with the Dems if he would just move some of his handlers, like say Rush and Ann, directly into the West Wing so that he can check with them BEFORE he agrees to a deal. By changing his mind so often for no sane reason, and spewing out his insane tweets, he makes it impossible for Nancy and Chuck to give him anything. We all know what happens when you give in to a screaming Mimi - nothing good ever comes from it. So come on, free up a few desks for those who are really making the decisions and let's cut to the chase for once.
3
How did Trump get here? Cuz Hillary blew it.
She did the impossible, she lost to HIM!
3
Donald is basically waiting for Fred to bail him out of the mess. The Mexicans will pay for it, the DoD will pay for it, FEMA will pay for it — but never ‘Donald will pay for it’. That’s just not the way his world works. Alwsys someone else’s money and someone else to blame.
6
Our miserable excuse for a President has proven he has no respect for federal employees: First, he proudly takes responsibility for the shutdown -- even gloats about it, then immediately tries to mitigate the fallout, all to please FOX news and its cheering squad.
The only solution is for Congress to do its job: as a co-equal branch of government, it is within its power to reopen the government by submitting a bill and overriding Trump's veto. The major stumbling block is Mitch McConnell, but that could be overcome by five Republicans switching party affiliation to Independent (or 3 to Democrat), thus robbing McConnell of his majority control. Switching affiliations would not be a repudiation of the people who elected them since they were elected to represent the people, not rubber stamp the whims of an ego-maniacal idiot.
4
Ummmm.....Hannity, Coulter and Windbag told him not to sign
the temporary budget he said he would back in December?
2
The number of commenters at FoxNews.com who are demanding funding for Trump's "boarder wall" explains his claim to love "the poorly educated."
7
For all the right things said in the editorial the Times fails miserably in understanding the liar-in-chief. When it says the trump team had no clue about how disruptive in even a partial shutdown "and how they’d need to scurry to prevent millions of people from losing food stamps, housing or tax refunds".
I am sure the Times is aware that trump has "ordered" tax refund to continue during his shutdown and he couldn't care less about people from losing food stamps or housing. His corrupt billionaires don't need them - them being either "those people", or food stamp, or housing (assistance).
2
We all need a Pelosi vaccine to protect us from the deadly Trumpitis virus.
1
The only reason Trump is so adamant about his stupid wall must be because he has a massive investment in ladder companies in Mexico.
1
Editorial Board you are assuming that this ignorant president can or wants to learn anything. One has to be able to read and form words in to sentences to learn. He can't even speak coherently.
2
Trump knows his applause line played well with his victims oops base. He knows that his political survival could very well hang in the balance if he can’t say I’m building a wall. He is like a cockroach scurrying around trying to avoid being swatted. He cares not a wit about anything other than himself and his survival. Where was all this intensity when the country was attacked by Russia? What a transparent weasel.
1
Proud to cause the shutdown he says..Wait till the TSA grinds to a halt.Air travels unravels and perhaps will affect the private jets of Trumpian companions. Clueless spoiled brat plain and simple.
1
Trump must re-open Government ASAP. If not, VP Pence must
use Article 25 powers to remove Trump. If pence fails, Congress must impeach Trump AND Pence NOW. This shut down is the
most insane act ever by a President.
3
Trump is very smart. When anyone says anything to him, it bobbles around in his noggin until he has a Trump stamp of approval for it. “Stamp” often includes a hard heel strike. Take Lindsay Graham’s Tweet about starting a government shutdown to build the wall “... NOW!” Trump did not take the bait. It would make him the bad guy. Nice try, Graham. Trump wants representatives and senators to rob federal workers of their livelihoods. He will accept no blame.
2
It has to be .... the biggest, the bestest, the longest ... the greatest! America is becoming greater every day ...
The disparity between the working poor and Trump and his White House is enormous. Poor people always pay for the sins of the rich. The White House's absolute arrogance and radical indifference to the plight of society's marginalized is truly disturbing. Trump's government is for Trump, not average U.S. citzens.
He needs to resign. He needs our help, the American People's help, to help him resign. The problem is that he believes he is financially gaining from this (conman that he is). He also believe, probably rightly, that regardless of whether he is viewed as one of the worst leaders in history, he has gained a place in history. His morbid narcissism doesn't allow him to distinguish between being remembered as Idi Amin, or worse. He really doesn't care.
So ultimately we have to only hope that Mueller is doing his very best to force this grifter to resign his position.
The rest of this is one Reichstag Fire after another.
I suppose that Trump doesn't have a choice but to lead with his gut.
This school yard brawl should not be the quest of an ordered intelligent government--yet somehow we got here not unexpectedly. As critical thinking skills continue to devolve...one day the problems will be insoluble.
He got here by a strong Nancy Pelosi telling the tantrum prone incompetent:
“No”
And never relenting.
A lesson to be learned here .
DJT, from Art of The Deal to Art of The Surreal.
"The situation is an especially rich example of the Trump Doctrine: Break something, then demand credit — and in this case a lot of money — for promising to fix it."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/opinion/editorials/trump-border-shutdown.html
Let's negotiate. I'll demand something so far out that any rational person would think it's ridiculous or insane, then expect you to "negotiate". If you do, and we meet somewhere in the middle, then I still win.
Or, how about somebody says,"Here's a problem. Let's work on this and figure out a way to solve it. Then we all win, and we all can take credit, if that's important.
Isn't the second scenario sort of the way government is supposed to work?
Whether through abject stupidity or ill intent, it is the standoff Trump willfully sought and as has become the norm he is fully in the spotlight at center stage — in this sense he wins in his own peculiar and perverted fashion.
What are the consequences for a president who already has zero credibility regarding any of the basics of rational governance.
The bill of Trump delinquency and grievous offenses has become legion and only grows exponentially from day to day, and he has shown no capacity to change a whit.
Absent some act of nature or impeachment, America will suffer this unprecedented presidential calamity for two, or God forbid six more years.
1
This is going to be the longest, bigliest shutdown ever because it's the TRUMP SHUTDOWN! And anything with the TRUMP name is going to be yuge, stupendous, spectacular, whether it's a natural disaster, a war or a tax cut for the rich! After all, it's from the same guy who brought you Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Everything Else! Plus it consumes 47 times its weight in excess stomach acid! So remember, thousands aren't being paid and trash piles up in parks because it's the TRUMP SHUTDOWN! T-R-U-M-P! TRUMP SHUTDOWN!
2
Trump isn’t remotely concerned about how his actions affect others. He never cared as a realtor that he was breaking the law when refusing to rent to black people. He had no guilt when he wouldn’t pay contractors, and was willing to tie them up in court until they finally gave up because they couldn’t afford years of legal fees. He walked away from all the people in his casinos in Atlantic City after he declared bankruptcy.
Why would he give a hoot about government workers, especially since he thinks they’re mostly Democrats, a lie he tells with no evidence, not that it should matter. He has no idea what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck as Daddy always bailed him out. He thinks you have to show a photo ID to buy groceries. He is clueless about how the real world works.
This whole debacle is about saving face and covering up a big lie - a lie he told his base over and over. It is all about vengence, narcissism, immaturity and possibly dementia. He was having a ball up there at his rallies, stirring up his bigoted crowd and getting applause. He never thought he’d be President so he lied with impunity.
The American people are expected to pay for his fantasy wall, actual crisis situations may have less money to solve real problems, government workers are stressed to the max, the country is in an uproar. All this created by Republican sycophants and leader Trump. I pray the Democrats stand firm. Give Trump an inch of border wall and he’ll take a mile.
8
We are talking about the problem on both sides but no body is trying provide a solution !
Funny the easiest solution is change the asylum law in USA to lake that any body can request from any where and will be summarily deported if caught illegally in USA. Yes they can again retry! Unaccompanied children who have family in USA and legally citizens can get higher priority under the current legal immigration policy any ways!
I think this is humane and may work
how'd he get here? good old fashioned incompetence & hubris.
don the con has NEVER had to take resposibility for his actions - he's unfit for the office
Perhaps this is more proof that Trump is following Putin's instructions to weaken our country ,create chaos ,attack NATO, end sanctions on Putin's oligarchs, start race wars and give him an excuse to impose martial law. Trump as dictator would be able to form an alliance with Putin and the other world's dictators to rule the world iron fists Firing Comey was the start of his take over the government as a white nationalist dictator. Trump is compromised by Putin ,just look at his cowering before Putin at Helsinki. Never has said a bad word about Putin but attacks every western leader and democratic leader. Calls the free press the enemy of the people as Stalin did ,if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck it's probably a Russian duck.
5
Just think about the human suffering this president has wrought: the migrant families separated at the border, with children abused in poorly staffed government run facilities, and at least two dead because of it; now millions of Americans thrown into financial limbo -- all because a stubborn petulant bully insists on an ill-conceived barrier in order to keep his base content.
3
I would happily give him the wall, if he would only resign ASAP!
I'd love to see all the major media outlets televise and print every one of his promises and lies that have landed us in this mess. Especially the one where he would proudly own the shutdown. He's a cancer on our country.
1
I'm certain that our poor wall-less President will feel very bad for the government workers who protect him and family, and keep all of us from contaminated food, and stop terrorist from blowing up airplanes, and keep our waters safe from illegals.
I know this from his absolute perfect record of always being respectful, never once never telling even a fib, and being the ideal in his culinary choices of the healthiest of nutrition. He has set himself up to be the most thoughtful and considerate President. He is the example of what ever mother wants their son to become. Right?
Did I mention he never ever told a lie.
How could I be wrong?
By the way, he is never wrong! Too!
America has called Trump's bluff, and he's got nothing but hot air. He should at least pretend to like the people in this country instead of punishing us when he gets a pie in the face.
How did Trump get there? Let's see,
...hmmm- lies and lie some more. When all else fails, double down with blaming someone else. Trump is the ultimate " snake oil salesman" he is choking on
his own "fake" medicine.
I would like to fly to Europe for a two week vacation but I'm not going to book until the shutdown is over.
Wish we could borrow the baby trump blimp/balloon from our friends across the pond and float it over the White House or the Capitol building until the malevolent 72 yr. old brat can be contained. Or maybe they could float for us over the US Embassy?
I know it woold never happen but just the thought provides a fleeting moment of pleasure, and at this point I'll take whatever I can get, even if fantasy.
1
"Trumpie-bear don't care . . ."
Nor do the seething remnants of the confederacy who are aiding in the butcher of the United States government.
The last time we had a president who led with his 'gut', he led us directly into a sham war. Which we are still fighting. And will probably be for many years hence. Now we have this guy who needs a win all his own, not one dad shored up with his bank account. We in deep trubble . . .(sigh)
1
Clearly, we are making a mistake to think that Trump's motives are anything more complex than that he is doing Russia's bidding. We shouldn't underestimate this ignorant megalomaniac who is virtually an agent of Russia. He's using the wall funding pseudo- crisis as a path to our country's further breakdown by generating chaos, breaking down of norms and systems and by stoking fear and division. I think that Trump's only real purpose is to reduce our country to one that is ripe for the picking by an autocrat, with no pretense of maintaining Democracy.
How did Trump get here ?
The question is why are Democrats so anxious to help illegal aliens invade America that they are willing to shut down the government ?
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
1
How did "Trump" get here??
Easy, his fragile, giant ego met Pelosi's fragile giant ego.
Our political parties give us petulant children rather than adults.
They both feel that if they can inflict big damage to the voters and blame it on the other person, they will get re-elected. What on earth is wrong with us electing these clowns?
It's true that each of these failures plays a role in this fiasco. But more disturbing failures than Mr. Trump's blundering inabilities and miscalculations, are his demonstrated penchant for cruelty and his flagrant, racist attacks on the desperate fleeing an impossible homeland to a nightmare of terror at the U.S. border.
Mr. Trump's maneuvers are enabled by Senate Leader McConnell's and the GOP's aiding and abetting. With Mr. Trump, they are willing to inflict harm on asylum seekers. They are willing to endanger the lives and livelihoods of this country's citizens. If they cared an iota about national security, they would not have caused and be prolonging this shutdown.
Any wall built now would be a symbol of our nation succumbing to the death of its ideals, no longer a welcome port for huddled masses, a country that once believed in democracy and justice.
2
“Explaining” something to Donald Trump is something only Vladimir Putin or Princip Erdogan are able to achieve.
We fail to connect the dots from the shutdown to its architect....in Russia.
Far fetched? Not at all. What does Putin want?
Government shutdown- temporary or better, permanent.
1
How did Trump get here? (“Here” defined as the United States approaching a grinding halt.)
The same way he got to be Putin’s would-be best friend. Which is to say, by way of the mystery at the heart of the Mueller investigation.
This $5 billion represents .0456% of the 4 trillion we will spend this year for a wall almost 100% of dems voted for 5 years ago.
Pelosi and Schumer have miscalculated. In the minds of most Americans, it's not right that our borders are not fully secure. Americans are not permitted to enter Mexico without going through Mexican immigration. It doesn't matter that illegal border crossings are down. We shouldn't have ANY illegal border crossings. This is OUR country. WE set the laws. Donald Trump is right and the longer this goes on, the worse it looks for Democrats in 2020.
Trump understands full well. The NY Times is STILL assuming Trump has good intentions. This article assumes Trump is just acting foolishly and making mistakes. No. Trump is not acting in good faith. Trumps actions make perfect sense if and only if his goal is to advance Russia's national interests, not those of the USA.
3
If this isn't planed chaos then I don't know what is.
Do I think that Trump is smart enough to do this on his own, NO!
Lincoln was not the first GOP member to run for president, but when he won the GOP became the party of Lincoln.
Trump will be the last GOP president as the party will dissolve in the next 2 years and will forever be known as the party that Trump destroyed.
The Republican Party reeks of dysfunction due to corruption. Exemplars for the "bought and paid for" politician. They do not work for the masses. Only for the wealthy people and corporations. If the middle class Republicans understood this, the party would have changed for the better. Trump only helped expose how bad it has become.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer know what is at stake. Trump cannot win this battle he has picked. He not only publicly declared ownership, but he is fostering a huge lie about a false national emergency that NONE of the news media outlets are showing--because it does not exist. The real trouble is that Trump hates losing and is devoid of empathy for others, so he'll double-down on the shutdown while spewing lies about how people are supporting him.
What has to happen is for the Republicans to finally admit they have a megalomaniac monster in office and it's time to end this charade. A real threat of impeachment may be required here as Trump would rather burn down America than admit defeat.
2
This funding will be redirected into the biggest reelection war chest in the history of the country. Dems should be worried.
1
The more powerful and the destructive the disruption the more powerful and more manly mr trump feels.
mr trump could not enjoy taking the time to bake a cake and present it to someone with love.
mr trump would enjoy smashing a cake into someone's face.
mr. trump little or no real care for anyone.
It is amazing, but Trump has managed to make $5.7 billion for a wall part and parcel of an unrelated shutdown and refusal to pay 800,000 workers, folks not connected to border issues at all. Because Trump has decided “can’t have one without the other”, an arm-twisting gimmick of his devising, suddenly the shutdown issue is at an “impasse”, an irresponsible squabble.
The word “impasse” is not usually used to describe blackmail. Nor to describe what amounts to an attempted coup to usurp the powers of Congress using plain old fashioned extortion. But that has been the description used time after time in news and editorials by the NYT.
The way out of the shutdown is clear: put McConnell on the spot and make it abundantly clear that he has refused to put any bill to the vote unless Trump gives it prior approval. That action puts Trump in charge of the Senate, contrary to McConnell’s Constitutional responsibilities, and should remove McConnell from office. Of course, McConnell has a raft of other excuses for refusal, but all are bogus given the 800,000 waiting to be paid, and he can be put straight.
Once McConnell is dealt with and the shutdown is over, a sensible discussion of fixing the border can take place, as already proposed by Pelosi & Schumer.
4
@ S. Richey. WOW. The Democrats have had control of the House for a week or two and you say it is their fault for the shutdown. Trump had two years to push the wall through and he failed with a Republican controlled House and Senate. Pelosi and Shumer are not "criminally derelict" in performing their duty to this nation. Trump is not a king or dictator and Pelosi and Shumer don't need to blindly follow him. That is why we have two parties. The voters decide whether or not Pelosi and Shumber are doing their patriotic duty and not just you.
1
If we put enough pressure on our representatives in Congress to get a deal made & reopen our federal government w/out the president's help & w/out a ridiculous $5 billion wall, it could happen. Call, tell your family & friends to call, then call again- push! What a delightful shift this could finally be.
Trump is the first President in our lifetime to actually break the US Government. Our reality tv culture left us so jaded we elected a prime time television character as President. He seemed like he could play a President on tv what could go wrong. We now have a fake businessman, who has become our fake president, who decries fake news, all while faking us out of our tax dollars. Hopefully, we'll learn that government is really for serious people and it is not meant for reality tv entertainment.
2
"How did Trump get here?" A better question is how did Trump get to be president?
Donald the Destroyer : Rick Wilson, the Trump biographer states " Trump destroys everything and everyone he touches" has shared with us an amazing truth. Below is a partial list list of who and what he has destroyed.
1. Independence from interference with the justice department
2. The importance of ethical conduct in government
3. The United States as a leader of the western coalition against the Russian Hegemony
5. The coalition to undo climate change.
6. Respect for the Rule of Law
7. The Honor of the Republican Party
8. United States as a bastion of human rights.
9. The reputation of James Comey
10. The reputation of Rex Tillerson
11. The reputation and honor of General Mathias
12. The life and fortune of Michael Cohen
13. The life and fortune of Paul Manafort
14. Respect for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner nee Trump
15. Trust in the word of the United States as an ally against ISIS.
16. The balance of power between the executive branch and the houses of congress.
17. Independence of the Federal reserve.
18. The autonomy of and trust for the American democratic Electoral Process .
19. The lives of 800,000 government employees and their families.
20. The honor of Melania Trump and the sanctity of marriage.
21. The rule of law over campaign donations.
22. Undoing sanctions against Russian criminals.
23. Empowering Russians to enhance their illegally stolen wealth and power of Oligarchy around the world.
God Save The United States of America : RNeborsky LCDR MC retired.
2
While Trump stood in McAllen, Texas today - a city with less than half the crime rate of the national average according to the aptly-named www.bestplaces.net - the people crying out for help were not McAllen residents, who wave to fellow picnickers across the Rio Grande.
The people crying out for help were Trump-idled aviation workers charged with keeping air travel safe, FDA inspectors handcuffed by Trump from stopping contaminated food and pharmaceuticals from sickening consumers, and farmers already hit hard by Trump's bruising tariff war now reeling from Trump holding their farm aid support hostage.
The president of our country stood in one of the safer cities in America today and bellowed about crime. The people who are crying out for help will say: the crime is all his.
5
On the lead-in point that an emergency declaration would be constitutionally suspect and norm-shattering, Trump is closer to the mark than the NYT editorial board. If you look over the Brennan Center's list of the 58 occasions that presidents have used the National Emergencies Act, you can see that most are usedfor blocking property and/or people outside U.S. borders from availing themselves of U.S. benefits. The targets are not so broadly articulated, and are smaller groups of bad actors, but the pattern is not that far off from border control.
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/NEA%20Declarations.pdf
Assuming Trump can find vaguely allocated military, disaster or homeland security funding, he would be on firmer constitutional grounds than Obama playing with DACA and the ACA against the express statements of Congress. Congress has spoken on "emergencies," and appears to have endorsed the concept of presidential discretion in this arena.
Exhibit A:
Trump, who was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday (2 August 2018) evening, said prominent conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity thought the shutdown fight should come before the elections. "You know who thinks it should be before? Rush Limbaugh thinks it should be before," Trump said. "You know who else? Sean Hannity. A lot of 'em."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/08/02/politics/donald-trump-shutdown/index.html
Republicans cannot explain away Exhibit A.
Republicans support a "sure fire loser in 2020".
Republicans - who believe that Americans will forget that Trump planned this "shutdown fight" (Trump's words) IN AUGUST- are delusional.
No one will forget that, by 2 August 2018, after listening to Limbaugh, Hannity, "a lot of 'em" (Trump's words), Trump HAD PLANNED FOR a shutdown fight.
The manufactured crisis is Donald Trump, himself!
When he uses emergency powers which is something that he's wanted since he realized Mueller's report will arrive, the Republican Party is going to have stepped into history's largest fire ant hill.
They are not imaging how bad it will be.
Americans are going to bring the sting to the ballot box.
1
This one time where he painted himself into a corner. Holding 800,000 families hostage was an ill fated action. We do not look kindly on hostage negotiations. The majority of americans know of at least one family affected by this child like nonsense. It is a no win effort.
14
In the graphic depicting President Trump holding the electric plug and a socket. It seems if President Trump lowers himself a bit, he could plug it in.
In reality, it seems the same way, a deal is not out of reach if President Trump just drop his insistence of a border wall or lowers the amount needed, I think Democrats are not that stubborn as not to make a deal.
3
This matter would be considered to be music to hard-core, Right-wingers ears--a way of drowning government in a bathtub. Nevertheless, Trump primarily has always been and ever will be about Trump, period, as he would even attach himself to that catch-phrase just to enhance his popularity. The Editorial Board's various reasons are largely superficial or secondary, only adding up to the the primary reason: Trump has ample behavioral features of a serious, dangerous mental (behavioral) disorder that only magnifies in a position of added power. As to better negotiating? A FOX News member on a panel discussion about Trump here last year bragged about being complimented by Trump for accurately describing Trump's negotiating style, which was to keep repeating his position until the other side gives in. Sound familiar? Most of the audience politely remained quiet, while some even laughed. I cringed. Being complimented that way by Trump (ever) would at least be something to hide or be intended as an example of how outrageous Trump can be, certainly not something to brag about. Other reasons closer to the primary one (psychopathology)--the typical distraction techniques, from the 2018 election rejection, from a Mueller investigation closing in, etc. A "Christian" celebrity said he voted for Trump because Jesus would have voted for Trump. Well, Trump sure knows his reality show audience. No, Jesus hearing at all about Trump, I'd expect that He would have wept all over again.
7
Partisan loyalty and the truth are mutually exclusive.
It sounds obvious and self-evident until you realize the full consequences of this statement.
It implies that democracy based on the political parties and the truth are mutually exclusive too.
What is the correct conclusion?
It means that the political parties are constitutionally allowed to exist and act, but once the elected officials are chosen and under sworn in, they must renounce and severe any and all political connections with the party that helped them get elected because once in the Congress and the White House they are obliged and under the oath to work on behalf of the entire country and the people, not any special interest.
The political parties are the just most renown special interest, aren’t they?
1
@Kenan Porobic
Not necessarily no.
By refusing to negotiate during a shutdown, and by telling the GOP that because they tied the wall to a shutdown from now on it will no longer be a part of any compromise bill on immigration that the Democrats will ever support, Pelosi is making sure that attaching a controversial and partisan item to an appropriation bill will never happen again.
In other words, she is doing what is needed to make sure that the GOP never shuts down the government again.
And that guarantees the democratic functioning of the government as a whole, whereas weaponizing an appropriation bill de facto eliminates Congress.
So Pelosi and the Democrats are clearly acting in the interests of the entire country here, rather than caving to special interests.
As to working on behalf of the entire country: what a congressman vows to do is to do so BY trying to get as much of his campaign agenda signed into law, as that is why he won the elections in the first place (at least before the SC Citizens United ruling).
Often, that campaign agenda's is the same for all politicians belonging to one party, and vice versa, they are part of that party BECAUSE they agree on that agenda. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. That's why all democracies have different political parties - and only dictatorships a Congress with only one party ...
4
It's clearly not only Trump.
THIS is how GOP "wonderboy" Paul Ryan left the country when he decided to flee from DC on Jan. 1, rather than proudly wear the mantle of Speaker of the House and take the responsibility that comes with the power of the office.
All he had to do to make sure that during Trump's last two years, Democrats would continue to accept to negotiate about the wall, was to allow a vote on the bipartisan appropriation bill that the Senate passed in December.
Instead, he did nothing.
So now radio talking heads took over, and without any knowledge of national security reports or how the government functions, told Trump and the GOP that if they don't shut down the government, their ratings will go down.
And of course, as any scholar of democracy knows (and any policy wonk who has carefully watched Pelosi during her life in DC knows), once you start shutting down the government, all negotiations are over, no deal can ever be made anymore.
So Ryan's decision to not allow a vote on an appropriation bill will go down in history as what made a wall definitively non negotiable for Democrats, all while undermining TSA and border patrol agents by no longer paying them.
That, combined with a $1.9 trillion debt increase to hand out another big tax cut for millionaires and billionaires, will be his only legacy.
Maybe that's why he left in the dark of the night, without any ceremony or celebration ... ?
10
Why is the Times giving the Republican Senate a free pass by continually referring to it as "Trump's shutdown?"
Constitutionally and legally Congress could stop this immediately. It is a choice Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senators are making. By solely "crediting" Trump for the shutdown, it simply plays into his hand, encouraging the narrative that everything is about him. As well, it let's the Republican Senators off the hook come election time in 2020.
15
In thinking about Mr. Trump’s shutdown, Dems haven’t been successful with various offers-from $25b for ‘dreamers,’ to $5.7b for assorted border security measures, and now to opening the government while discussing wall and border security. Mr. Trump rejected them all. Recently, he left a meeting with Congress within 30 min of ‘negotiations,’ and he even undercut Mr. Pence’s negotiations.
The only reliable reason it appears is that the right-wing radio/tv/internet will call Mr. Trump a sellout if he agrees to anything that Dems ask for even if Dems give what Mr. Trump asks for.
I think the way out of shutdown and paying workers forced to work without pay is for Dems to cut Mr. Trump out of negotiations and directly negotiate with Rush, and Coulter. Or, pull the plug on their radio/tv programs as a matter of national emergency.
I am saddened that the most powerful nation on the planet is hostage to money-grubbing radio/tv hosts!
5
Given Trump trying to divert funds from Disaster aid to the wall and exploring National Emergency avenue, and the congress approving a bill today to pay federal works retroactively, what is the rational for continued shutdown ? What happened to McConnel’s brilliant mind?
2
The only thing Donald J. Trump cares about is that the longest shutdown, to date, in American modern politics happened on his watch. Nothing else matters to him nor his 95% (ers) who see this as a sign of strength on the part of their Supreme Leader.
5
Our dysfunctional national government began in 1994 with the election of Newt Gingrich, who insisted that all Republicans surrender their intellects and tow the party line. Today, his role has been assumed not by Donald Trump, but by the worst majority leader in the Senate's history: Mitch McConnell. How did we get here? Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell.
19
This is a good list but leaves off the most basic reason why any government shutdown is a failure:
1. A failure to understand and respect the basic structure of government under our Constitution. In the United States, one must have the votes make a law or spend money. Spending money requires a bill to pass the House and then the Senate and be signed by the President (or veto overriden). If the votes aren’t there to authorize spending the President wants, then he or she needs to make a deal — persuade opponents to support it by offering something else that the opponents want. It’s that simple. That’s the way our system has always worked since the Constitution was ratified. We have a shutdown because President Trump refuses to respect and work within this basic structure of our government. The votes aren’t there for what he wants, but he refuses to make a deal (assuming one is possible) get those votes. He instead is holding half the government hostage — insisting that he won’t approve even the necessary spending bills that everyone including him have already agreed to — until his opponents give in.
This is never a good faith negotiating tactic no matter which side uses it. And nobody, whether Republican or Democrat, should bow to such tactics — for the same reasons we don’t negotiate with terrorists. It easily meets the definition of extortion, and violates the spirit and perhaps even the letter of the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
11
It's simple how Trump got there. He went to the end of the wall and made a left turn.
2
I think Trump is done with the whole thing. He is over it. This is how he handles adversity (former wives, failing companies). Doesn't matter how it is impacting federal employees and other Americans. The only leverage I am pinning hopes on is that he can't play golf until the shutdown ends. The only impact that matters is what impacts him directly.
5
I have no doubt that Trump wants the record for the Longest Shutdown. Everything with him is the biggest, the best, the greatest. I predict it will end not long after he gets his wish. He will be able to give up on the Wall and say he tried his best, he even shut government for the Longest Time Ever. They have already been paving the way for his retreat by avoiding Wall references and using terms like barrier and border security.
3
It’s exhausting and disheartening that the 25% of the public who supports shutting down the government to get the Wall is overriding the will of the other 75% who want the government reopened. We would need twenty Republican senators to override Trump’s veto. But almost all our Republican senators hail from states that comprise that 25%.
I don’t know what the solution is. But this is not democracy. This is wrong.
15
@Mercury S
They WANT to override the will of the majority.
But Pelosi's answer is NO!
And thanks to the Constitution, that means that they will not be able to override it, fortunately.
Allowing them to do so would indeed end democratic legislating. That's why Pelosi's "no" here has no longer anything to do with the wall itself, and everything with standing up for democracy.
By (1) refusing to negotiate during a government shutdown, and (2) vowing to NEVER accept any bill that includes a wall now that the GOP decided to shut the government down because of it, she is making clear that IF in the future the GOP wants to obtain anything from the Democrats, they cannot possibly tie such an item to a normal appropriation bill because as long as that appropriation bill isn't signed into law, there won't be any negotiations at all, and because as soon as they tie an item to an appropriation bill, it will become dead from the point of view of legislation, and not be included in ANY future deal, not during the shutdown, and not afterwards.
THAT is the only solution here.
If not, time and again the GOP will continue to hurt America with shutdowns.
Democrats accepted to negotiate about the wall multiple times, in 2018.
The GOP has to learn that that becomes completely impossible as soon as they start shutting down the government and are as such undermining the constitutional duty of the president to implement existing laws.
7
Another frightening possibility is Trump is doing as promised - destroying the government and "draining the swamp" per advice from Steve Bannon and others. With this logjam he invented, he is proving Congress to be ineffective. Further, he will be shrinking government as talented and trained people leave their non-paying jobs for more stable income in the private sector. Over time our government agencies will be proven less effective and less valuable with their newly reduced headcounts or less experienced new staff (look what he has been doing to EPA, State, etc).
Democrats should be the ones to declare a state of emergency as Trump tries to ruin our institutions. Republicans should realize Trump is not a Republican but a Destroyer, and start working with Democrats to craft bipartisan solutions. The public will respond well to legislators that are willing to cross party lines, defy Trump, and get something agreed to - regardless of whether or not Trump says he will veto their proposals.
Make America Great Again by working together as two parties, by putting America first, and by restoring honest dealing and dignity to our government. If Congress can get things done together, they can keep their jobs and Trump will lose his. If they can't get anything done, we will all be worse off and Americans will be ready to throw everyone out in 2020.
12
@Dave
When a president refuses to fulfill his constitutional duty to implement existing law, he's only proving one thing: that he lacks the sense of responsibility required to be president, so must be voted out.
This certainly doesn't prove that Congress itself is ineffective.
In fact, as long as Pelosi refuses to negotiate during a shutdown, and refuses to EVER include any item attached to an appropriation bill in the future again, she's proving THAT the House is functioning as the Constitution had designed it to function, because she's teaching the GOP that shutting down the government is no negotiating strategy at all, and will never lead to ANY possible deal.
In the US we depend on the moral character of the Speaker of the House to make sure that this remains de facto a democracy. In Europe, Congress or a president don't have the legal power to shut down governments and no longer implement existing law at all. Maybe on that point, their Constitutions is stronger than ours ...
5
Certainly there has been much to consider in recent news reports of the activities of the Trump administration with respect to Mexico, immigration, the wall, and related subjects. A stranger from afar, encountering these matters for the first time, could be quite justified in expressing amazement and possibly, consternation, that so much evidently has come to pass in bipartisan acrimony, mud slinging, name calling, and a lack of basic human niceness.
One obvious solution which, quite remarkably, has not received consideration heretofore would be quite simple to put into effect. This solution would have the added benefit of contributing to the prestige and reputation of the current President and his administration, which unfortunately appear to be somewhat tarnished of late.
The solution we offer, of course, would quite simply be the annexation of Mexico and incorporation into the United States of America. If Mexico were essentially taken over by the U.S.A., perhaps through some adroit deal-making for which our President has won great esteem throughout the course of his distinguished business and political career, we wouldn't be faced with these troublesome and pesky questions relating to a trivial wall or fence or some such.
Of course, such a takeover could present certain complications from the standpoint of political, economic, legal, social, and possibly military perspectives. But we wouldn't need a wall at all. We could stand tall, without a wall!
6
The problem seems to lay at Congress’s doorstep - and in front of Republican legislators who confuse their duties under the Constitution, the continued life of their party and their belief they must support a doomed Presidency to stay in office.
For the less than third of legislators who live in places where a vote against the wall and the multi-billion dollar cost of the project and maintenance vs voters more concerned with shutdown, increased debt and deficit - and the sprinkling of Tea Party delusionals, they can indeed vote to keep the government closed, while a supermajority votes to approve spending in the House and Senate with just half of their members joining Democrats (a few more in the Senate, a few fewer in the House).
I suggest a few million dollars be approved for the wall/fence/whatever for a year-long Environmental Impact Statement on how it, and existing unnecessary barriers would affect flora andfauna.
A year is needed because the vanishing Monarch butterfly, one of those critters people “like” (vs reptiles likely to also be destroyed by a 30’ barrier in the middle of nowhere humans can survive) only migrate twice a year, and may follow different flyaways going and coming.
Now this will give half the Republicans an argument they can take back home.
By law, the preparatory study must be performed anyway, and this will limit suits that could halt the wall for years.
It won’t stop suits demanding the EPA send in scientists no longer on its staff, but ...
2
It's easy to overlook the fact that Speaker Pelosi's opposite number in the Senate is not the Majority Leader but the presiding officer, V.P. Pence.
We should remind senators that they're OUR senators, not Mr. Trump's, and suggest they talk to Mr. Pence about Mr. Trump's efforts to supersede their own role, as well as his poor comprehension of U.S. governance. It is their duty to remind Mr. Pence of the duties of his other role--to consider the threshold for invoking the 25th amendment.
Whether Mr. Trump has reached that threshold or not, Mr. Pence does have a duty to think about it.
5
Politics aside, here's the math. The border is 1,954 miles long. There is a fence already on 580 miles of it. Natural barriers run along 130 miles of it. By Trump's own cost estimates, the wall costs 37 million per mile. That should leave us with a price tag of 46,028,000,000 to build a wall. I don't know how much steel slats cost, but I'm guessing that doesn't bring the cost down to 5.7 billion from 46 billion. More math. A 16 day shutdown in 2013 cost the US 2.5 billion. We also have a debt and a deficit. I'm going out on a limb, here. I don't think we can afford this moment.
15
@Glinda
The GOP's 2013 government shutdown actually cost the economy $24 billion, according to Standard & Poor's ...
2
This is merely the end game of what the GOP started in 2010, when they decided to no longer pass annual budgets (= one appropriation bill a year, giving the government the money it needs to fulfill its constitutional duty to implement already existing laws) and replace them with short "stopgap" bills instead.
Why did they decide to do this?
Because time and again, they would try to refuse to pass a stopgap bill when Democrats wouldn't in addition accept to vote for something that had nothing to do with implementing existing law and that they opposed, but that the GOP wanted.
The sequester, which painfully slowed down the economic recovery, was only one example of this "strategy".
In 2013, Ted Cruz decided to attach "repeal Obamacare" to a stopgap bill. Obama, of course, categorically refused to destroy his own law in a non-democratic way, so after 16 days and $24 billion wasted, Cruz had to give up, and the stopgap bill was finally signed into law.
In the meanwhile, the GOP and Fox News have been telling their base that a government shutdown would actually be GOOD for the country, so that next time they could do so without being punished by their own base for harming America.
That next time is now.
The ONLY way to teach the GOP that this strategy is utterly unacceptable, is to:
1. refuse any negotiations during a shutdown
2. make sure that as soon as they attach a new bill to an appropriation bill, that new item will NEVER be included in future compromise bills.
9
Conclusion:
1. by refusing, as Pelosi did, to negotiate a wall as long as the GOP refuses to pass the bipartisan appropriation bill that the Senate already passed, so as long as the GOP keeps the government shut.
2. by telling Trump, as Pelosi did, that AS he attached the wall to an appropriation bill and then started to shut down the government, from now on NO future bill will EVER include a wall.
This is indeed the only way to make the GOP understand that IF they want to make sure, in the future, that a project will NEVER be signed into law, then all they have to do is attach it to an appropriation bill.
Once they get this, they will automatically go back to normal, annual appropriation bills, and there will be, thanks to Pelosi and the Democrats, no more GOP shutdown in the future.
And THAT is how in the future TSA agents and border patrol agents will stay on the job and get paid. THANKS to Pelosi.
9
Why is the Times giving the Republican Senate a free pass by continually referring to it as "Trump's shutdown?"
Constitutionally and legally Congress could stop this immediately. It is a choice Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senators are making. By solely "crediting" Trump for the shutdown, it simply plays into his hand, encouraging the narrative that everything is about him.
9
Half the Republicans in the Senate simply have to join Democrats in a vote to suspend the rules.
Mitch would be safe - at least for a while, though such a motion could, during suspension, probably be made to hold someone willing to negotiate with the Other Body and the Other Party, steps Pelosi and Schumer understand, but the lead-with-a-bludgeon majority-takes-all leaders never bothered studying.
They might have to swallow a few things to get back into compromise mode, like refusing to consider appointments to the bench labeled “unacceptable” or even below par by the ABA.
Dumping McConnell and other Republican leaders in the he Senate would be good for a party liable to lose all in two years if it doesn’t.
But it isn’t necessary if there are, say 28 senators who do not want to have to fight tough re-election campaigns.
1
Here's a negotiating strategy for the Republicans: Trade Trump's tax returns for wall funding.
9
Why? The House will be getting them in a week or two - and it will take a decade of family and Trump Organization returns and a squad of forensic accounts months to prepare the kind of report the Times should have attached to its succinct three-year investigation.
The Times team should and could devote an entire issue of the Sunday Magazine to the documents it examined and charts showing exactly where Trump’s money comes from, and how much he really has - which would possibly knock him out of the Fortune 500 - and show how much he is influenced by foreign “loans” and overfunded hotels - a great means to launder funds
Nothing passed by the House til America sees that crook’s tax returns
ALL OF THEM
Direct from the Trump braintrust: Take funds from American families devastated by hurricane flooding, wildfire annihilation and other assaults that Americans suffer. Invest that money in a useless, divisive wall monument to President Pathological's ego.
That monument never should satisfy that fellow's ego, which is obviously insatiable.
8
President Trump after nodding to Senate Republicans on expending bill thru Feb 8, 2019, suddenly changed his mind ! If this was unprecedented ? President came under pressure of mostly his right wing extremists friends in the Media , and a few supporters in the Senate . This shutdown if and whenever ends , would hurt Republicans in the Senate elections big time. What do you think ?
4
The article could have just as well been titled 'How did the Democrats Get Here?' considering that they have supported and funded barriers at the border in the past. They are quite willing to inflict pain on their own supporters (who are the vast majority of federal workers) in order to protect themselves from the far-left of their base, least they get primaried by AOC and her fellow travelers.
1
@Jack
The reason why that's not the title is because nobody ever ignored that Democrats support real, fact-based, proven national security measures, including fences and barriers at those places at the border where border patrol agents ask them to build them and national security reports show that at that place, it is indeed the best solution.
So those GOP talking points are merely invented to distract you from the real problem here, you see?
And that problem is that:
1. all national security experts, including the Generals in Trump's own cabinet, have shown that his wall is NOT the most effective way to protect the southern border. What is much more effective are the measures included in the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that exists since 2013 but for five years the GOP has refused to allow a vote on, even though it passed the Senate already by a super-majority.
National security is too serious to turn it into a hollow campaign slogan.
2. When the Democrats proposed last spring to vote again for a similar bipartisan bill, but this time include FULL funding for the wall (as the GOP had won the last elections), Trump first said he'd sign it into law, but when Ann Coulter started to attack him because it contained the bipartisan Dream Act, he flip-flopped. That is the ONLY reason why his supporters still don't have their wall.
15
3. An appropriation bill is a bill that allocates the money needed in order for the WH to fulfill its constitutional duty to implement ALREADY existing law for the next year.
It has nothing to with changing existing law and signing a totally new project (a wall, Medicare for all, ...) into law.
So as soon as a Majority Leader of the Senate decides to attach a NEW project to it, he makes it impossible for those lawmakers who promised their constituents to oppose this project, to vote for the appropriation bill.
That's why the subsequent government shutdown (= not having the money to continue to implement already existing law because there is no next appropriation bill) is NEVER the fault of those who reject the new project attached to it, and ONLY the fault of the Speaker who decided to do this, you see?
By the way, the GOP uses this "strategy" because they do not have the votes to pass that project. What they hope is that IF they start hurting America and start undermining national security by no longer paying TSA and border patrol agents etc., then somehow the other party will care MORE about TSA agents than they themselves, and then accept to betray their own voters.
Such strategy is anti-democratic and very bad for America, so unacceptable. And the only way to prevent the GOP from doing this again in the future is to:
A. refuse to negotiate as long as the appropriation bill isn't signed into law.
B. vow to NEVER accept a wall BECAUSE it has been used in a shutdown.
7
Finally - and only in case one day you'd start to be interested in proven facts rather than just tweets by a proven liar - studies show that 50% of federal government employees are Democrats, and 50% Republicans.
So the real question here is: WHY would you support a president who decides to no longer pay his TSA and border patrol agents ... ?
2
The Editorial Board has made a fatal mistake in taking Trump at his word. Conned journalists keep telling us that DT really wants that Wall, but doesn't know how to negotiate. But what if all this Wall-Wall-Wall is a useful distraction from the real goal: shut down the federal government until the federal courts run out of money, thereby shutting down most of the 17 investigations --prosecutions imperiling Trump? He's not a genius, but he is cunning with a knack for survival. Without the federal courts, even Mueller grinds to a halt.
6
Trump did not get here all by himself. McConnell, Graham, and a parting gift from Paul Ryan launched this shutdown. The GOP has systematically broken the Senate, Judiciary, Presidency, and now Congress. There are no brakes on this runaway train. No fears of quid pro quo in 2020, just as there was no fear of a Democratic majority in congress. This congress was neutralized before they even took the oath of office. They will protect Trump with everything they have, after all, RBG is almost 86.
4
Something that has been waiting on him, all his life.
It's his shutdown, but as time passes, unraveling is
occurring, ever growing, and as it trickles, it could
become a cascade. This is already starting to disrupt
average citizens lives. I have some concerns with safety
of passenger rail, and air travel. There are many other
Federal agencies that inspect to protect the public.
All this for a barrier, and we are all held "hostage"
"A person seized or held as security for the fulfillment of a condition"
4
Here's how it works: Congress passes a bill. The President can sign it or not. Either way the bill becomes law in 10 days unless the President vetoes it.
Not signing is NOT the same as a veto.
So why doesn't Mitch McConnell allow a Senate vote on the house bills and force Trump to veto it? Or, knowing Trump, let him refuse to sign it and let it become law without his approval?
The real true blue enemy of democracy here is Mitch McConnell.
15
Nancy Pelosi understands divided government and she knows how and when to use her power. Trump is terrified of her. After Mueller files his report, Pelosi will decide whether the Donald gets impeached or serves until 2020.
10
Isn't bringing candy negotiation? The buck stops where?
4
What the op-ed fails to outline is the fact that Trump's strategy is akin to BLACKMAIL as he takes workers as HOSTAGES :
his logic is clearly not of a bargain as his only argument is "give me my wall or I stop funding the government".
In this regard we shouldn't consider that Trump "fails" to understand a new situation or how politics work. He does the only thing he knows : force his way through.
Therefore, we must take his threat of declaring a State of Emergency for what it is, a real threat.
Although it may sound like one, it is not a whim.
7
We have somehow installed a person with serious mental illnesses into one of the most powerful positions on the planet. There is simply no rational way to understand how he thinks. And to make things even more difficult, one of his symptoms is called "anosognosia", which means that he lacks self-awareness of his illnesses. In the treatment field, patients with this particular symptom have the absolute worst prognosis. I keep imagining psych staff entering the WH with temporary orders based on the finding that he is increasingly a danger to "self or others." He must be stopped.
12
@ohdearwhatnow
Agree 200%.
The man is clinically insane.
"Insane" in this context is not a figure of speech.
But then again I'm not sure that I would exchange Trump for Pence who may well keep the Presidency for 6 or even 10 years …
Trump's entire candidacy was based on lies, chief among them the boogey man of illegal immigration. His party got smashed in the recent midterms, real House oversight will soon start, and the Mueller investigation's noose is tightening.
Trump needed a diversion and his party needed a bare knuckle win. It's that simple and that pathetic. We need to keep our eyes on the ball. Bouncing an incompetent Russian stooge is THE top priority. Letting McConnell twist in the wind before caving is a lesser benefit but still worthwhile.
I'm sorry federal employees are made to suffer, but it's like chemotherapy to treat an aggressive cancer. The cancer is at fault and effective treatment is necessary. You don't give in to cancer unless you're resigned to letting it win.
8
A majority of Americans and, unfortunately, billions of people beyond our borders, spend considerable time and effort to use logic and reason to understand and/or explain the ludicrous antics of Donald Trump.
It's simple: he's a malignant, miserable individual unfit for any sort of public service, let alone the presidency.
Trump needs to be removed from office. We can weather the short interlude in which Mr. Pence might occupy that office.
Mitch McConnell needs to decide whether he supports the United States or Russia. The Democrats need to field a credible candidate embraceable by the nation. And the American people need to make a decision.
Oh, and if Mr. Mueller could issue a report made completely and transparently available to the public, all those decisions will be made much easier.
12
@Phil Carson
Mitch McConnell supports neither the US nor Russia.
Mitch McConnell supports moneyed interests.
4
On destructive results of self interested behavior with no regard for the oaths taken...
Is Trump the problem?
It appears to be where Trump can be seen as a symptom, Mitch McConnell appears to be a dangerous problem.
His refusal to act in a responsible way with regard to his position and oaths of office, has contributed to a back and forth of extreme partisanship and hostility, leading to extreme brinkmanship.
And into this toxic and decaying realm of what once was a noble pursuit for safe guarding the American experiment, walks a man with complete lack of abilities, knowledge, or apparent regard for anyone at all.
Time to move on to what can be done… ya?
_ request/require 'news organizations' to provide forums of respectful discourse instead of shouting matches
... have discussions with solutions people, in our work day lives; more of us now work within the agile context... let us use these tools to get working solutions into the works
_ find 5 to 6 republicans who they themselves feel it is time to get back to work, fulfilling their oaths of office, and either vote McConnell out, or become temporary independents until a spirit of showing up to do real work and fulfill oaths of obligation take hold..
These things only seem fair when those who are supposed to govern are getting paid, while those who are required and held responsible for getting real work done are not....
6
My dear NYT Editorial Board, what do you mean by “his” shutdown? This shutdown belongs to Pelosi and Schumer. This nation cries out to be protected in the way it must be protected. Pelosi, Schumer, and their treasonous cabal are criminally derelict in performing their duty of protecting this nation. Had Pelosi, Schumer, and their ilk done their patriotic duty of funding the Wall, this shutdown would never have happened. Furthermore, the NYT Editorial Board continues to drip prejudice against our President, using value judgement-laden verbiage as the medium of their prejudice. Why does the NYT characterize Trump’s visit to the border with the derogatory word “stunt”? Had a liberal Democrat president made an analogous trip with the goal of pushing a clear and present danger into the public view, the NYT would have employed laudatory verbiage to describe that president and his/her trip.
30
Sorry my friend, but all of this is about two sides who have become totally unwilling to work things out and find some sort of common ground, compromise that everyone can live with. You are clearly one of those who seems to have this all or nothing attitude. I was very willing to talk to find some common ground when Obama became president, but because of the way he was treated, and then Trump elected, well to me the only way I now can find forward is to simply stop and hold my ground... hopefully something will give!
Please note that I am not alone. Most Americans think the wall is not needed and that this stubborn demand for a steel or concrete wall just prevents a real conversation about what we, together, as a nation, should decide with respect to our borders and immigrants.
Let me know when you are ready to really join this conversation and hear other view points and work together with the rest of us to come up with something that might actually work.
154
@S. Richey
1. A government shuts down when the next appropriation bill isn't signed into law in time to keep respecting federal contracts.
An appropriation bill is a bill that allocates money to the Executive branch of government, so that it can fulfill its constitutional duty to implement already existing laws. So by definition, it does not CHANGE the law, or add new laws to those that already exist.
2. If you start attaching new and highly controversial bills to an appropriation bill, you make it de facto impossible for those who disagree with that controversial project to vote for the appropriation bill. That means that YOU and you alone are responsible for the subsequent shutdown.
3. The only way to get a new law through Congress is to convince enough lawmakers to vote for it. If you are incapable of doing so, starting to shutdown the government in the hope that in that way you can sign your project into law even when you don't have the votes, will NEVER work. It didn't work for Ted Cruz in 2013, it won't work this time. Because if Congress would accept, it would de facto end its constitutional independence from the WH, you see? And then the next president can stop paying TSA agents, just to get Medicare for all signed into law etc.
4. Last spring, when the GOP still had the political capital to get the wall done, Democrats accepted a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that contained full funding for it. WHO ended up rejecting it? Trump.
187
@S. Richey It is Trump's shutdown. He claimed the shutdown and said he would be proud to shut down the government.
178
How funny! You used the words "Trump" and "learn" in the same sentence!
Now start using the words "lie" and "liar" in the same sentence with "Trump," as they happen on a much more predictable and obvious scale.
7
Epic incompetence.
8
Ahem, 'his shutdown'? Chuck and Nancy are scot-free?
The best description of liberal's position on the shutdown is crying crocodile tears, they can't care less about those affected, just look for political points and to damage Trump.
Whose boasting that he would own shutdown is memorially stupid, though, I must admit.
1
@ss
Remember that the GOP controlled everything for the past 2 years. If the wall were so important why did they not fund it back in 2016-2017? Please explain the "emergency" that demands funding now. The only change is the politics with the Democrats taking over the US House of Representatives, which offers the GOP a scapegoat to blame.
14
@WR
Unfortunately, Trump supporters are as afraid of real, respectful debates as he himself is.
They never reply to an objection, never come up with arguments to defend their position, they just copy-paste Trump tweets, which are themselves copy-pastes of the Fox News lines of the day.
If we could JUST give them the courage to start engaging in debates again, this whole situation wouldn't have happened in the first place.
1
Trump does exactly what Boss Putin commands. "Relieve sanctions on Oleg Deripaska." Yes, Boss! "Prolong shutdown of U.S. government as long as possible to maximize damage." Yes, Boss!
11
"Trump" and "could learn" in the same title: now, stop it!
5
If the primary duty of a reporter is present facts to readers, then the NYTimes's former policy commitment to show only "what is fit to print" is sound. The question arises, What should reporters do when sources of news are corrupted and distorted as a matter of principle to serve undemocratic and atavistic political ends? The NYTimes should carefully address this urgent question and help lead the way for journalists and reporters.
3
How does one "explain" to a raging bull in a china shop that property damage is destructive and wrong?
1
I didn't know the Opinion Board had moved on to comedy writing.
3
“Neither Mr. Trump nor anyone on his team had a clue how disruptive even a partial shutdown could be — and how they’d need to scurry to prevent millions of people from losing food stamps, housing or tax refunds.”
The idiocy of the above and the weak kneed Republicans are to blame. Too many inWashington have no idea how the rest of us live.
The disconnect is astounding.
2
Trump? Learn?
You have got to be kidding.
1
Trump created the crisis. Mr. McConnell is the one perpetuating it. He might change his mind if the real victims of the shutdown, the furloughed and unpaid government employees, decided to spend their unwelcome "free" time staging sit ins in McConnell"s offices in D.C. and in Kentucky.
7
Trump started it and McConnell could end it. But he won't. Why? Excellent editorial, but I'd like to see more focus on McConnell and his motives, stated or otherwise.
Please turn up the heat on McConnell and make him do his job or at least explain why he won't.
14
When there is a shutdown there shouldn't be any security at the White House or Congress, let's see how quickly they would come to an agreement. Nothing is really changing for them but for hard working Americans it's a different story.
14
I don’t understand why Trump has the ability to fly on Air Force one during a shutdown.
Seems to me a shutdown should include a shut in for all elected members of government.
8
Why is Mitch McConnel getting such a pass in the media on this shut-down? He seems to have abdicated leadership of the Senate to Trump.
20
Trump, known for stifling his suppliers, contractors, and vendors, couldn’t be happier.
The Republican Party under McConnell, known for his utter disregard for the government, couldn’t be happier.
Putin, known for his puppet-mastery who vowed to bring the US to its knees, couldn’t be happier.
Who’s unhappy?
The 800,000 federal employees who are not just getting paid but are insulted with a memo that they hold garage sales and do some babysitting.
As of now, American airports are very vulnerable due to the noticeable decrease of TSA workers.
But sure, the crisis is at the Southern border.
Make no mistake. This shutdown is a Trump shutdown. And everybody knows it.
16
If Trump had any knowledge of history he might reflect on Ramses II's "So let it be written, so let it be done." Moses and God's retribution humbled mighty Ramses. Pelosi and the American people (excluding Republicans in Congress) have a similar message to Trump's self-created "crisis" and his fantasy wall. We are a democracy with a Constitution. This should be a simple civics lesson for any president. Clearly Trump does not consider himself "any president." No other president would use 800,000 payless federal workers
in a political poker game in which he doesn't even have deuces as hole cards. I have given up hope that Trump can ever act presidential.
4
You know, lots of other places do just fine without a functioning government. Somalia comes to mind. I think this whole shutdown thing is overblown.
4
Well, Trump likes to have the biggest, tallest, etc. He now owns the longest shutdown. He can also easily claim the title of worst President.
11
There's no tactics here, no consideration or misunderstanding of how this or that works. There is just a toddler's temper tantrum.
By the time they are four, most kids understand that if they want to get something, they have to at least offer something. Trump's idea is to go in, demand what he wants, not offer anything at all as persuasion, thump the table when told no, and leave. A four year old knows more than that!
3
January 11, 2019
Trump needs to ask himself how would he want history to remember his presidential term or ('s doubtful, ) and what can he share with his biographer so as to keep the Trump name heroic in the annals of our history? This is the brand Achilles matter of the litany of serving the greatness of his ego narcissism - Oh so that is how he will understand his term as the flawed competency and betrayals by fake news and lawyer betrayals and lawmakers that for the love of broken laws and shutdown relief can only improve my grandeur in the heroes of the American pantheon for perpetuity in the land of taxpayers and players in the game of politics - having fun is not something to be ashamed especially for my Republicans genius that really loved handing over my election victory for eveyone's service to greatness with or without a paycheck to give to the love of my real Presidency that's made for my very epic cinema release to be entertain by my creature character in TRUMP USA
1
How did we get in this mess you say, well it has little to do with trump, forget about him , he is just the talking head. Go for his closest advisers who said in 2016 they would bring down the government, bring them out in the limelight. You should be asking them the questions, not trump.
4
I think I'm beginning to get Trump's strategy in deal-making: bludgeon as many as you can on the head, especially if they have no connection with the deal in question. You may not solve the issue or get your way, but you will certainly feel powerful making others miserable.
6
Trump just said he will sign bill giving federal employees back pay as soon as the shutdown is over. He is an extortionist. The faster he is out of office the better it will be for our country and the world.
9
@Sharon Conway
That's totally unacceptable indeed.
First of all, that will mean that taxpayers will have to pay a fee because the Executive branch of government fails to respect its contracts, as of course those contracts do NOT stipulate that federal employees will only be paid when Congress accepts to write no matter what new bill that a president decides he wants into law.
Federal employees are paid for implementing already existing laws.
Secondly, if Pelosi would accept ANY "deal" BEFORE he ends the shutdown, she will have de facto turned a shutdown into a legitimate bargaining chip, whereas ALL GOP politicians should once and for all learn that it is NOT.
You want a new project signed into law?
Then follow the rules of the game. That means try to convince other lawmakers to support that project too, by explaining why it would be good for their constituents. Those lawmakers then either agree, or they don't. That's, by definition, democracy.
In the meanwhile, pass normal appropriation bills, in other words allocate the money that the Executive needs to implement already existing laws for the next year, so that it can fulfill its constitutional duty.
Refusing to sign appropriation bills because you don't have the votes to get your project signed into law will ALWAYS be punished by NEVER EVER getting it signed into law.
That is how checks and balances work.
2
"Someone needs to gently explain to the president that, going forward, he might want to adjust his negotiating strategy."
This whole column is on par with the amusing parody of Bruce, the great white shark in "Finding Nemo," spouting ""I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food."
That was a comedy cartoon. So is this column in its own way; the question is whether the authors meant it as very subtle sarcasm.
2
What will Trump learn? What has he EVER learned?
3
Well Trump is clearly following orders from Putin
to sow discord in this country and with our allies.
And in two years Trump the Con Man has managed
to disable what is the richest and most prosperous
country in the world. Very little resistance shown by
the Congress and Senate of his party to Putin’s plan.
As he ruins America, sniffing around for money from all and any
sources, breaks all the laws, tries to weaken
sanctions imposed on oligarchs, cashes in for his
family, illegally deprives Gov workers of their pay,
how’s he doing Putin?
He’s not demented or mad or incapable he’s a traitor
seeking to destroy a country he cares nothing for.
And bury we the people in chaos. He needs to be
impeached.
6
The Dems have always been bad about messaging. The response to Trump should be simple and clean. 1) you could not get the wall when the GOP controlled both houses, why is it a national emergency now? What has changed? 2) Trump argues that country in peril. Same arguments since campaign in 2016. If so much peril, why expend so much energy on bad tax stimulus and attempts to repeal affordable care instead of advocate for wall. 3) Trump is a horrible negotiator. He would have been better served by financing the government and leaving Dept of Homeland Security and Wall as a separate issue. More likely the Dems would have given a pot without restrictions regarding the wall. 4) someone PLEASE push all Trump surrogates to give CONCRETE stats on drug and violence claims. The border folks themselves say drugs come in by plane and legal ports of entry. There is no evidence at all supporting claim of rampant crime. Without any legitimate statistics there is absolutely no debate. Once surrogates start spouting off fear mongering platitudes without any factual support media entities should cut them off immediately. This is not that complicated. Country being held hostage to a racists demanding a wall that is not needed and unwanted by a majority of the country.
3
@Henry Brown
Imho that's exactly what Democrats are saying.
What newspapers are you reading ... ?
1
The title for this editorial should be: Someone needs to explain to Donald Trump how to make a deal.
1
The Times is one of the major causes of the shut down. You encouraged the bizarre resistance to any compromise with Trump on anything. So, the liberals and moderates are fearful not only of the new “know nothings” on the radical left but also of key media outlets. A compromise would be easy and rational. Give Trump some of his wall, barrier, whichever. In return get some reform and reopen the Government. Why not say that? The Times has great influence. Wipe away the last of your tears over Ms Cintons’ demise and help America! Do the right thing.
Deals involve both parties giving and receiving. To Trump, he only takes in his zero-sum world.
Here's how a political deal works:
Trump: A wall is really important to me.
Democrats: Raising taxes on the top 1% to fund healthcare subsidies and education credits are really important to us.
Trump: OK, give me the wall and you'll get your tax hikes, subsidies and credits.
Democrats: Deal!
2
@David Doney
Agree--the Dems (of whom I proudly count myself) missed a golden horse-trade ATTEMPT. You are right that Trump might not have bargained, but it is clear the Dems via Pelosi and Schumer didn't really try.
1
Nice idea. Shame no sane adults are listening.
We've made progress but our good media - vital though they may be - are not helping. Forget the badminton game and start hammering home that a) there is NO crisis, b) that many people in Texas don't want the wall and c) that Republicans had two years to solve the problem and chose not to.
It's terrible to see a political party reduced to shambling, rotted gamesmanship that consists of blaming everyone else.
6
A shutdown such as this is just another example of unfitness to govern. The only silver lining is that if half of those affected in swing states don’t vote for Trump again, the 2020 election isn’t close.
4
This could be it for him, honestly. He treats everything he focuses on with contempt, but riding the economy into a pit should be going too far.
It’s treasonous to treat career executive branch employees this way and there are billions of downstream repercussions throughout the country as result. Not for income, thankfully, but I personally have two reasons that I want the government reopened.
Soybean farmers got screwed with the tariffs and now they can’t even apply for the relief they were promised. How could they vote for him again? If they do, they are nuts.
Old adage Mr Trump: what goes up must come down. And yours is a house of cards.
3
For more than 20 years, I've assumed that "Wag the Dog" was a farcical account of abuse of Presidential power. "Let's invent an emergency"...who could've imagined that a President would really try to do that?
5
@RLS
See also 1958 TV show in which a con man named Trump scares a town into building a wall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1D2ynASqe4&feature=youtu.be
1
Will he finally be able to claim the longest/biggest ever something and nobody will disagree?
Campaign promise fulfilled. Check!
2
The President has not shown any ability to learn except in his capacity to escalate his negativity. There is a reason why mean spiritedness leads to its practitioner's limited options.
3
Leave it Schumer and Pelosi to look a gift horse in the mouth and throw away a golden opportunity to buy comprehensive immigration reform for $5.7 billion. If it only benefited 10 million Dreamers, employers, undocumented honest productive workers, landlords (who rent 'em places to live), etc. it would have been a bargain at $570 a person, and could have ended the shut-down.
To those who say that the Trump administration said there would be no deal on immigration: BAH. That WAS the deal on the table before Trump stormed out of the room.
Both sides needed a win--AND THAT WAS IT.
Meanwhile, our federal employees would be released from unpaid servitude.
1
Learn? Trump does not "learn" anything. He is feral and reacts primitively. But learning is far beyond this person's capabilities. McConnell, on the other hand, can learn. Thus far, he chooses not to display any evidence that he has.
1
This editorial seems to be written for conservatives who still believe that:
1. Trump is interested in building a wall
2. he has the right skill set to obtain money from Congress to start building it
3. real, fact-based debates among citizens are important in order for a democracy to thrive.
Do those conservatives still exist?
A glance at the comment section makes clear that there aren't any here.
Conservatives commenting below clearly still believe point (1) and (2), but not (3), so they merely write that they disagree, without even trying to prove that Trump has been adopting the right negotiation strategy during the last two years and today.
For most of us, however, believing in (1) and (2) is totally impossible.
This editorial shows why (2) is impossible.
The fact that last spring Trump turned down a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that included FULL funding for his wall, and only after and because Coulter and Limbaugh attacked him for supporting a bill that included DACA, whereas Democrats had promised to vote for it, shows that believing (1) is totally irrational too.
He has always seen "build the wall!!", "who will pay for it? Mexico!!" and "lock her up!!" as mere campaign slogans. He never had ANY personal interest in actually doing these things. That's why he never came up with a plan to build a wall in the first place.
It's also why most comments here remember that it's absurd to image that he would WANT to learn how to get a wall...
3
I wonder if this is the first move to privatize much of the government. What do other readers think?
2
Donald Trump says "there's nothing like a wall". Well he'll need a floor and a ceiling if he wants it to work as he hopes, or then there's the cheaper minefield and machine gun post option as so effectively used in East Germany, maybe that will be his lasting legacy for the USA.
2
Learn?! trump doesn’t learn. He tweets.
1
Trump does not, and never will negotiate. He commands and if you don't like the offer he will begin his threats. He thought he could walk over Pelosi and the Democrats but he found out that they are not giving in. So he tried the shut-down which has now garnered much more public anger than he expected. But Trump does not know the meaning of forethought. Trump cannot be trusted to keep promises. So I hope Pelosi does not give in to this would-be president. He simply cannot run roughshod over our government without consequences. Trump is boxed in, and like any wild animal, his first response is to attack. As always, we can count on him to do the wrong thing.
5
"One key difference: Ms. Pelosi knows how the legislative process works."
So did Ms. Clinton. What a cluster that election was. Nobody, in their wildest nightmares, saw this complete implosion coming.
The Clown King Minus will learn nothing, btw. A cautionary tale, this presidency. If we survive it....
4
Beginning of the END - Hopefully sooner than later.
(Mr. Mueller -;)
2
First, Trump blamed Democrats for the shutdown after Republicans did nothing about his wall for 2 years. Now he has invented a crisis that doesn't exist and yesterday he sat while a border patrol agent showed him pictures of a tunnel they had found nearby under a current wall. But to top those lies and his apparent inability to recognize that tunnels render his wall useless, Trump claimed that he never said Mexico would pay for the wall. Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham is living in Trump's faux reality. Republican leadership is dead.
4
Trump's whole life has been a series of PR events that self promote himself as wonderful beyond belief . Today as he captured the White House as a lying demagogue white nationalist he still claims to be an expert in every field in fact knows more than any expert in any field "believe me" and 35% do. Trump is finding out about the powers of the imperial presidency and it is making him drunk with that power. Trump may have his window to be our dictator and will not hesitate to take over the internet send troops to democratic controlled states to assert his rule. Trump needs to be roundly defeated by 2020 and when all the investigations are completed Trump may decide not to run.
2
When will someone declare what the shutdown is costing? That data was top on the list, on a daily basis,the last time a shutdown occurred.
Secondly - when will we read/hear more educated remarks about how the 2/3ds of our 3 government entities are Constitutionally directed to interact to accomplish the business of our country ??
3
I looks like the Tea Party - preaching to the choir and ignoring all the relevant facts proving our hypothesis wrong...
1
Please convince me that he is capable of learning anything.
He already knows everything!
Therefore ,closed mind,centered on himself ,and locating the next Money grab.
2
Watch him end the shutdown as soon as he's sure it is the longest one ever. That's what really matters to him.
194
@Joan
Wow. That is cynical. But it certainly fits with the prior data. You may be correct.
14
@sarah
And YOU need to explain exactly why our security is threatened without a wall. The last border security person I heard didn't even act like a concrete wall was the solution to whatever security problem there is.
21
@sarah
Not true.
Perhaps you might check the operation of the Border Patrol before Trump. Border Security funds were appropriated under Obama, which paid for (among other items) a doubling of the number of BP officers - because THEY said that would be the most effective use of the funds.
17
1 - I just don't understand why Democrats aren't hammering home on the fact that President Don-Don had a fully Republican Senate and House for 2 years and nothing happened with getting his signature campaign squall/wall built. That is well within the honeymoon period for a new president, right?! Why is he now blaming Democrats for no wall? Why didn't he and his party get it done in the two years they had control?! Why aren't Democrats repeating this to him and to the country?! Now you want to blame us for something you didn't/couldn't do for the two years you had it all.
2 - McConnell's continuing refusal to put forward re-opening legislation reminds me of his continuing refusal to consider Obama legislation in order to keep Obama a one-term president. So, what are the chances he's actually doing the same thing now to Don-Don: McConnell actually wants to keep this president a one-termer by holding off on the legislation so that people will eventually blame Don-Don and not vote for him. Is McConnell secretly a never-Trump'er?
4
@JW
Actually, that WOULD be a clever way to end this mess....
The GOP comes out with "clean hands" without ever having to alienate thier moronic base who they KNWO is too stupid to figure it out\, and Trump is gone.
If a Dem is then elected President, they can start blaming everything on them again.
Hannity, Coulter and Windbag don't care who is in office. If it's Trump-they blame the Dems for all that's wrong. Dem? The Dems are wrong.
At the end of the day, they go home with thier million dollar contracts, health and welfare bennies for them and thiers for life, while they extol the dolts of America that the Dems are at fault for thier lot.
A lot of said dolts who collect Federal bennies and farm bailouts included. ( "Victims" in other words..or, "snowflakes!")
Great catch!
Ever since the shutdown has begun, everyone has put blame on the President (even himself saying profusely). However he is not to blame, and does not hold ANY of the power.
It is Senate republicans (McConnell in particular) that holds the power. (none of the press is outlaying this, which is given him and them a pass) At any time, they could put the budget bills up for a vote, and at any time, enough of republicans could vote for an overriding of any veto.
Please cover extensively the next tweet though ...
7
Democrats need to repeat their core message: open the government and keep talking. They share the president’s commitment to border security. They have always supported strong borders. Where a wall or barrier makes sense, let’s build a wall. However a wall not always be the best solution for such a long border. Its never been easier to circumvent barriers by tunneling underneath or climbing over.
But before Dems even get to the pros and cons of physical barriers, they need to repeat their core message over and over so that all Americans know what it is. Open the government let the border security talks continue. That’s far more reasonable and responsible than “good fences make good neighbors.”
2
The shutdown and border wall issues, at present, is a diversionary tactic to keep the headline focus off of the news that is coming out of the various investigations that are ongoing and producing increasingly damaging reports - that is how Trump got there. I am surprised that the Editorial Board apparently doesn't understand these manipulative practices as well as Trump does.
3
Our public lands! Let's put some focus on what's happening to our national parks, monuments, forests, wildlife areas -- and to the citizens who have planned vacations there, and the nearby communities who depend on tourist dollars. Vandalism is occurring in these places, too, and some may be impossible to remedy.
2
@David in Toledo
I hate to say it but I've to believe that Republicans don't care much for air, water, trees, parks, public lands. They do care about how they can be destroyed for profit but as for the value we have for them - nah.
1
Trump has always denigrated everyone including his family. He believes he is a superior being. He and his fellow billionaires are in government for themselves - from ego trip to financial gain. Kevin Haskett said on PBS that workers laid off by the government shutdown were better off than their working counterparts because they were on vacation and not usin vacation days. That’s the Tepublican elite - no understanding of minimum wage, single parents, rent, and bills - they get the taxpayer or their employees to bus for them. Even the White House is staffed with unpaid employees to clean and cook. Stop that immediately and see how quickly the soft execs cave. Congress will fly home after a three day work week courtesy of the unpaid TSA and air traffic controllers. Let Fox News, Pence, Trump, McConnell, and Limbaugh pay for the wall - it’s their brainchild.
7
Aren’t the hard-working, honest, diligent, law-obeying, smart and innovative citizens more needed back home in Latin America than here in the USA?
Stealing the best and brightest from the other countries is just that – the theft.
By doing it we doom the rest of their countries on the prolonged hardship and suffering.
What!!?? Stealing them? These people are choosing to leave these countries. They can't find work or they are in danger.
The problem is, when they are in their home country, they are being murdered, raped, or are starving. If you were faced with that I believe you’d move too.
I'm familiar with news reports of Trump's reliance on his "gut" understanding of the ins and outs of our government, but I enjoyed reading here about how he "follows his gut." The writer may not have meant it literally, but it's an amusing thought.
2
Another cardinal sin as to negotiations: granting a representative--in this case, Senate Majority Leader McConnell--authority to agree, then yank the authority it after the fact. In labor law, this is constitutes a violation--an Unfair Labor Practice.
There is an exception for changed circumstances, but I can assure you that the opinions of Right Wing talking heads do not count.
2
@Juvenal451: Every goalpost these fakes purport to place is as fake as they are.
Isn't it about time for another one of Trump's patented "rallies"?
But is there anywhere in the country at this point where Trump could have a rally without the venue being surrounded by picketers whose signs would say "End the Shutdown!"?
4
Trump has lived in a cocoon where his name is in lights over the front door and every person in the building depends on his favor for continued employment. Contrast this to the hardball of DC and it is little surprise he has NO Idea what tindo with Chuck and Nancy. Mitch is using him for cover but at some point this professional too will have to cut him loose. Trump is quite literally out od his element. Any Dem that votes yes on wall will be unemployed next cycle. Trump does not understand real negotiation with equals.
6
Trump and the GOP have never been serious about a wall in the first place.
The only people who need some "gentle explanation" here are GOP voters who believe that somehow a shutdown will help them get their wall, rather than making by definition any form of compromise now totally impossible, and who still believe that a wall WOULD be an effective protection.
11
Lost in the discussion is the fact that this shut down could be easily ended by Senator McConnell if only he has the courage to call for a vote in the Senate for the House approved bill.He will get more than 60 votes needed to make the bill veto proof, thereby ending the shut down.
18
@Shailendra Vaidya
McConnell will be tarred with Trump's brush. He's going to have to break it off with Trump on this one, or go down in flames too. Also, I think McConnell is the only way out of this. Trump won't back down. He may drive forward into something worse, never back.
@Shailendra Vaidya
McConnell will be tarred with Trump's brush. He's going to have to break it off with Trump on this one, or go down in flames too.
A compromise offer was tendered last year, with the Democrats and Republicans agreeing to give and take, the way things are supposed to work in our system of government.
Then, after the agreement was reached, the anti-immigrant hardliners both in the Administration and in Congress got ahold of Trump and he scuttled the whole thing.
Had he signed it, DACA recipients would have had the certainty of a path to citizenship, other immigration reforms would have been agreed to and up to $25 billion would have gone towards border security.
It’s been downhill since then! Our present Republican leadership continues to regard compromise and bipartisanship as dirty words; which frankly started with Newt Gingrich.
22
@Jim Rubin
I don't think this is about rejecting compromise by definition, on the part of GOP politicians.
All stopgap bills, for instance, are compromise bills, and they've been replacing normal, annual budgets by shorter stopgap bills ever since 2010.
In 2013 already, after Obama managed to get a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill through the Senate with a 68-vote majority, the GOP House has refused to allow a vote on it - and they have until now.
Why?
And why do they today support no longer paying TSA agents, border patrol agents etc?
For the most obvious reason: they do not want stricter immigration laws or a more secure border. What they need is to be able to eternally TALK about this and then create and cultivate the narrative that Democrats are "open border", because that's how they can fire up their base all while looting DC, in other words it's their only way to still win elections ...
THAT is why Trump signed one bill after the other that explicitly declared that he would NOT use the money to build a wall, and already promised to do so with the latest bipartisan appropriation bill too, if it weren't for the fact that all of a sudden Coulter and Limbaugh woke up and told him they REALLY wanted a wall and if not would make his "ratings" tank. THAT is when the GOP became forced to start this kabuki theater - all while knowing full well that tying a wall to an appropriation bill would make it impossible for Democrats to compromise any longer ...
5
@Jim Rubin: Who else would actually want to be Newt Gingrich?
1
This idea of a border wall/fence/barrier in Texas is rather bizarre.
Let us examine the facts.
1) Unless DT intends to construct his wall in the middle of a river it will be inside the US border, on US soil.
2) It is not illegal for someone to request asylum while on US soil.
3) If someone is standing south of the fence yet north of the border he or she can simply request asylum.
4) All he/she needs is a US border agent who will arrive when he/she “rings the door bell”, that is when detected by the electronic monitoring.
How will a wall then stop the asylum seekers?
10
@Paul
Good point. It's like Mexico gets sole use of the Rio Grande after the wall. Americans won't be able to access it.
7
One reason we got here is because neither side is willing to take the high road. Another is because "wall" is also a verb, and Trump has been practicing it all of his life and might be the only thing he is truly expert in. The Democrats also had a chance to claim and define in their terms what is fundamentally shared by the word "wall" in positive terms but instead chose to put it all on poor lady Liberty's worn shoulders. I also can't help but think that Trump has been looking for a war anywhere, and finally decided to draw a line in the sand, advancing a sad civil war within,at a time when he may also feel most attacked and vulnerable. All sad.
The partial government shutdown is a partial fulfillment of the long-term Republican goal of smaller government. The effect on our society is now visible to voters who have eyes to see.
9
@Chris R
Except that a shutdown costs taxpayers about $10 billion a week, during the first weeks, and even more thereafter.
So yes, GOP supporters now support a shutdown because they've been told that it's an example of "small government". The problem is that once again that's a big LIE.
In 2013, for instance, Ted Cruz shut down the government for 16 days.
Why did he do so? He wanted Obama to repeal Obamacare even though the votes in Congress to repeal it weren't there (shutdowns are always designed to impose a bill on Congress without having the votes to impose it, in other words to impose it in an anti-democratic, totalitarian way).
Obamacare curbs federal healthcare costs increases by $100 billion.
So a repeal would INCREASE "big government" (and kill about half a million American lives a decade, but let's leave that for the GOP irrelevant fact aside for a moment).
The 16-day GOP shutdown cost us $24 billion.
4
@Ana Luisa: Ted has grown a beard. I think it makes him look more Canadian.
We are dealing with a cabal of traitors in our White House hell bent on destroying America.
We, the citizenry of the USA, need to take to the street, en masse,
in nonviolent protest.
The time is NOW!
J
14
Why isn’t the clip of Trump declaring his ownership, pride, and promise not to blame the Democrats for the shutdown (all on video for the world to view) at the top of every news show nightly until the damn thing is over?!?!? Personally, I think Chuck and Nancy should have played it as part of their rebuttal!
It’s his shutdown, he wanted to own it, proudly. Maybe he needs reminding?
14
I don't believe that Mr. Trump is capable of learning anything beyond his narcissistic and egotistical persuasions. This is an individual who has let his id run amok and damn the consequences. One must also hold Mitch McConnell and his Republican gang responsible as they have stood by him in all of his incredible fiascos. What we will witness eventually is Trump's self immolation which will plunge all of his Republican cohorts into dubious territory.
10
Trump's "negotiating strategy"? For Trump, this is a an oxymoron
Strike 1: Trump has no strategy except to dominate every situation and elevate himself. A strategy requires planning, thinking ahead, and anticipating the consequences of each option. Nope, Trump is truly lazy and brags that he thinks with his "gut," and he appears to be absolutely correct about that.
Strike 2: Trump hasn't a clue what the word "negotiate" actually means. Bullying, yelling, never giving in for any reason is not "negotiating."
Definition of "negotiate" (from Merriam-Webster):
a. to deal with (some matter or affair that requires ability for its successful handling) : MANAGE;
negotiated his business deals with remarkable skill
b : to arrange for or bring about through conference, discussion, and compromise;
negotiate a treaty
If this were a business course in Negotiation Skills:
Trump would get an F in "manage" (so would Mitch McConnell and the Republicans); and Trump would get an F- in "discussion and compromise" (so would McConnell)
Strike 3: Trump refuses to listen or learn, if it involves information and advice from experts, instruction, and studying.
That's 3 strikes and you're out, Mr. Trump!
Can't happen fast enough for the future of our government and country.
5
Excellent article, however I take exception with the word "GENTLY' used in the subtitle to express how the president should be approached while explaining the consequences of a government shutdown. Why should people tread gently, on eggs around this unsuitable leader who does not give one damn about learning how the government operates? It is appalling that this man is so uneducated to this job, yet teachers, doctors, lawyers, generals, architects, scientists, linemen, plumbers etc. all need extensive and intensive college or training and testing to hone their skills before they are allowed to operate on people, teach students, practice law, fix the power lines etc. while the man who occupies the highest office in land lacks the knowledge and skills to be a successful leader. Bullying , cozying up to dictators, profiting family business from the government just doesn't cut it!
5
Is the Editorial Board of the New York Times so naive as to think the First Idiot can learn from anything, ever?
5
Trump is a Faulknerian Idiot Man-Child, so the onus is really on Mitch McConnell. He has the power to end this dumb, pointless exercise now, but has instead shown - over and over and over again - that he couldn't care less about his sacred duty to the American people.
I thought McConnell was evil when Obama was in office, but even his baldly partisan behavior back then did not portend just how truly myopic and despicable he really is.
22
I disagree; McConnell is exactly the same intransigent hyper-partisan hack that he has always been. There is nothing new here in his behavior to indicate that he is doing anything worse than when he (for instance) blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court.
3
@BothSides
McConnell truly is the biggest traitor to Democracy in our history. That one man can control the government to such destructive ends for so long is a reflection of the flaws in our Constitutional system and a monument to the recurring stupidity of the voters of Kentucky.
2
Hopefully it's Trump's supporters who learn from the shutdown. My health care plan more than doubled in cost this year, but I had no problems with immigrants. This shutdown is nothing but a distraction. Trump said "We're going to have insurance for everybody... much less expensive and much better." And despite his denials, he did say Mexico would pay for the wall with a check.
10
Don't try reason this stupidity. The GOP has to stop acting like a bunch of toddlers and realize they had two years and didn't pass the idiot's wall either.
5
To the Editorial Board: I submitted a comment a few minutes ago that contains an error. The comma after the phrase "to the country" should be removed. I tried to correct it but could not. It had already been sent. Please, if possible, append this correction or make the correction before publishing. (There was another phrase to follow "to the country" but I removed it because the comment was too long. The comma should have come out as well).
You're kidding, right? He could learn? Where do you get that idea? Are you staffed by Washington Post writers who don't live in NYC and are constantly in awe of the perfidy and mendacity of this fool? Or are you trying to prove your "balance" by constantly printing editorials pretending he's anything other than an idiot?
Really, you should be embarrassed by now.
5
What's happening with this wall is unreal. What on earth is going on in this country? How can this moron get away with this kind of insanity? The president is taking the country down the toilet.
9
I'm waiting for Pelosi to take the ball from Kellyanne and spike it in Trump's face. Score! Sweet! Then she should yell: loser, loser, loser.
5
Russia has taken us as a fief through operatives like trump.
Russian oligarchs attended our inauguration of this poor excuse for a human.
McConnell has ties to Russia through business interests ;as well as other government officials moving us to
Marshall Law.
If successful there will not be another election but trump will have started a civil war.
Then the millions of weapons owned by his base will be in service to the King.
Democrats should not give in.
Pelosi is right!
Let her turn the screws on this mafioso con man being dangled by Russian mafia types.
Trump has met his match.
4
The Art of the Deal:
Trump: Gimme a wall.
Chuck and Nancy: No.
Trump: Waaaaaaaalllllllllll!!!!
3
@DB
Sums it up pretty well.
The problem is that it doesn't end there.
Now he took the unconstitutional decision to no longer pay our TSA agents, border patrol agents, FDA food inspectors etc.
So he's actively and deliberately turning the US into a MORE "open border" country than ever before.
And somehow, in Trump's mind this is expected to be hated so much by the supposedly "open border" Democrats that it would motivate them to engage in negotiations and accept a wall ...
1
The sentence prior to your enumeration of the President's mistakes contains a grammatical error: the object of the preposition "by" should be "him" rather than "he".
So to summarize: He's a total failure and you have to be a total idiot to believe him.
8
This president is uneducable.
2
His shutdown? Oh puleeze. Pelosi and her troop of winged monkeys (aka Dems in the House) could end their collective abuse of federal employees in a heartbeat. $6B is trivial relative to the size of the federal budget. If it fell out of their pockets, they wouldn't bend over to pick it up. They've decided to let the federal employees twist in the political wind with their Ivory Tower attitudes. I see careers like Steny Hoyer (D-MD) coming to a rapid end. His silence is damning. Federal employees put him in office; they'll relieve him of command.
1
@Mike
An appropriation bill allocates money to the Executive branch of government in order to allow it to fulfill its constitutional duty to implement ALREADY existing law for the next year.
If you start attaching highly controversial projects to such a bill, and refuse to pass a normal appropriation bill, only because you don't have the votes to get that project through Congress because "we the people" elected a Congress that opposes it, then you are de facto eliminating Congress, you see?
At the same time, not fulfilling your duty as Executive branch of government (= the WH) is damaging taxpayers, so is by definition totally unacceptable.
That means that now that Trump gave up on real negotiations about the wall and shifted to a government shutdown instead, the ONLY way for Pelosi to make sure that he doesn't do so again is to not only refuse to engage in ANY negotiations as long as the government is shut down, but also to make clear that from now on ANY project that gets attached to an appropriation bill will NEVER EVER be part of a future compromise bill.
That's they only way to force the president and GOP to never start deliberately putting America's safety at risk by no longer paying TSA agents etc.
So that's why there will never be a wall, you see?
4
I think if Trump were truly the author of a book "The Art of The Deal", he would not be in a mess such as this. It's clear, even to the most ardent Trump supporter, Trump is a living breathing fraud, phony, liar, con-man, misogynist, narcissist, bully, impetuous child-man, who has never matured mentally or emotionally. How a chaotic idiot such as this is allowed to perpetuate in the Oval Office is a sigh of weakness within the Constitution and the United States. Never again, if this republic survives this moron, shall we allow this kind of insulting civil trespass.
3
He is incapable of learning both because of his low IQ and his lack of desire to do so.
5
Many of Trump's base voted Trump because they thought "he would shake things up" and are now finding out that is not working out so well for them. Truly a case of what goes around comes around and perhaps they should have been more careful about what they wanted.
5
We’re all going to be talking about “what Trump COULD learn” until the cows come home, aren’t we. Learning is demonstrably not part of the Trump equation, can we give up hoping it was? The problem is WE are clearly not learning.
2
Trump is incapable of change and unwilling to try. We have to get him out of there, and Pence too (for knowing what he does about Trump and helping Trump conceal it). If he manages to blunder himself back out of this mess soon, it will only be in order to blunder into other messes. We should hope he blunders so badly and fully that even his supporters admit that removing him from office is a somewhat reasonable thing to do.
2
This is dead wrong. Trump understands every point you raised, but he understands it in the past tense. His objective now is to change how government works in this country, to make this a country where political power flow from the focused energies of his rabid base no matter what "congress" or "the public" or "the voters" have to say about it. And so far he's been successful. Heck, if there's a national emergency at the border, how can we risk our security by having another election in 2020?
@TS
So far he's been successful?
His base wants increased border security and for five years already, the GOP House has been refusing to vote on a bipartisan immigration reform bill that already passed the Senate with a supermajority in 2013.
When Democrats proposed a similar bill plus FULL funding of his wall ($26 billion) last spring, he first said he'd sign it into law, but then Ann Coulter started to attack him because the bill included the bipartisan Dream Act that 80% of the American people and a majority of GOP voters support, so he flip-flopped and rejected the entire bill.
And now he and McConnell decided to no longer pay TSA agents and border patrol agents, which de facto makes our borders less safe.
So WHERE are his "successes" here, more precisely?
8
@Ana Luisa
He's shut down large parts of the government, allied the country with a series of blood-stained dictators, demolished the EPA, put a toady in charge of the justice department,expanded his majority in the senate, and established a right wing majority on the supreme court that will last for decades to come. More importantly, he's done all of that by defining the facts any way he wants. In a country of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
Trump is either crazy or evil.
Shame on the GOP leadership for allowing this continue.
5
Crazy and evil are not mutually exclusive. He is both!!
NEVER ever trust a pathological liar.
Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips. Proverbs 25:19
Anyone who loves to quarrel loves sin; anyone who trusts in high walls invites disaster. Proverbs 17:19
6
"...A meltdown of this magnitude typically has many causes..." [op cit]
--
I'd like to add another "cause," to the six listed above:
—
“…If President Trump agrees to the Democrat's demand to reopen the Government, then the whole Republican Party collapses…(!)”
—
Why?
Three reasons:
—
1. The Republican Party *is* Donald Trump(!) So if Trump wins? The GOP goes on winning. But if Trump loses? They lose everything.
2. Trump never negotiates, and never backs out. He bets [read, “risks”] everything on every move he makes. It’s all or nothing!
3. The President has already burned all his political bridges behind him. He, and his Party, have no friends, other than the Republican base.
***
So there is no turning back.
Donald Trump *must* win the Battle of the Wall:
—
1. To “maintain face,” among friends and enemies alike.
2. To have even the slightest chance of winning, in the 2020 General Election.
***
My prediction is this:
This “Meltdown,” and those that inevitably follow, will continue to hobble our Government, until Leader McConnell signals that the time has come:
—
1. To abandon the President [force him out of Office] to save his Party.
2. To regroup around a more savvy, palatable and electable Mike Pence.
***
It’s now a fact:
Donald Trump *cannot live* without making trouble. And the GOP has no choice but to act.
—
And they must act now!
5
Are we tired of winning yet?
8
Trump only cares about himself - he doesnt care about either the USA or other people suffering.
So he will run this into the ground as he in his mind has nothing to lose.
4
Really New York Times Editorial Board .....
Trump has demonstrated numerous times he is incapable of learning anything .... we the people have learned that since he became “our president”. And, as a lifelong NewYorker .... long before that unfortunate event.
5
The words "Trump" and "learn" in the same headline? If only.
4
The NYT published a video front page for all to see, a sympathetic inside view of people from countries 2,000 miles away.
Where are the videos of infants in the NIC units being weaned off of narcotics with morphine? Or how about rescue personnel administering Narcon to a convulsing young adult?
At least it's not a Reichstad fire, at least not yet
Not sure why the focus on trump, his boss Vladimir is the one calling the shots here.
2
so....trump has lots of batons in the air and has no idea where, when or how they will fall...but they will fall.
...while those batons are airborne. McConnell has prevented the Senate from performing their duties in accordance with the Constitution. McConnell is probably treasonous as well as stupid, is power worth your soul?
6
He should read "The Art of War"? Pffttt... He hasn't read "The Art of the Deal"!
5
Red herring.
How about climate change for an issue?
TSA should take next Wednesday off. Shut down airports for a day and see how fast this shutdown ends.
10
Although I'm not at all among the NYTs largest herd of reader commenter I would say that the headline should read more like "Washington is getting "schooled" on what a tough negotiator is all about."
The NYTs and other leftist anti-Trumpist media are having second thoughts about whether or not their levy of constant non-stop criticism and support for a disrespectful approach to anyone in the POTUS office does for and to that person. Your campaign of hate has backfired.
@Dixon Duval
It's not a campaign of hate, it's the defense of democracy, and a healthy push back against a weak, unprincipled, destructive man and his cabal of an administration.
1
@Dixon Duval
Backfired? The fire was the burning up of the Republican House by voters finally waking up to Trump lies and GOP treachery. The blaze will be even bigger in 2020, so dig your moat or build your wall, whatever 7th century solution the Trumpists are espousing, now.
Disrespect for ANYONE in the POTUS office? You mean like Mitch McConnell, Joe Wilson, Fox News, and likely Dixon Duval showed when a black man occupied the office for 8 years without Russian help?
It takes a little reasoning, a grasp of the truth and a modicum of intellect to join this herd. Try again.
1
@Dixon Duval: No office ever makes a person. Trump disgraces the office he holds. He is a monomaniac who believes himself a polymath.
1
Hopefully, the air traffic controllers who are not being paid will put Air Force One on a collision course with a mountain
3
@Stevie Matthews
Make sure Pence is aboard, too.
"Art of the Deal"? Obviously.....
2
Donald Trump doesn't learn.
2
Donald Trump’s negotiating strategy is always exactly the same, and it’s normally a rather effective strategy. Trump always tries to negotiate from Absolute Zero — if agreement with him is not reached, everything will be trashed and go to zero (not remain at status quo). We’ve seen it with North Korea, NAFTA, TPP, and previously with all of his real estate dealings. And now with the US government’s budget.
This strategy usually works because the other side is usually very nervous about an Absolute Zero outcome, while Trump doesn’t care at all.
What’s amazing is how transparent and unvarying his strategy always is. It is astonishing that it is not written about more.
Normally it’s a good, rational negotiating strategy. But Trump is also the ultimate domineering, bullying jerk. He wants to get his way, period, just to show he is a Winner, the Biggest Alpha Bully.
Right now, he is attempting to bully and crush the new Democrat-controlled House into submission. His wall is stupid and trivial, and therefore the perfect raw domination move. If he wins, he will crow about himself, belittle everyone else involved, declare himself king of the bullies, and be even more dictatorial.
Luckily for the US, the Democrats are ascendant. And Ms Pelosi has nerves of steel. The chances of Pelosi and the Democrats letting Trump bully and dominate them are zero. Ms Pelosi is establishing the power agenda for the next two years.
7
This is such an echo chamber of opinions. Each one of the Times Picks for this editorial is another reader (i.e. "yes-human") slapping the editorial board on the back and nodding their heads vociferously. If Trump needs to wake up to some buried facts, doesn't the media need to wake up to its proclivity to cocoon itself in echo chambers of yes-readers? Why doesn't the New York Times nudge BOTH Republican and Democrat leaders to compromise? I haven't heard Nancy Pelosi nor Chuck Schumer mentioning any points of compromise: Pelosi: "The wall is an evil abhorrent symbol of the devil and his brethren." Sure..... those are moderate words of compromise. Wake up to media echo chambers.
3
@Iris
Sorry, Iris, the GOP had two unfettered years to fund their wall, but packing the courts with unqualified partisan hacks and securing a massive tax break for their donor class was all that was on their agenda. What did Republican "legislators" do for the last two years anyway? Now, suddenly, they can't live without a wall? Sorry, both sides are to blame does not fly here. The GOP started it, owns it, and needs to pay dearly for it.
4
Please go back and read about the wall/DACA deal Trump reneged on.
1
He is the perfect storm of ignorance, grandiosity, sadism, impulsivity, unteachability, attention and language dysfunction, opposition, racism, etc ... the extremely scary thing is the 30-some-% or more of the population (and politicians) that are so angry or unempowered or fearful, that they identify with him ...
3
It would be good if you guys at the editorial board stopped acting like Trump is capable of coherent rational thought. The guy is a con artist.
1
How ironic! Trying to talk to Trump is like talking to a wall! :(
4
The Congress, both houses, has to STOP thinking only as if this is a game that anyone will win!!!
Hasn't anybody got the courage to say let's cut a deal and build a smart wall, 21st century style? Take a hint from Bret Stephens's column about the Israeli wall.
Just figure something out and stop being STUPID at the expense of the people you theoretically serve!
Learn??? You must be willing to learn as a prerequisite. Trump revels in his ignorance and unwillingness to even pay attention much less absorb any facts. Hopeless case
You are smart to use the word "gently" which may just work on a combative man.
Understand this: The benefiter of all this chaos is a Russian dictator ,an adversary and manipulator of our democracy.
The audacity of Steve Mnuchin considering lifting sanctions imposed on Russia is a ridiculous treasonous thought
Putin must be enjoying it all from his throne in the Kremlin
We as a democratic people must resist these daily insults to our normal governing institutions.
All Americans pay taxes to live a free and just society.
"GOP wake- up before it's too late! "
2
This is just a bunch of negative press covfefe.
2
The last people President Trump needs advice from is the NY Times Editorial Board.
1
Impeach. Indict. Imprison. Immediately.
8
Trump can’t learn.
1
You can’t do anything “gently” with Donald Trump.
3
#1: The NYT and media should start focusing on McConnell. Who has McConnell in their back pocket! #2: The GOP senate also should be taking the heat for supporting the political stunt of the deranged, narcissist occupying the WH!
4
I'm shocked, shocked that the NYT editorial board presumes Trump can learn.
3
Trump does not learn. He knows it all already. You should be aware of that already. Telling what he could learn is a total waist of space in your paper. You should learn that.
1
It amazes me still how many of you truly believe the DEMOCRATS care about you the people. indoctrination in the schools gas worked well
1
@Andrea Maietta
It amazes me how many of the "disenfranchised working class" thought voting for a lying rich Republican with a history of stiffing workers and who had never helped anyone but himself in his entire life would make their lives better. It also amazes me that Christians who voted for Trump know neither man, and how conservative hypocrites could back a serial flip-flopper like Trump. But at least he's white.
Last time Nancy Pelosi took the gavel the first thing she did was raise the minimum wage. Then she passed healthcare reform. It amazes me how anyone can think the Democrats do not care about people. Indoctrination, thy name is conservative blowhards like Fox News. When it comes to taking sides on what's more important to a political party, people or money, the Democrats are the people choice by a long way.
3
The befuddled, amnesiac response of entities such as the NYT editorial board are almost worse than Trump's absurdities.
1
"Someone needs to gently explain to the president..."
Oh, please stop. This man and the Repub cronies take gentleness as your weakness. We need more Rashida Tlaibs!
1
Learn? Trump?
1
If Green Day ever reissues its album "American Idiot" the person whose picture should grace the cover is obvious.
6
You guys at the Ed Board are pretty funny. Do you really expect Trump, a man who actually thinks he is smarter than everyone else, to learn something?
The man who claims to be the world’s greatest negotiator took a position from which there was no means of retreat and no compromise, expecting that in a game of chicken the other side would cave. So he must have had another plan, or else he is just a moron.
One can only conclude that he expects to lose in 2020 and this is his Hail Mail pass to energize his base. He is going to declare the wall an emergency and then allow the government to reopen, thus saving face. He will then blame the courts when they refuse to go along. So he will not get his wall but will once again be able to blame the “deep state” for frustrating him, thus thrilling Fox News acolytes, Ann Coulter and 70% of the residents of Oklahoma and West Virginia.
6
Comrade Mitch McConnell could reopen the government by using his powers as Senate bossman and bringing the bill to reopen the government to the senate floor.
Instead, Comrade Mitch is assuming a co-conspiracy to shut down the American Government to help his white supremacist Russian loving comrades.
Sad!
7
Lock him out and then lock him up.
Taking funds from the disaster relief-
OMG. Can’t Uncle Vlad find him a suitable mattress in the Kremlin?
3
Seriously? This guy has never learned a single thing in his lfe other than how to grift people.
Why do you keep writing this nonsense as if Trump was in any way rational?
Black out Trump. Stop writing about him!
2
The "wall" thingy is just a diversion from the Trumpovs' treason investigation. But the traitor's "base" won't save him!
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
2
Nobody should indulge President Queeg one bit. His demented histrionics about his idiotic wall are a national disgrace. And now this talk of diverting disaster relief funds borders on the criminal.
Now about those strawberries...
5
I don't know about anyone else, but the opposition party has been in power for less than 5 minutes and they are being accused of / responsible for the lack of progress on the shutdown. Where was the Republican majority in both Houses for the last two years and why didn't they fund the wall - if this was the most critical issue of national importance to their god? Mitch and his boys can stand on the sidelines and chuckle, but too many are suffering and only more non-gov entities will start to suffer collateral damage while this moron we have as president continues to stomp his feet and puerile-ly have a temper tantrum to get his way. This is all beyond anything formerly known as sanity.
6
send in the clowns.
1
Trump should be resisted like fascism was resisted in WW2.
1
"How did we get into this sorry situation?"
That's an easy one. Millions of very stupid or extremely foolish voters made a horrendous mistake and voted for a man who was and is clearly unfit and unqualified to be president.
Trump gives himself an A+ as president. Historians rank him as the worst president in our history. An F- would be generous; a zero much too high a score.
He has no understanding of our Constitution and favors dictatorial rule backed by fascist tactics. He poses a genuine threat to our system of government, but he would be powerless without the cowardly enabling provided by Mitch McConnell and a succession of Republicans in the House and Senate.
7
Trump will learn NOTHING.
Don’t be naive Wash Post Editorial Board... a pathological liar and supreme narcissistic is incapable of learning... since it requires both understand FACTS and having EMPATHY for others.
The real lesson learned here is that WE don’t have a good playbook to counter Trump and his complicit GOP and idiots who voted this devil into office.
1
How does anyone expect issues like this to be resolved when Republican leadership and the president don’t even believe in science? Just think about how crazy that is.
Immigration and walls, fossil fuel burning and global warming; the executive branch is comprised of stupid people — mind boggling stupid, hateful, greedy people.
4
You mean that Chump needs to grow up--right?
trump learns nothing
Despots use their police and military to bend everything to their will. It would certainly look that way to immigrants suffering the excesses of ICE. But Trump has also recognized that he can use his power over tax dollars to bend things to his will. Thus federal employees have become pawns, and a widening swathe of destruction surrounds Trump and his administration. Despite the growing catastrophe, I feel it is urgent for the Democrats not to give in because if they do ... well then, this maneuver worked didn't it? We would no longer have just a would-be tyrant, we would have a tyranny. And the threat to declare an emergency to get his way — let's recall that Hitler used the burning of the Reichstag to seize emergency powers. Mind you Hitler didn't own that one himself, and Trump isn't threatening a military takeover. But if he will declare a fake emergency to get funding for a wall, what does that portend for the future use of fake emergencies as his will is increasingly thwarted by the workings of democracy subsequent to Democrats taking control of the House? Will he be grabbing any group of people whose paycheck he can hold hostage, whether they have anything to do with the "emergency" or not? Trump's means are immoral and tyrannical, and should not be rewarded with capitulations.
3
Did The Times just use the words "Trump" and "Learn" in the same hed? Here, from the transcript of his Oval Office address, is how learned he is:
"In California, an air force veteran was raped, murdered, and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history."
Talk about overkill.
Trump? Learn?
C'mon.
McConnell could end this mess today. He will not bring any bill to the floor that The Idiot won’t sign. Why? Maybe because his approval rating in Kentucky is at 30% and The Idiot’s is more like 50%, and he’s looking at reelection in 2020. And I would love some investigative reporter to find out how he became worth some $22 million on a $180,000 annual salary. He was a Kentucky judge before he became a Senator - so it wasn’t because he was a brilliant businessman, and he didn’t invent the wheel, so??
3
For the greater moment, if Trump declares a "fake" emergency, just as Hitler did with the burning of the Reichstag, the most terrible consequence will be to the checks and balances of our republic. Republican or not, that must be thwarted. We need no dictator as president, now or by precedent in the future.
President traitor belongs in prison. It's really that simple.
2
Mr. McConnell is siding with Trump and holding his senators hostage. He's up for re-election. He should be retiring.
5
Who was it that said "you can not negotiate with a gun to your head" ?
3
Once again this editorial board is living in la-la-land!
What we have here is not one of the many failures listed, but simply and solely " failure to communicate" (with apologies to Strother Martin).
We, the people, need not "gently explain" anything. We need to rid this nation of a fake president who is willfully allergic to facts.
Trump should just resign and stick to golf.
“By he”? I would like to believe the Editorial Board knows better.
1
This is all UNbelievable. We're lead, here and now, to complete destruction by an utter fool. Does no one understand that an idiot with enough power can easily collapse the entire economy? What then? "They have no bread? Let them eat cake."
At least, we'll have millions of people gathering at the White House with shovels and garden implements...and, probably, not a few guns. The fool will be in Florida. He's a bully, and they are usually gutless when the chips are down.
2
Good Grief Charlie Brown!!!! Don't say that the author of the Art of the Deal, doesn't know how to negotiate! Maybe he didn't write that book after all??????
3
When you're doing something that protects the tens of millions of poor unskilled and poorly educated inner city minorities...by building a barrier that keeps cheap inexpensive and illegal labor out of the inner city job market..it tends to give you moral authority where no lessons are needed from the NYT EB.
@Erica Smythe
Except that the only ones claiming that this would effectively protect the southern border are Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, mere radio talking heads, whereas ALL national security experts, including the Generals in Trump's own cabinet, have publicly shown that a wall is NOT the most effective way to protect the southern border.
And that, dear Erica, is the first reason why Trump didn't even try to sign it into law during the only two years that he had the political power to do so.
How can you somehow claim to care about national security and then follow the "advice" of radio talking heads rather than Trump "I hire the best people" cabinet members who also happen to be four-star Generals ... ?
Any ideas?
Secondly, attaching a new law to an appropriation bill, in other words a bill designed to allow the Executive branch of government (= the WH) to implement ALREADY existing law, and then refusing to pay TSA agents and border patrol agents, not only does NOT increase America's protection but reduces our safety. It also makes it by definition impossible for Democrats to engage in negotiations, you see?
Imagine that they would accept to negotiate each time a president stops fulfilling his constitutional duty and stops paying TSA agents.
In that case, congressional election would become irrelevant, as having the votes in Congress would no longer be needed.
So by principle, they can't accept to negotiate during a shutdown, you see?
1
@Ana Luisa No..I don't see. President Obama waived his pen and phone and declared 750,000 illegal immigrants to be legal...even though he said publicly dozens of times prior he didn't have the Constitutional Authority to do this.
And the Generals all admit a border wall is part of a comprehensive border enforcement policy. It's not even going to be a wall. It's going to be bollard style fencing like the kind Jim Acosta was standing next to yesterday while declaring the area was 'tranquil.'
You want to know why it was tranquil? Because of the fencing.
The reason we have TSA checkpoints at airports with secured walls/doors protecting all other points of entry into an airport isn't to keep anyone out. It's designed to funnel people orderly through a legal process so that the few malcontents who might otherwise crash through a door..don't do so. Walls work. Fences work. Borders work.
And without borders, my dear Ana Luisa...there is no country.
Just fund the thing and all these people get paid.
Is this really a hill you and your party want to die on when 72% of the American people want stronger border security?
@Erica Smythe
Your hypotheses are false in so many ways. A barrier won't keep people out, and those that are now coming are seeking asylum, not jobs. Trump claims we has full employment. No one can take jobs that don't exist, can they? Or is full employment the Trump lie? Which lie do you want us to believe? The GOP proved they have no moral authority though their treatment of Obama for eight years. Trump proved he has no moral authority by the deeds of his entire sordid life.
Oh, and please, don't feign concern for the inner city poor while voting against food stamps, healthcare, planned parenthood and family leave. As such, your moral authority does not exist.
1
Wow. The editorial board thinks that DJT is capable of learning something? I guess he did graduate from the university of Pennsylvania and George bush jr graduated from Yale but that says more about u of penn and Yale than it does about trump or bush. Money can buy you a pretty good degree. It doesn’t mean you’re capable of learning anything. Especially in DJT ‘s case. He’s mentally challenged ny times . In case you haven’t figured that out.
1
Who's going to be the last Republican standing with him? The Dishonorable White Supremacist from Iowa?
2
"Someone needs to gently explain to the president that, going forward, he might want to adjust his negotiating strategy."
Right.... As if.... Editorial Board, get real. You need to gently plead with the presidents handler, Putin, to stop messing with our country....
We should “talk gently” to a monstrous Fascist who promotes racism, ignorance, and misogyny and who is essentially attacking the survival of the planet by gutting of the EPA and promoting fossil fuels.
He has “normalized” monstrous behavior and the NYT has fallen for it. He is a pathological liar on top of everything else. And the Times treats this as almost humorous. It is dangerous and deadly.
In the song “All Along the Watchtower” Dylan writes: “It’s time to quit talking falsely now - the hour is getting late.
1
Dear Republicans... Every day that you back this dangerous neighborhood bully and thug you are digging the grave of the end of your party. You are severing the remote possibilities that those of you who are up for re-election in 2020 will survive the vote based on the mid term response from 2018. Do not imagine that we will forget how you allowed via McConnell this petty dictator to override or attempt to of the power of the legislative branch. We the people through all legal means will see you gone forever. When you hurt the American people with your backing of a racist, with depriving hard working government workers of their rightful pay and the rest of us of the benefits we are entitled to enjoy,, you are shooting yourselves in not just the foot but the head. We will not forget for election days to come what you did to us. You will regret it but you are through ruining our lives while enriching your own.
You let this continue at your peril. Find a way out of this and dump Trump asap. We need neither of you.
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"What Trump Could Learn From His Shutdown" NYTs
Please send me the GPS coordinates to your world.
Dear Don,
You may not know this, but your actual job isn't only to watch TV, tweet, golf, and be racist.
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DJTrumpet "learn" something from this????
You have got to be kidding.
He, and his FOX cabinet, are having a good ole time mucking up the works.
Lord, have mercy.
You seem to think that the cultist Republicans care about the government or employees or anybody else than themselves. That is where you fail.
Stop talking about Trump when the problem is half of all Americans are deplorable. I am sick and tired of seeing that dictator's name everyday. The mediocrity of America is Republicans - xenophobic and bigoted. They are hateful people who worship dictators.
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If Trump declares a “national emergency” over his wall, we will have reached our Reichstag fire moment. And you know what followed that....
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Voting Matters!
We people, reporters, politicians, anyone, do not need to wonder or hypothesize about him "learning" anything ... he has never and will not integrate new information learn, change ... he is run by his reptilian brain, not his mammalian or primate brain ... he reacts ... that is it, that is it, that is it ...
Trump, learning, you must be joking. The moron cannot even read a brief. Every day he does or says something people are hurting, maybe his base is starting to hurt also. Buyer's remorse anyone? People need to rise and speak up from coast to coast, from village green to city square. We are not a nation that needs a wall. We are a nation of immigrants. Let us revive the America that we truly are, not the one of a selfish egomaniac would be autocrat who only sees in this wall a symbol of his vanity. Democrats and Republicans, tear down ( that idea) of a wall!
Apparently Donald doesn’t even understand the optics of negotiating. Instead of prancing around the border adorned in his political campaign cap, his position, that of a crisis, might appear more credible were he seen doing a few all-nighters to appear,seemingly spontaneously, in rolled up shirt sleeves at 07:30 on his way to a working breakfast.
One is left to wonder how he earned the reputation for managing the media much less as the great negotiator.
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Well said, NYT.
I do wonder why seemingly 100% of the media is consistently reporting only on the career federal employees both working without pay and those sitting home. Though harder to enumerate, there are literally millions of federal contractors who have been laid off, some permanently, because the federal funding of their employer's contracts are up in the air. I personally know five of them. This is a far larger unemployment problem- albeit mostly temporary, than most realize.
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Again, Mitch McConnell is not called out. The House bills to end the shutdown are not making it to the Senate floor thanks to McConnell's refusal. NYT, stop playing clickbait with the word Trump and tell the truth about who really owns this shutdown: McConnell. McConnell. McConnell.
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Editorial Board, you are fooling yourself and positing a fantasy. Can you teach an unwilling 12 year old to do brain surgery or rocket science? No, nor would you. It’s meaningless to suggest that Trump either can or will learn how our government works, what the various power bases are, how they contend, what the implications of his conduct are, etc. What you suggest is the equivalent of teaching a pig to fly.
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The very title of this article is a joke. "What Trump Could Learn". Haven't you learned by now that he is incapable of empathy, serious thought or introspection. He is a small-minded, ego-driven narcissist with no thought to anything else beyond his self-gratification and interest. I am really tired of all the "what if" articles, they are a waste of time. We need to deal with the reality of the monster in the white house. "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." He is a bad person and no amount of wishful thinking will make him human.
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The headline expresses a non-starter--even suggesting ironically that Trump is capable of learning anything! Whether he's just not very bright or is afflicted with some form of dementia, Trump has no interest in "learning" or "adjusting". He's a dead loss as president--or maybe worse, he's destroying laws and customs almost beyond repair.
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My favorite line: "Apparently, Mr. Trump never got around to reading “The Art of War,” . . ."
As if!!! Read? He might have if it were published on the side of a KFC bucket or inside a Rainbow Room cheeseburger wrapper! Nah, not even that intellectually curious. I kid myself (for the merest of seconds in the interest of entertaining myself).
My second favorite part is "A failure to . . . " Rinse and repeat.
Bruni's opinion piece on the media's complicity is good to read and keep in mind as we all go forward, trying not to be distracted by this clown while the real work is happening elsewhere.
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Didn't read the article - Just the headline The story has 1 fatal mistake before you get into it - that Trump will ever learn anything. Ever.
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Excellent editorial, but dismaying to see how many of the comments here, including some "Picks", seemingly fail to appreciate its linguistic artfulness. Is it not immediately clear that "gently explain", "'The Art of War'", etc. are rhetorical jabs at the president?
Demagogy pounds the language into a limp and tasteless cutlet (read Orwell), and opinion pieces like this one resist that violence not just by their content, but by their style. Here, the Times editors have served up a tasty meal. Can we slow down long enough to savor it?
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The Republican Party, with its acceding to the demagoguery of Trump, finds itself on the road to oblivion, or in the words of its once demigod, the ash heap of history. The Whigs were done in by the slavery problem; the GOP by the Trump problem. My condolences to Lincoln, Grant, Sherman.
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People ask me why I waste my time reading the comments underneath an opinion piece. My answer is that the comments submitted by readers of the NYT are almost always well-reasoned, thoughtful and intelligent. And with correct spelling and grammar. This gives me hope.
I would echo the comments of omjen that the most culpable rat in this crazy mess is Mitch McConnell. Could someone "gently explain" to him that the leader of the senate works for (and is paid by) us - the people? Not the president.
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"What Trump Can Learn..... " Impossible.
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Trump is incapable of learning anything.
Republican Senators could pass the bill and then override Trump's veto thereby ending the shutdown. They simply choose not to. To make matters worse they want Democrats to take the blame for the shutdown. What gall! What hypocrisy!
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There is a fine line between eternal optimism and stupid hope.
Anyone who has known Trump's life and actions and witnessed over two years of mismanagement should not be optimistic about Trump learning anything.
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@Assay I totally agree. Trump is a true scourge and a catastrophe for this country. I pray that he is gone in 2019.
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@sarah
Please do post a list of whatever great things you think Trump has done. Some of us can't think of a single great or positive thing for that matter that he has done for America, unless you want to include helping the Democrats win the House in the mid-terms.
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@Assay Wonderful. You put it better than I did and not wordy at all like I was. Thanks!
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Trump's MO for real estate deals was to inject an ultimatum at the last minute. If the other side caved, he won. If they resisted, he siphoned money out of the project for himself and declared bankruptcy. Brinkmanship; not win-win, but I win, you lose.
Unfortunately this tactic doesn't work with governance.
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In some twisted way Trump appears to be using the shutdown to seize total power and become the dictator he has dreamed of being. His "emergency" declaration would be a huge step in that direction. It is up to congress to stop him once and for all. Perhaps now is the time to begin impeachment proceedings.
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Do you honestly believe that Trump has ever spent a minute of his life regretting anything he has ever done (other than regretting that he wasn't more unreasonable or didn't cause someone more harm)?
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I think the last two years have more than ably demonstrated that Trump is incapable of remembering anything, let alone learning anything. His attention span is minutes, his intellect is dull (and getting duller) and his ability to reach out to anyone beyond his dwindling base is non-existent. In short, hoping for him to improve or change his behavior in any way is a bit like wishing on a star. It'll take Mueller, or the 2020 election or a fatal heart attack to make any change.
What Americans Could Learn From His Shutdown:
Someone needs to gently tell millions of the electorate that, going-forward, people like Donald Trump should never hold elected office...
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The lead sentence of this Editorial states: "Someone needs to gently explain to the president that, going forward, he might want to adjust his negotiating strategy."
What is really needed is the old-fashioned method of beating sense into someone with a 2x4. You know, so as to Make America Great Again.
@NYT Editorial Board
"...let’s hope he manages to blunder himself back out of this mess soon."
Your unbridled optimism is commendable but I'm still worried. I too wish the Trump saga ends like a Mr. Magoo cartoon but it will take more than a slap on the wrist "civics lesson" to correct Trump. We now have Lindsey Graham egging him on - if that isn't an ominous sign I don't know what is.. I'm just not worried, I'm also afraid.
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In spite of your well reasoned position, I'm certain that our President will NOT learn anything from this. All of the perfectly valid points you raise have no salience for him. He only wants to be the President of those who want to blindly follow him. And, his ego knows no bounds on what he may ask of them and the rest of us. Maybe, the awful mess surrounding the 'wall' is better than what he might be doing involving North Korea!
Okay, just an idea. Let him declare his national emergency, and, in the end his lackeys on the Supreme Court will probably support him. Then, since it's likely that in 2020 there will be a Democratic president. So she immediately declares a national emergency and declares Medicare for All. The only problem is that the Republican lackeys on the Supreme Court would probably find new, 180 degree, principals and reject that, eh? Republicans do that all the time.
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If, as the President reminds us over and over again, he has the "absolute right" to declare a national emergency in order to build his border wall, why has it been necessary to shut down the government? A better strategy for Trump would have been to continue negotiations with Democrats while keeping government open so that he could blame Democrats for the failure of those negotiations and, thus, forcing him, as commander-in-chief, to declare the emergency and divert funds from disaster relief to his project. It seems clear to me that Trump must truly be the worst deal maker ever to occupy the White House.
In an effort to seem sensible many readers urge Trump and the Democrats to negotiate and compromise. Unfortunately, in addition to his usual “negotiating” style of intimidation and threats, the president adds other malignant components that make consensus impossible.
More and more, Trump is dishonest, deceitful, arbitrary and malicious. He takes one stand one day, changes it the next day, then reverses himself again later. Worse, his motives for any given action morph before our eyes and are built on a foundation of lies. In short, the president is untrustworthy. He can’t be counted on to exhibit the slightest integrity in the democratic process.
It’s impossible to “negotiate” in this setting. Even if Trump agreed to an action the other side could live with, there’s no guarantee, or even any reason to believe, he would follow through on his promise.
The only choice available to any person or entity trying to deal with the president is a Hobson’s choice: take a principled stand and stick to it. That’s what the Democrats are doing now.
Day 21 of the infamous Trump Lockout, which is exactly what it is, and which caused the shutdown to occur.
Add to the list that Trump can't be trusted, so why would anyone want to negotiate with him, when he turns on a dime?
The phrase "gently explain' and Trump should never be used in the same sentence.
At the risk of being accused of diagnosis from a distance there is to me increasing evidence that Trump is demented and explaining anything to him that contradicts what irrational idea currently occupies his mind is futile.
His short term memory is known to be poor, he has rage reactions, lies about or forgets what he said in the past, becomes very anxious learning new facts, has difficulty reading more than a few sentences and hardly ever without a script puts together a complete sentence or two complete sentence in a row.
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Trump promised seismic disruption in the Federal government and he has delviered in spades. Too bad there is no workable plan or strategy, other than just rage and destruction like a 5 year old with a interminable temper tantrum, to create even a marginally functioning government out of the ruins. Everything Trump does is designed to feed his massive ego. There are no teachable moments for Donald Trump who views himself delusionally as the greatest and most powerful teacher. The wall, as many have pointed out, is nothing more than an expensive and impractical monument to Trump's pathological vanity. How the entire Republican party has allowed the Trump reign of terror debacle to continue while controlling Congress is beyond shameful. Godspeed to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, not to mention Robert Mueller.
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Wishful thinking for someone who truly believes that "I, alone, can fix the problem"
While Americans affected by the shutdown worry about paying rent and utilities and buying food, GOP Senators worry about getting reelected. Something is very amiss about the Republican values.
Shutting down the government for politically motivated reasons is immoral, weak and dangerously misguided. Kind of describes our president as well.
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It is so tragic when the people reject own basic principles and the system of values because of their cravings for power.
It is so wrong when we complain how the other treated us and then start treating the others in exactly the same way.
Those who learn the basics of cooperation with the White House from Mitch McConnell should be ashamed of themselves…
Here's the problem with the sentence "gently explain".
One can never explain to someone who refuses or is incapable of listening, only painful consequences may do the trick.
Unfortunately, others suffer the pain of Trump's outrageous behaviors.
The notion that Trump is capable of learning anything at this point is a novel conjecture.
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Trump doesn’t learn he simply adapts and twists every change in circumstance to satisfy his sadism and narcissism. But as long as the 1% dinosaurs with vested interests in outdated industries are increasing profits, it will be hard to remove him from office. Those are the people who should feel the People’s wrath.
The only way out of this godforsaken mess is thru McConnell. This leads directly to the question of what is McConnell trying to get in order to perform the duties of his office?
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"5. A failure to understand how the government works. "
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This is not funny! With every move from Trump, we are moving away from democracy, toward a dictatorship, a U.S. of Trump!
Trump is making wakes, in the nation and in the world, as well.
He is suggesting that we are now in a post-democracy era.
Independent, middle-class people may feel secure enough with their wealth, so that they no long feel that they need sane, honest leaders. This is true. Trump can bring down the nation, now.
Instead of joking about Trump, why not consider his resignation?
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What Trump could learn...if he's capable of learning anything, but he's not.
Senate Republicans have the power to make Mr. Trump irrelevant. Instead, they continue to put him front and center. I wonder whether, politically, that's their best move. He remains the face of the Republican Party because Senate Republicans defer to whatever he chooses to do from day to day. Will that come back to bite them?
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Congratulations, you just figured out Trump is incompetent, something that was obvious in 1987. Don't waste your breath on Trump. The solution lies with the Senate Republicans. They need to take up the budget bills from the House, put them on Trump's desk, and override any vetoes. Bigger picture, for the next two years Congress needs to take responsibility for American government because the President can't.
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Asking what Trump could learn from his shutdown is like asking what a bank robber could learn from an unsuccessful heist.
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McConnell is the one who should learn something, and let the Senate vote without restrictions and censorship.
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I'm sorry, someone needs to inform Trump AND the NYT that this isn't truly a negotiation. The NYT and other media fail us by allowing Trump's thuggish tactic to shut down parts of the government to be characterized as such. This is a hostage situation NOT a negotiation.
To sum it up briefly, he is a total failure on so many fronts.
"Indian Country"? In Canada, we long ago dispatched with what we see as derogatory terms like "Indian" for Indigenous peoples. It strikes me as awfully racist when I read it, particularly somewhere like the Times, but perhaps it's more widely accepted in the U.S.? Indians live in India. They are not the Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples of North America.
Mr. Trump frequently throws out the word "disgrace" to describe things he opposes. As the effects of the federal shutdown Mr. Trump is holding hostage for his border wall become clear, one is reminded of what the word disgrace truly means.
The American dream has turned into a nightmare; the folly and myopia of more than one third of the nation and an entire party, leadership by a ship of fools and its narcissistic captain, the crumbling of institutions and democratic rights, chaos in the White House, and now a demagogue blackmailing the nation into capitulation for something the majority does not want or need.
Sitting on a plane next to a red blooded successful white American businessman and listening to him ironically espouse his belief that the symbol of patriotism is damaged by black football players exercising their constitutional rights makes me think half of the country just doesn't get what this nation is actually about.
A large portion of the country has lost its way if it can only grasp flag waving, anthem respect, one line jingoism, and support of our troops as the true test of patriotism. Do we all need a civics lesson revisited to understand the discipline of shared sacrifice, of walking in others shoes, of compassion and equality which sets us apart from all other nations? Or, are we destined to lose that edge which identifies us and garners the respect and admiration of the rest of the world? One party has become a pig at the trough and our democracy is being eaten alive.
For years, Trump has been screaming for a wall while spewing racist rhetoric, telling lies and embracing white supremacists and radical nationalists. Even if he were to change strategy now, why would anyone trust him? Our democracy depends on at least a semblance of good faith persuasion. This president persistently acts in bad faith while thwarting the democratic process enshrined in our constitution. It’s beyond the pale and there is no possibility for Trump to redeem himself now.
China, an erstwhile 'third world country', lands a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon!
Here in the US, the 'richest country on earth', furloughed federal workers are selling household stuff to get by while the government shutdown continues!
What a contrast!
Why? He won't listen; he never does.
We have met the enemy, and they are us.
Trying to blame Trump for all of this is pointless. No one was under any illusion about his governing style yet he still beat out 15 other Republican candidates and received 63 million votes in the general election. 63 million people electing him to do exactly what he is doing and I would not be surprised if he wins reelection. Similarly, Congress has approval rating in single digits yet representatives get reelected over and over and very few ever get replaced. Why do we have such low opinion of Congress as an entity yet continue to provide consistent support for the people that represent us in that body? We speak of bipartisanship but we really mean the other side should give in to whatever we believe is the correct approach.
Can we please stop blaming Trump, Pelosi, "Chuck", Paul Ryan, etc. for a second and look ourselves in the mirror. We need to take responsibility for our actions and stop blaming "others" for whatever happens.
Off my soap box. Happy Friday!
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@Runner What's this "we" business? My actions were fine -- I voted Dem. I take full responsibility for MY actions. I'm still waiting, though, for the GOP to stand up and show some semblance of decency and sanity.
The proposal assumes Trump is thoughtful and rational, whereas he is impulsive and reactive.
From what I've read, the wall is proof. It was meant, by his campaign advisors, to be only a mnemonic device to bring up immigration reform. But the mutual adulation resulting, when he said wall to his supporters, caused the reaction we see now.
There is one more thing that Trump could learn from his shutdown: he's not going to make any forward progress until he enters the real word of truth and facts. Lying about the wall isn't going to win this time. With any luck, this is the beginning of the end of the Post-Truth era.
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I assume that the government workers who take care of Air Force One are working and getting paid time-and-a-half for the overtime.
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This assumes Trump has any interest in governing or performing his oath of office. He doesn't.
We can only hope our Mr. Magoo president fumbles his way out of this latest self-made predicament.
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There are currently two national emergencies: Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.
Only the latter has a slight possibility of learning from this self inflicted predicament, but both should resign in any case.
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Suggest that the President adjust his negotiating style? We were all told he was the genius negotiator who built all those hotels and wrote The Art of the Deal. What happened?
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The constitution is written with the idea that thinking Americans will use it as the nation matures. The flexibility (loopholes) it contains are the result not only of the founding dads' inability to travel into the future, but because they had faith that Americans would have some common sense.
So when trump's army of lawyers look for any excuse for him, the bad faith of the president and his team become the opposite of what the Constitution intended.
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. That's another thing trump and his adoring base could learn.
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Normally people who cross to another country take a route through one or more country.A country is sovereign enough when iy has a handle on who gets in and out of it.The various S.A.countries in order to be taken seriously as a Nation they have to build their capability of policing those who try to migrate to the US and especially the drug smugglers.Yes the US as in the past US Admins even in more coordinated way assist countries in strengthening their policing power.Pres DT doesn't have to rigidly stick to policing via gigantic walls.One helpful approach is assisting parties who take the sovereignty issue seriously and those with the deserved push and assistance to their Economy work towards their citizens much disinclined to migrating.In short a coordinated Intern approach not just throwing money at walls, actually the wall is hardly helpful.TMD.
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@Tefera Worku uh - last time I looked, South America was not a nation. It's a continent, composed of several small nations, each one operating independently.
One huge problem in this country has been the use of loopholes to get around the spirit of whatever law gets in one's way. There is a massive legal/accounting machine extant that does nothing but search for loopholes to be taken advantage of.
Aside from the moral hazards of such things, there is a monetary cost as well, with legislators constantly having to re-legislate laws. They must attempt to perfect the wording of man-made laws in order to present no loopholes to be exploited. This, of course, is virtually impossible.
It's bad when the self-interests of business people make our government work on the same issues over and over again, but when the guy who is in charge of enforcing the laws, in this case Trump, threatens to exploit a loophole, obviously contrary to the spirit of the law that so empowers him, in order to get his way, it treads on being treasonous.
It is your job to uphold the laws of the land, Mr. Trump, not exploit and subvert them as you are not threatening to do. Unless, of course, you had your left hand's fingers crossed when you were sworn in, all those long days ago.
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It's overly generous to give Trump the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is sincerely trying to advance an agenda like a normal president would. What reason is there to think Trump actually believes his own rhetoric about securing the border? Or that his intention is to reach a compromise that will secure funding for the wall? Crisis is the goal so the dysfunction and shutdown is not a failure for the republicans and Trump, it's their strategy.
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There is no greater proof of Trump taking orders from Putin than this shutdown over this ridiculous wall. Trump has once again created chaos, has divided the people and marginalized Congress. He is irreparably harming thousands of good people and undermining the stability of our Democracy. He has weakened our country and done more damage in two years than Putin could have hoped for in a lifetime.
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Trump is a flop as president just as he’s a flop as a businessman. The only thing he’s good for is for people to use his brand, either for or against, to get what they want. In all other respects as businessman or leader, he’s a zero.
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@BillFNYC, yes and his daddy isn't around to intimidate the school principal, which is now the American people. There isn't enough money in the world to pay off Putin's power hunger. trump's bluster and lies are coming for him now.
"negotiating strategy" What is wrong with crying and screaming?
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He is not interested in learning, only winning. He doesn’t care how many people get hurt, only that his own ego doesn’t get hurt. Watching America cowtow to this man’s narcissism is getting to be too much to watch.
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We're missing at least two points:
1) Trump was using the threat of shutdown to divert attention away from a horrendously bad month regarding his investigations. The wall argument was originally intended as a distraction. He was originally willing to sign the Senate budget deal as signaled to McConnell.
2) Fox News and other conservative media goaded him into taking an uncompromising position on wall funding. Trump fell for the bait. The last minute bill rushed through the lame duck Republican House securing wall funding was supposed to provide cover. However, Trump had already blundered through most of these other points so the damage was done. The issue is another "small hands" thing for Trump.
Now we're on a crash course with some outcome. Few, the White House least of all, seems to have any idea what that outcome might be though. Trump has consistently destroyed every opportunity to save face. He's sunk.
However, Trump is using the shutdown mess as an excuse to avoid a trip to Switzerland. Sadly, we won't get to see another round of Europe laughing at our US President.
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Trump has demonstrated time and again that he has no interest in learning anything. To absorb new information into one’s knowledge structure is to admit that one didn’t already know it, and Trump’s ego demands that he already knows everything he needs to know.
And that is the essence of stupidity!
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Trump had to let the shutdown go till today so he could claim that he ordered the longest in history. That's right: it's a victory wreath he wants to wear. It works for his base and the loathsome Limbaugh, Coulter and Hannity.
By hurting millions of people and businesses, it's Trump's way of saying " I showed them who's boss". It's the reasoning of a psychopath.
I am not sure Trump will declare an emergency. ( Will someone please ask Lindsay Graham to limit his grandiose incompetence to the unfortunate souls of South Carolina ). A national emergency alone could be grounds for impeachment , but unquestionably, it will lead to more House hearings as he steals money allocated to other government functions.
The Trump presidency is down to survival. Trump and the GOP have contaminated our nation and it will take years to rid ourselves of the toxins.
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One of the best editorials. Trump is a life-long liar and fraud . Always has been, always will be.
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Donald Trump is a walking civics lesson. Admittedly, it’s not a very pleasant lesson, but if the nation survives it, we’ll be better off than we were.
Or not. Could go either way.
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He needs to be thrown out of office. Gentleness not necessary.
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This guy can't be taught anything. He knows it all and has the emotional development of a three-year old.
2
oh please. He can't learn. He believes he knows everything.
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I now present my rebuttal entitled:
“What Trump WILL Learn From His Shutdown”
Nothing
The End
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As citizen in the Netherlands I observe the developments with a lot of anxiety. Not only American citizens but many other citizens in the Free World depend on co-operation.
My opinion is that the President is extremely capable at creating chaos wherever he is active. Except when he deals with dictators. I fear that autocrats like other autocrats. Having a President that behaves as bully, pathological lier, worldwide chaos creator, disrespecting others with a color, other culture, or political affiliation, disrespecting other actors described in the American Constitution, has to lead to one conclusion: he is an autocrat, a (potential) dictator. And we all know how these dictatorships end…
The question is when and how bad it must be before…
5
Dear majority of the readers,
Please remember that you lost the presidential race in 2016 from a complete outsider without any mainstream media support.
Now you have two alternatives.
Either you portray him as one of the most incompetent individuals in the world. The problem is that you would be ranked even lower than him due to the fact that you lost a race from him.
Or, you could praise him. It would imply that you were just a small step behind.
It would be very smart to use the time span between 2016 and 2020 to eliminate own mistakes that cost you the last elections instead of wasting your energy on belittling the incumbent.
By disparaging him you only humiliate yourself!
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@Kenan Porobic
You seem to have forgotten that the Constitution stipulates that the US has three INDEPENDENT branches of government, in other words is a democracy?
And that each new election creates a new equation in DC, and that THAT is what lawmakers and presidents have to work with, not some equation that existed in the past ... ?
As to your suggestion that evaluating someone's negotiating skills should not be done by looking at how he's negotiating but by looking at whether he wins elections or not: Trump made the last elections all about himself, and he lost. So now, by your own criteria, you'll have to admit that Pelosi has to be "ranked higher" than Trump ... ;-)
So let's stick to facts here for a moment.
You would like journalists to praise Trump's negotiating skills.
Let's suppose that there's indeed a way to do so. Then why aren't you coming up with any concrete arguments, and instead just remember that he won the 2016 elections? Does that mean that even people who WANT to praise his negotiating skills can't find any way to do so ... ?
@Kenan Porobic. What?
Insult doesn’t equal an argument, no?
He's doing a great job. As usual, Liberals don't get it. especially this editorial board.
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@FLP
How can we ever "get it" if even his own supporters here can't come up with anything concrete that could show that he's doing a great job ... ?
Just one question for you, to start with.
The GOP claims that Democrats support "open borders" and that that's why they refuse to build a wall (even though (1) all national security experts, including all Generals in Trump's own cabinet, have publicly explained why a wall is NOT the most efficient way to protect the southern border, (2) less than 1% of border patrol agents believe that they need a wall, and (3) only Obama has been able to get bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform, including tons of fact-based measures to strengthen the southern border, through the Senate (in 2013), whereas the GOP House has refused to hold any vote on it until today).
Let's suppose that that's true for a moment.
Now Trump decided to no longer pay TSA agents and border patrol agents and border immigration judges.
I hope you understand that that de facto moves us into the direction of more open borders?
So HOW could this strategy convince Democrats to start funding a wall, if it's actually giving them all that they are supposed to want, when it comes to borders ... ?
Any idea?
I’ve read extensively on this shutdown including these pages.
The most enlightening:
1) build an Israeli style Smart Fence and use tech and monitoring to be tight
2) GOP will look even worse as airport and port borders are more porous. Time to exit international terminal at LAX this week after immigration for citizens in my family: 2 hours
3) the NYT is underestimating Fox News. They call the shots. Why not call a round table yourselves? No unbiased reporting.
4) The end game is overcoming a veto with 2/3rds.
5) We all need to seriously consider what legislation we need for when Dems are in power. Obama’s exec orders are the precursors to this mess. Read Kevin Kruse’s brilliant piece on the Imperial Presidency.
Why do you think that Dear Leader wants to learn? With respect, I believe this to be dangerously naive. I think he (and the Entire GOP) understand exactly what he's doing. They want one-party rule. As Elizabeth Zerofsky has written about Victor Orban and Fidesz in Hungary, the GOP and their Great Orange Hope will very likely find just-legal-enough "constitutional" means to achieve their aims. As someone who grew up in Europe, I am disturbed by the degree of "it can't happen here-Think" among American elites. I'm sorry, but the house is on fire.
2
You know he is not going to change, or listen to anyone who suggests he does so. Save your efforts for something that might reallly happen, like electing only Democrats in 2020.
The NYT still doesn't get it: Trump can't and won't "learn." Learning requires listening, genuine interest in betterment, self-reflection, open-mindedness, creativity, flexibility and above all, recognition that one does not have all the answers. None of these are the qualities of a malignant narcissist--even a clever (but not intelligent) one. Similarly, his base doesn't "learn." His propaganda outlet, Fox News, doesn't "learn."
@JCX I think that the NYT “gets it”. But what you don’t get is irony.
The Park Service is responsible for the White House. They should shut it down.
3
I'm sorry, but you lost everyone after "what Trump could learn".
While I'd like to think that you're at least leaning towards the facetious here ("gently explain"), I feel this piece is just another waste of space.
You keep talking about him as if he falls anywhere within the realm of normal and is simply misguided.
He's all id. He's all noise.
There's no insight, no inner life, no evolving, no growth, no learning ,no development, no empathy. It's exhausting.
2
I wasn't aware that Trump has the capacity to "learn".
He's stuck in third grade, . . . in perpetuity.
I have taught third grade children and none of them ever acted like Trump. I believe toddler is closer to the true diagnosis.
"Gently"? Why? Is he a child? Are we his frustrated parents?
This Idea is a “dog that won’t hunt”
If this was a real emergency Trump and Melania would be out throwing paper towels to Americans living along the borders.
2
The politics is for the fools only.
Only those individuals could be attracted by such a smelly bait and start hating their first neighbors over the selfish politicians who leave the elected office full of the money and secured future careers while leaving behind a country mired in the colossal national debt, endless wars, trade deficits and lost jobs.
How many ex-politicians did donate whatever they earned from the overpriced memoirs and speeches to the needy and sick?
Whom did the politicians fight for, themselves or the country?
Compare their tax returns and you will learn the truth…
1
“proudly ignorant”
Yep - and there you have it. No more. No less.
1
"What Trump Could Learn From His Shutdown"
haha, as if.
2
You are kidding! In no universe will Trump ever "learn" anything. It will have to be forced down his throat and, to effect change, he will have to be summarily removed from any position of power or influence. This isn't political, it's Trump - our worst American disgrace in the history of this Republic.
2
another great piece By The Editorial Board
Trumps justifications for the border wall are completely nonsensical, given that no one is backpacking arms and drugs through the Sonora desert when they could just drive them across the border, but building it in the end hurts very few. For Trump, delivering the wall is delivering his one consistent campaign promise. It shows that he can and will make good on what his voters wanted. For Democrats, “no wall” was never the most important issue, so how can they choose to die on their sword, and damage the lives of hundreds of thousands of government employees, over something so silly? This is politics at it’s worst.
Ridiculous. He'll never learn anything. When will YOU folks learn?
You continue to speak of him as if he is merely misinformed or misguided.
He's not the Tin Man, who needs only to be shown that he's had a heart (or conscience) all along. He doesn't see or hear anything but himself.
2
Trump showed his hand when, during the campaign, he stated “you have to be able to walk out of negotiations, because you’ll get a call the next day asking you to return”.
This man has no sense of the suffering he is imposing due to the shut down. His comment for those affected was “they’ll adjust” . Reminds me of “let them eat cake”
1
Let's stop "Hoping" things will change... "Hope" will get us nowhere. IT IS TIME FOR RESPONSIBLE ACTION at ALL Levels... Families, Neighborhoods, Communities, Schools... Pay attention. Think. Reflect and ACT to CHANGE the dangerous path this country is on. Trump and McConnell and the rampant greed of many of America's Uber Wealthy carry the responsibility for the mess we are in... But WE, THE PEOPLE... ALL OF US share in the blame this disgusting and dangerous mess. The question remains: Are we going to allow the racism, misogyny, and greed that Trump promotes to destroy this country? It's up to us. WE MUST ALL PAY ATTENTION & ACT. Respectfully, Responsibly. Relentlessly.
2
Donald Trump is incapable of learning how government or much else works, and how damaging the consequences of his actions are, nor does he care. As long as he might be proven wrong, or seen as weak, he will never change his mind, never budge from a stance now imbedded in concrete... hmmm.
We and our country are held hostage to a narcissist's ignorance and insidious stupidity which is supported by the complicity of Congressional Republicans.
The price we will pay for this is, and will continue to be, enormous. I am sorry Trump et.al. will not pay a heavy prices for the damage being done.
President Trump is willing to negotiate. The Democrats are not. Nancy Pelosi has said she will never give President his wall. Maybe someone needs to explain to Mrs. Pelosi that to get something you must give something in return.
@WPLMMT
Indeed, once a president shuts down the government when he doesn't have the votes in Congress to pass a bill in a legal, democratic way, he's asking Congress to give up its constitutional independence, all while no longer fulfilling his own constitutional duty to implement already existing law (= what an appropriation bill funds, NOT new projects that haven't been signed into law yet).
IF Congress would accept to nevertheless negotiate in such circumstances, they would actively eliminate its independence, as from now on, all that any president would have to do to get what he wants from Congres is to start harming America's safety by no longer paying TSA agents, border patrol agents, FDA food inspectors etc.
So it would install a dictatorship, you see? It wouldn't matter any longer whom "we the people" elect in Congress.
THAT is why Pelosi can't negotiate as long as the GOP refuses to pass an appropriation bill.
Now secondly, in order to teach the GOP a lesson and make them understand that they can NEVER do this again to America, Pelosi now HAS to vow that each time that the GOP tries to attach a new project to a future appropriation bill, knowing that they don't have the votes to pass that project, BY DEFINITION that project will turn into a TOXIC item, that from now on will NEVER EVER become part of a future compromise.
That is the only way to make sure that a GOP president never stops paying TSA agents and doing his constitutional job, you see?
One of the key attributes of narcissism is a complete lack of empathy, or the ability or interest in "reading" and connecting with others. Need I say more??
It's not possible for DONALD J. TRUMP to repent, because he has NEVER lost an argument, never used poor judgment, never joined the Boy Scouts, never served in the military.
TLS certificates expired on government's web sites and there's nobody on hand to renew them. Blame middle management. Fire them all!
He doesn't learn.
He doesn't change.
He doesn't 'back out of messes', he doubles down.
Because ... he's a malignant narcissist.
"What Trump could learn..."
Pretty much everything.
As someone who is living paycheck to paycheck, I know the stress of living under this burden, wondering if I will have enough money to pay rent and buy groceries. But at least I will be getting my paycheck when it is due. Why punish working people who are just trying to get by? This "president" has no regard for anyone other than himself. I'm sick and tired of the lies. When will this national nightmare end? Enough is enough.
1
Wow. I'm sure Mr. Trump will hang on every "gentle" word in this editorial and change his evil ways accordingly.
What can the adoring Trump base learn from the shutdown?
Probably, absolutely nothing. At least the reluctant Obama-Trump voters may be seeing their grave errors.
Trump learns nothing from this shutdown, other than how powerful he is, getting 800,000 FED workers to do his bidding, without getting paid, making all decisions and so far getting away with it
Elected Republicans must be getting some fat bag of cash to go along with this, they are at the very least enabling the destruction of the world’s greatest country by the worse individual to ever hold office
There will be payback...its madness to allow this to happen
Maybe we we could just start something on GoFundMe to buy the president a bundle of lego or duplo blocks?
When Trump takes government employees as hostages and demands money for it, we called terrorism.
Actually, how about we just stand by the good guys in this saga, and support the democrats leading our government back toward sanity? How about some full-throated support of the non-crazy, and shaming of the enabling republican senators who have it in their power to solve this with a bipartisan clean bill?
How about we stop with the concern trolling? Trump doesn't want to hear it. Nobody does.
The most dangerous man in all of France
When matched against Trump doesn’t stand a chance
Of course Jacques Clouseau
Wasn’t real you know
And for now we’re stuck with Trump’s song and dance
Gently explain? Gently?
Trump listens to no one; whatever are you thinking?
1
Expecting or even just hoping that he's capable of learning anything is foolish. The man is pathetically incapable of admitting error or educating himself in any way.
Let's cut to the bottom line. The National Emergency is Trump and his delusional hysteria. The remedy is removal from office, not just of him but of all who came with him and support him. He is a metastacizing cancer within our body politic, and partial removal will only result in a partial cure.
If he really is willing to go to such horrible lengths to get his wall, maybe it is because he is suffering from paranoid delusions.
1
In the December meeting it was obvious that Trmp thought Pelosi would cave when he said that “...Nancy maybe has an opinion she can’t say right now...”. That is on TV. She blew him out of the water on that immediately.
I`ll say it again
The man never really wanted to actually BE president
except in perhaps some storybook dream of his imagination..
All he really wanted to do was WIN....
(and take down Obama for embarrassing him at that press dinner)
Trump is accomplishing what the Russians got him elected for: to ruin the U.S.economy through unnecessary trade wars,paralyze the government,ferment discontent among our traditional allies,create new enemies such as China and get us out of Syria.
2
No! Someone has to explain to NYT editorial board that we are not interested in gently explaining anything to 45. We simply want him gone; and barring that outcome, we want the news media to do their jobs better - where oh where are the Woodwards and Bernsteins? - and Congress to do its job period!
1
Here's an idea -- the president should declare a National Emergency to pay the federal workers he's shut out.
"Could" is the operative word in the headline. "Won't" will be the likely outcome.
Republicans shouldn’t even bother to offer up a candidate for the executive branch in 2020 unless God himself is their standard bearer
This President is an immoral human being who doesn’t read or reflect. His goal is to please himself and harm others who have the slightest disagreement with him. It is about time the Editorial Board stated that and stop trying to educate him....
You have tried to present rational opinions and that serves no purpose....
“Apparently, Mr. Trump never got around to reading...”
Actually, you can stop there, and that’s his (and our) main problem.
1
Next editorial: what Mitch McConnell should learn about the system. Is he still comatose?
3
Dictator’s takeover plan
1- initiate a situation to declare a public safety emergency
2- invoke emergency powers to sideline elected representation
3- control the press
4- control the judiciary
5- declare martial law and seize all power as commander in chief
6- ally with other dictators and solidify power base
2
One of the best headlines for an article yet. Good one NYT.
Why gently?
Please, New York Times Editorial Board, stop trying to help Trump.
If he was just inept, maybe I could see it.
But Trump is also -- according to your own editorials -- unempathic, narcissistic, autocratic, emotionally immature, vindictive, corrupt.
Do you really want someone like that to succeed?
So the president wants a big wall
But federal employees are hurt most of all
He threatens an emergency
Against Democrat's insurgency
Thank god Pelosi stands tall.
Government by Fox News; the way forward to Presidency For Life.
1
The headline to this editorial must be a cruel joke. Trump hasn’t learn anything since he sat by Roy Cohn’s knee, and he certainly isn’t going to start now.
Blame goes as much to Trump’s two predecessors, as to his two years in office...
Every fiscal time-bomb and option ARM IOU Dubya and Obama set to explode after they were safely out – well, guess what...
This isn’t about people flooding into the US from Mexico...
It’s about global-scale technical and political leadership and nation-scale prosperity flooding out of the US into China...
The evidence and outcomes of their several decades of – as Bill Gates might have said – embracing and extending capitalism, now everywhere...
From energy to information to materials to biochemical technologies...
From nation-scale DC power distribution and rail transportation to genuine 5G networking – vs reruns of old TV channels...
The wall isn’t even a shiny object to distract – it’s downright dull...
Perhaps we could hold a referendum, on whether to exit the planet – deal or no deal...
Or – as with everything else – let SCOTUS decide, once RBG's replacement is ensconced...
They’d probably be wise to leave it to individual states, as to whether China exists or not...
Gently explain? I don't care about coddling this 72 year old man and his psychosis. He needs to be impeached, indicted and go to prison.
2
The Editorial Board of The NY Times must be really, really slow learners. You live in NYC, you’ve seen Trump over his entire life . . . . Has he once ever adjusted his behavior or words to anyone or any thing unless forced to by the Courts or threats of violence? Trying to “teach” or “educate” someone who believes he knows more than you do is pointless, unless you plan to punch his lights out. Save your breath and in the future aim your persuasion to the Senate Republicans. You might have just a teensy bit more luck there, although you don’t have the kind of money that the Koch Bros. et al. are spreading around.
1
Food for thought. But, given his superb arrogance...arising from his deep ignorance (thinking he knows more than the 'generals'), it is doubtful he'll listen to anybody, however knowledgeable and prudent. This vulgar bully is a lost case, a loose cannon shooting at the sky...and expecting golden rain to fall on his lap. Quite frankly, short of expelling him from the White House, he'll go on and trample on this republic as if there were no tomorrow. His government shutdown, now 3 weeks and with no end in sight, is a fabricated crisis of his own making, a most stupid Trumpian move.
1
Trump learn something? Surely you jest.
2
If this was a real national emergency, Trump and Melania would be out throwing paper towels to Americans living along our Southern border.
1
What Mr. Trump could learn, and what he will learn, are two entirely different things. He will never learn how to be a leader or a negotiator because he believes he is already, so there is nothing to learn. He refuses to learn new lessons; he is not curious, nor does he listen to or accept criticism, however offered. He is without a moral compass, and has no values except himself to base his opportunities on. He is simply bereft of change. He is hopeless.
3
Beyond an ego trip and display of political power, what if the shutdown was really meant to punish the country? After all, loosening regulations, letting others pillage the Treasury, and vanquishing those who are qualified to serve. Not to mention lifting sanctions. Who would a shut down also serve?
1
There was much assumption at the start of the Trump presidency, that Mr. Trump will learn how to perform his functions. We all remember what former Speaker Paul Ryan said - give him time. He will learn. Two years has passed by, between then, and now. And, we all know what we see today.
Mr. Trump does not read. How would we expect him to learn? The learning should have happened well before the shutdown. To understand the repercussions and the impact on the lives of people. Does Mr. Trump not receive or seek counsel, from those around him? Today, Friday - January 11 is the day when those thousands of federal employees will be without their pay checks. Does Mr. Trump understand or realize the plight of these federal employees and their families? That is where the learning is.
We are all for security at the southern border. Not to resort for a ridiculous Wall, as an option. There are many other ways to secure the border. Not spend 5 billion dollars or more. Where would this money come from?
The republican party members were in majority in Congress for almost two years. Why was the subject not addressed then? Today, we see Mitch McConnell refusing to end the shutdown. He is saying that 'political stunts' does not help. McConnell is the one who is resorting to the political gamesmanship. He is afraid to give in because, there will be more resolutions coming his way from the House. It is party over interests of the people and country.
No one seems to be learning.
4
Cadet bonespurs is a reflection of his political base, and if you want to understand him, go talk to them for a couple of minutes. That’s all the time it will take.
3
This editorial is well-meaning but its weak rhetorical device--"a failure to grasp...a failure to understand..." is totally beside the point. Trump is not in the business of "understanding," in the sense of any willingness or capacity to acknowledge that an issue has ramifications beyond his personal interest. The problem is never that others haven't found a way to enlighten him. His objective was always to run the country the way he ran his private business, by whim for immediate personal gain, and into the ground when it pleased him and he could get away with it. Which he did multiple times. The only relevant question is why has it been possible for the president of the U.S. to take control of the country and run it like his personal real estate empire. All the rest is commentary.
6
What negotiating strategy? For that matter, what strategy of any kind? This is an angry, incompetent narcissist incapable of rational, intelligent thought. He lies continually while shifting positions with the incoherence that is the result of unjustified self confidence combined with no interest in anything but himself. Literally useless as a leader.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
1
At last, some real costs to playing exclusively to the base, while ignoring/antagonizing all other political centers of gravity. Affirmation that the normal laws of physics still apply.
1
I have been wondering for weeks now why the major airlines are not putting pressure on Congress and the President. This shutdown affects a major and vital transportation industry. What will happen when there are no TSA agents or air traffic controllers because they have quit to find jobs that will actually pay them?
Congress and our president have created and are continuing this disaster. It's a cowardly game of chicken that must stop immediately.
2
You can't adjust a negotiating strategy if you don't have one to begin with.
The Art of the Deal is pure fiction. Just ask the guy who wrote it.
7
@rockfanNYC
Yesterday on MBSCN, Barbara Res, who was the vice-president of the Trump Organization, confirmed the exact same thing.
She said that Trump never ever accepted any responsibility for any failure, and never believed that he was good at getting deals in the first place, whereas Schwartz, the autor of the book, added that most of the deals mentioned in the book ended up becoming failures...
The major point missing here is getting the things you want done well before the deadline. The shutdown is caused by trump not telling the senate republicans he wanted the wall soon enough. They passed a CR unanimously, so why is there a shutdown? This is on Mute Mitch.
3
Remember Trump denying medical care to a baby in his family because the parents were disputing an inheritance with him.
Trump sees bullying and indifference to others as strength and "toughness".
Unfortunately, so do a lot of his fans. Only if the pain comes home to them personally will they abandon him.
8
@Tokyo Tea
Don't forget that the GOP won the 2016 elections by massively lying to their own voters (as they did in 2010 and 2014), and thanks to Fox News, which doesn't debunk those lies but spreads them 24/7 and then adds new ones to them (which Trump then copy-pastes in tweets, and that gives them the feeling that "he gets it"), GOP voters are now living in a complete "alternative facts" bubble.
So when the pain comes home, all that the GOP has to do is to create a narrative where it's all Democrats' fault, and as long as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh accept to spread this narrative too, GOP voters will continue to support the GOP.
3
Forward thinking strategy is not him. Still hasn't learned he's not the boss but a government employee. National Emergency too great a risk (Jared knows this). Declares it, moves money, etc., then he has no choice but to re-open by signing the bills. But what happens if Courts strike this down? No wall and open Government. Lose-lose for Trump
2
We do have a national crisis we must avert. Call in all the available hands!
The National Crisis is sitting in the oval office. And what this article makes clear is that any person who has failed so infamously with all the listed points does not belong in the office of the president.
7
Maybe someone should gently explain to the Editorial board that it is premature to critique a negotiating strategy when the negotiations remain ongoing. We do not yet know how this will end.
2
@Ambrose Rivers
Except that they are not negotiating, remember?
Democrats can't negotiate as long as the GOP keeps the government shut because IF they would accept to negotiate BECAUSE of the fact that the GOP is deliberately harming America's safety (by not paying TSA agents, border patrol agents, FDA food inspectors etc.), then the GOP would see that this strategy works and do it over and over again in the future, each time that they don't have the votes to do whatever they want.
So negotiating and compromising is ONLY possible as soon as the president takes up his constitutional duty to implement already existing law again.
And of course, to teach him a lesson and make sure that he'll never inflict this on America again, the only solution is to make him and McConnell understand that IF they start tying controversial project for which there is no majority in Congress to appropriation bills (= bills funding EXISTING law, not new law), then that project will NEVER be part of any future compromise bill again.
So the best way to NOT and NEVER sign your campaign agenda into law, Pelosi is teaching Trump and McConnell here, is to start shutting down the government.
THAT is when all negotiations, by principle, end.
3
And Trump is refusing to negotiate too (he stormed out of the last meeting, remember, and didn't schedule any new one), because that would mean, from a GOP point of view, a compromise on immigration, which Trump already said he rejects.
2
Trump’s “negotiating strategy” has always been to make demands and walk away (or sue—or declare bankruptcy) if he doesn’t get his way. Unfortunately, now he’s negotiating with our lives in his hands and he only wants to win, collateral damage (we the people) be damned.
Be advised: you are putting your confidence in a Con Man.
70,000 people died last year alone from opiod overdose. The average age was 21 years old. By comparison, 58,000 young men died in the entire Vietnam war. A comprehensive border security plan, including a border wall, is worth it if it saves a small fraction of the 70,000 young men and women (still kids to me) that are dying each year. We need to take politics out of this debate as our nations future are literally dying - seriously what kind of parents/society have we become?
@brian nelson
THAT was the case a year ago, when the GOP had won the elections.
Now they lost. So they don't have the political capital to impose a (proven to be ineffective) wall on the country anymore.
On top of that, now they shut down the government, in other words decided to use their political power to undermine the president's constitutional duty to implement already existing law.
By refusing to pass a normal appropriations bill (= bill that gives the Executive branch of government the means to do what is needed to "execute" the bills already signed into law for the next year) and attaching a NEW bill to it (building a wall), by definition you turn that new bill into a completely TOXIC item, which from now on cannot even be integrated in future compromise bills once the government starts doing its job again, as doing so would mean allowing any president or member of Congress to hurt America in order to obtain something from the American people, rather than convincing the American people to elect a Congress that has the votes to sign it into law.
That's why now, by definition:
1. no negotiations are possible as long as the government is closed, TSA agents aren't paid etc.
2. once talks resume, a wall cannot possibly be part of a compromise anymore.
If not, it's democracy itself that is gone, you see?
6
The problem is that according to a study by the DEA in 2018 and John Kelly in 2017 the vast majority of those drugs come right in through ports of entry. If you ask the folks who work down on the border what they need one thing is x-ray equipment for the vehicles passing through. Right now they have the capacity to scan only 2% of the vehicles passing through. Why didn't Trump propose this instead of spending the money on a wall that would have far less impact? He dug himself into a hold of pride from a campaign promise that began as a metaphor for being tough on immigration.
As for terrorists and criminals coming across the border, studies show that they are far more likely to come from Canada that shares a border twice as long and much more porous than the one with Canada. Why is a better wall with our neighbors to the north not being discussed? Could it have anything to do with skin color?
The opioid crisis is horrific and real. I have lost a cousin, nephew and niece to pills/ heroin in the past 10 years. 5 billion dollars could go a long way to helping the problem. If the demand for drugs is there, smugglers will find a way to supply. How can we address the demand problem?
The areas where the problem is the worst is where economic opportunity has dried up. Local industry has disappeared. Young people feel hopeless. Why not propose to spend the money on job retraining and tax incentives for companies to move to these areas?
6
@brian nelson
A large portion of those deaths are due to prescription opiods. Those are manufactured and sold by large pharmaceutical companies and prescribed by doctors in the United States. Has nothing to do with immigration or any borders.
5
When do you inform us more fully about the fact that class action lawsuits by those required to work without pay have succeeded in previous shutdowns (2013), and that the court has awarded double pay as a penalty for the government having violated the Fair Labor Standards Act which requires paying on time. And that a class action lawsuit has apparently already been filed in this current shutdown. So how much over and above payroll (likely penalty) money each day is piling up for the taxpayer to pay in the event of a successful class action. More on daily real $ cost please.
6
@Peter Turner
The Times already wrote about this.
Concretely, that means that indeed, when the GOP tells its voters that a shutdown is "good" for the country as it means "small government", they are once AGAIN betraying their own people, as it strongly increases government spending - and by law.
11
it's easy to see how DJT must have run his businesses. With threats, intimidation and without respect for the people he was dealing with. DJT has just "taken" for years and never given back or paid anything forward. Even his charity was a fraud.
He seems to lack the ability (as we used to say) to improvise, adapt and overcome. We also had an expression that reflected a very bad situation. One was said to be in "Deep Kimchee" and that is where we are at today as seems to not be up to the task at hand. God help us if some real crisis erupts that needs American leadership as we know there is none....
5
Are you kidding? Gently explaining anything to Trump? Really, how could you write such nonsense?
4
Trump isn't interested in learning neither are members of the Administration. Eliminate underestimating Nancy Pelosi all other 5 are reasons he needs to be removed and Congressional members who support him are equally as dangerous. He never was my President and it sickens me when I hear statements from McConnell, Graham et al that he deserves respect or deference because he holds the title. The border isn't the national emergency Trump is.
8
What negotiating strategy are you referring to? He has none and he has never had any ability to negotiate. Others manipulate Trump by praise and fawning. He is now in a position where he can be blackmailed. Where are the Republican moderates and conservatives that believe in our Constitution?
9
Actually, Trump's negotiation style is far more effective than you are willing to admit. He will almost certainly obtain significant concessions from the democrats when the bill finally does get signed into law. He doesn't care about the damage done by the shutdown- and in fact, when his base realizes that it's the fastest way to reduce the size of government, they're going to triple-down.
Democrats should just eat the $5B cost and move on.
2
@David Konerding
Democrats don't eat the $5B, the taxpayer do.
Why should he adjust his negotiating strategy? It seems to be working well enough as he breaks one thing after another - including the constitution - on his march to martial law. The more chaos the better. If you don't believe it ask his base... or his party.
Republicans are feeling TRiUMPhant.
3
The Republicans in the Senate, starting with Mitch McConnell who could stop this horror, should be impeached for violating their oaths of office. McConnell had no problem passing the tax cut for the wealthy, denying a sitting President his choice of Supreme Court justice, trying to gut the Affordable Health Care Act ( even as many in his own state relied on it) His whining about why he can't stop this should be played again and again on television.
Democrats- do your job and fight for this democracy!
15
@hw: The US Senate decides all cases of impeachment. The US Congress establishes a case of impeachment by resolution, and prosecutes the case in a trial adjudicated by the chief justice of the US Supreme Court with the Senate acting as a jury. A two thirds vote of the senators voting at all is required to convict and remove an impeached president.
If all of the Republican senators abstained from voting in an impeachment trial, the Democrats could remove Trump for them.
The people of Kentucky may be able to recall McConnell under some provision of that state's constitution, but McConnell cannot be removed by impeachment. And the Republicans in the Senate could elect a different majority leader.
3
I have yet to see it explained in detail why this "flash point" was not resolved in the two years prior to January 2019. Everyone knows you want to negotiate from a place of power. Trump had that position, then lost it in the 2018 elections, and here we are.
And that's the real question: why now? Was this whole thing a horrible planned political stunt? [Dear lord, I hope we have not fallen that far.] Or was it a political planning flub: did the Republicans expect to keep the House and just kept pushing the wall back to 2019? Was Trump waiting for more support drummed up from his invented crises? Or was the wall really a problem for Republicans over the last two years? Were there simply not enough hours in the 730 days when the Republicans controlled the Hill?
It just doesn't make sense. Trump may be many things, but he isn't so daft that "negotiate from a place of power" goes over his head. Why did he squander that position to the detriment of what has been a sticking point for him from day one? What happened in back rooms of D.C. that got us to where we are?
4
There’s a clue near the end of the piece: the Republicans worry more about their “political hides” than about the welfare of the people.
I believe the new (younger) members of the House will hold the moral line, and Nancy Pelosi will hold feet to the fire. I’m optimistic we are in the nadir if the trump regime.
2
@htg
There are three reasons the wall was never part of any bill during Trump's first year in office:
1. It was invented as a campaign slogan by Trump's campaign staff, NOT the result of an analysis of national security reports by his national security advisers (who by the way all oppose it), so Trump himself probably has never been convinced of the need of a real wall in the first place - as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh know.
2. Trump and the GOP focused on Obamacare and then their tax cuts for the wealthiest first. They planned to try to tackle comprehensive immigration reform later on.
And as they were focused on other things, Trump unexpectedly signed an Executive Order that would end DACA in March 2018. He claimed that it was only because he considered it to be illegal, not because he opposed it, and that this was his way to force Congress to finally pass the bipartisan Dream Act, so that DACA would become legal.
So during the next appropriation bill negotiations (a short time stopgap bill, as since 2010 the GOP refuses to pass normal, year-long law implementation budgets), Democrats logically asked to simultaneously pass the Dream Act. Trump refused, but told them that IF they would vote for a clean stopgap bill, then he'd accept to tie it to the next one. Then he flip-flopped when it was time to sign the next one, and refused but promised to accept to do so with the third one. And then he flip-flopped again.
That showed them that you can't negotiate with him.
1
One word: Mueller.
Suggest we take a third approach. Call for a one time only referendum on a single issue: do Americans support a steel barrier between USA and Mexico? Should we consider a naval blockade east and west? Should we cut off 2.5 thousand miles between Canada and USA? Should a no fly zone be fortified over USA territory?
Or should we consider a total reformed immigration policy and implementation?
3
My suggestion: poll voters to determine those who actually want the wall. Then divide the cost of wall maintenance and construction and send each of those voters a bill for that amount.
1
@Sister Meg Funk
Why would deciding matters about national security by mere referendum be a good idea?
The point of the entire "debate" about a wall is precisely that all national security experts (= those with acces to the relevant information), including the Generals in Trump's own cabinet, have publicly shown that a wall is NOT the most efficient way to protect the southern border.
Trump didn't consult any national security advisers when as a candidate he came up with his "build the wall!!" slogan, he only consulted campaign advisers.
That's why he never had a plan of how to concretely build it, how much it would cost, etc.
He also never engaged in real negotiations with the GOP to get it signed into law.
Finally, the last elections WERE a referendum on Trump and as a consequence on his campaign slogans. It resulted in the biggest voter gap between both parties (both in the House and Senate) in three decades ... and it's the party that opposes the wall that won.
And then we're not even talking about the fact that today the GOP is refusing to pass and sign into law a routine appropriation bill, knowing that these are necessary to fund the implementation of already existing law (= the president's constitutional duty).
Accepting to negotiate in such circumstances is totally unacceptable, as of course, from now on the GOP would then constantly start harming America, just to get its agenda signed into law each time when they don't have the votes to do so.
4
Buried again:
Oh for heaven's sake. "Gently explain"? Is the NY Times editorial board as demented as he is? He doesn't care about anybody or anything except himself - just like all mentally ill and/or substance abuse people - and he will not listen.
Let's see some REAL heroes. Good People with power and a moral compass in OUR political, legal and military complexes MUST join together and step in now to stop him.
PLEASE!
5
The shutdown will undoubtedly end at some point. When how is uncertain. However, what is certain is that when it does end Trump will claim victory. And it will be a BIG one.
2
I think it's worth pointing out: when Republicans led both houses of Congress, they didn't give their Republican president the wall. The timing of this wall obsession and the shutdown make it more stunt than Republican imperative. Trump's own ignorance has boxed him him -- and millions are paying for his ignorance. Sadly, he just doesn't care. I hope his base is picking up on THAT. If only we all had a daddy to bail us out.
11
Trump never learned the art of the deal, only the arts of lying and bankrupcy. And, since he is his own biggest fan, he doesn't want to learn anything, be it trade, economics, foreign policy, military strategy or simply how to govern. He doesn't really want a wall; he wants a fight over the wall and he wants to continue fighting about it as a never-ending campaign tactic for the next two years. He doesn't care how many people he hurts, the economic damage he is doing and the chaos he creates in our foreign policy. He likes being a wrecking ball, and will continue to endangerous our national security as long as Republican senators allow it.
5
It has been interesting to see the shattering of the Republican Party’s demonizing of Pelosi into a complete myth. It was clear in the televised White House argument between Trump Schumer and Pelosi that Pelosi was the most confident articulate adult in the room. Her behavior in public since re-elected Speaker just amplifies that. The Republicans should put their animosity toward Pelosi into the Ash Heap of history along with their unhealthy obsession with HRC’s emails.
8
Nothing more needs to be added. The man is unqualified, vile, without a shred of class or dignity, and -- by any standards -- prison-worthy. Get rid of him by ANY means.
In the meantime, we need to concentrate on selecting and vetting his prospective successors as president, and successors to the Republican "leadership" who have failed America. It's time to remove organized crime from our government.
9
Trump is fighting for a wall while TSA agents at airports and BorderSecurity personnel work without pay. How to demoralize the people you want to protect the public. Some are calling in sick. Only Trump could wreck security!
4
@jlcsarasota
Not paying your workers and demoralizing them is a sure way to create lots of Edward Snowdens, with a grudge and a security clearance. So much for Trumps interest in the security of the nation!
Nothing can be allowed to come of these horrible negotiating tactics. You can not use federal works, DACA recipients, disaster relief victims or anyone else as pawns in a political game. How can Trump base believe they support an America first agenda while they sit by and idly watch these kind of harmful tactics play out? This is not making us stronger. We are an international disgrace and it is all on Trump and the Republicans who sit silently and let him get away with it.
4
If my memory of the 2016-17 “brain trust” that served the President is correct, their primary goal was not just to clean the
“proverbial swamp” but to destroy government. So far, brick by brick, institution by institution, their work has gone almost unnoticed and they are hollowed out. Now as forlouged government employees, one by one, consider other job options, and the Senate is supine- the goal is close to being accomplished. The tweets, bluffs and tantrums are merely shadow plays of “shock and awe.”
4
If Trump wants his wall give it to him in exchange for citizenship for the dreamers, restoring the SALT deduction, putting DoD back on to the old budget rules.
I hope the Democrats, Nancy and Chuck leading the way, continue their refusal to bend to Trump's will. They are the only way to change the manner and method of the GOP and Trump in their reckless, dangerous, bellicose, expensive, ridiculous and careless way. Trump leads them and McConnell et al follow. Trump's "base" should not lead policy, nor the president, but that's how Trump plays it. The trip to Texas a fool's errand. Many are being hurt by this shut-down, but Trump must be stopped.
There's two kinds of ignorance, accidental and willful.
This piece is written from the point of view that Trump has the first kind.
He doesn't, and neither do most of his supporters.
1
Please explain why the word McConnell isn’t in your editorial even once? The Senate and senators have the power to stop this ridiculous shutdown too. They’re choosing to hide that fact and YOU’RE letting them do so. Why?
6
The exclusive culprit for the governmental shutdown is the lousy Democratic Party.
It is so delusional that is started reinventing the world history in order to oppose the White House.
The GOP foolishly claimed 8 years ago that Obama Barack wasn’t the US citizen. Pelosi and Schumer’s claim that the walls are useless is in the direct contradiction with several millenniums of the human history.
If only the Chinese emperors were as smart as the Democratic elite, they would have never constructed the Great Wall. Allegedly, just a waste of time and money...
What is the next move for the Democrats - a demand for the destruction of the Western Wall in Jerusalem?!
Those people really know how to choose the losing battles.
That’s why a complete outsider like Donald Trump was able to defeat them in 2006.
The Democratic elite betrayed the middle class and the workers. That’s why they lost the White House race but opted to portray a half of America as the racists to justify own incompetence!
Losing a political race isn’t a symptom of racism but stupidity!
@Kenan Porobic. You referenced the Great Wall of China, so you should be mindful of why it was effective. It was built to stop HORSES not people, or more accurately people on horseback. Horses can't climb walls, so gaps were placed to funnel Invaders to the holes, where defenses were marshalled. Humans will ALWAYS find ways in/around/under/over and through walls. A better,albeit far more expensive alternative, is troops patrolling 24hrs a day, 7 days week, 365 days per year. An unmanned wall along 3000 miles of border is a boondoggle, and you know it. P.S. the other wall you mentioned is manned along its entirety.
@Kenan Porobic
A number of points that seem muddled and don't really flow to anywhere. Please re-write with a more thoughtful discussion.
@Bill
The walls are for the good and honest people so they know they shouldn't enter the premises without explicit owner approval. Of course the thieves are capable of jumping over the walls but such an act deprives them of any assumption of innocence. It means the walls are effective in separating good from bad people.
There are no words sufficiently condemnatory of McConnell's complicity in the idiocy that is Trump. But it's long past time for the Republican senators to remember that their constituents elected them, not McConnell,to represent the people of their states. Since McConnell has repeatedly made it impossible for them to fulfill their oath of office, they are OBLIGATED to remove him.
6
Why should he adjust? He's getting what he wants, the Republican Senate is enabling him, and he's stacked the supreme court.
He clearly can go ahead and declare a national emergency, make himself emperor for life, and no one with any power wants to stop him. They are too busy chanting, "Make America Great Again".
There is really only one wall at play here. It is the one that is closing in on Trump as Mueller gets closer to wrapping up his investigation and Cohen gets to publicly spill the beans on “NO COLLUSION” Donald.
Blackmailers, kidnappers, protection gangs —they do not stop demanding when their first demand is met. Chamberlain found out in the 1930s that appeasement doesn’t work. Why cannot McConnell figure it out?
I hope you meant 'gently' as a joke. Mr Trump does not learn from anything, except perhaps a whiff of scorn. As an uber narcissist, the only thing that goes in is his own delusion of ascent. To take him down, and his shutdown with him, go ahead and treat him like a joke who seized control. Both impeachment proceedings & huge balloons with his image on (as an infant trump in diapers) it that people can pop would be a way for him to 'learn.'
Trump could stand to learn many things, but that is meaningless because he is willing to learn nothing.
Trumps latest call to emergency powers merely cements the fact that he’s incompetent and has no deal-making sense. By making this threat, he actually loses all leverage and shows that he is in fact the only one that owns this shutdown. First, all indications are that this strategy will fail under direct legal challenge. Second, by offering a unilateral alternative he can no longer justify using other government agencies now closed as leverage - the border security deal to be made has now been reduced to acting on this (empty) threat versus attempting to reach a deal with Democrats on border security. He is painted into a corner, and so are the foolish republicans that continue to stand behind him.
2
This is what happens when we allow someone who is willfully ignorant of the legislative process to become chief executive.
Today’s Congress represents the will of the American people. Mr Trump’s frustration is with us.
Mr Trump has never been subject to oversight by a corporate board of directors or shareholders. Corporate boards require consensus to steer strategy as does the legislative process.
Consensus is of no importance in the art of the deal for this carnival barker.
1
Trump is mentally incapable of learning anything. His Malignant Narcissism is do severe that he thinks he knows everything.
He should be removed from office using the provisions of section 4 of the 25Th Amendment; however, the republicans will never cross Trump. COWARDS!
1
You want to blame Trump. I blame McConnell. There's a strong majority in congress opposed to shutting down the government at all, let alone for this ridiculous wall. Only last month the senate passed a continuing resolution unanimously.
McConnell refuses to bring up that same legislation again, and to override Trump's veto. He doesn't want to embarrass the president, I hear; never mind that it's the president who embarrassed himself by declaring he wants a shutdown and wants to be known for it (whatever he says now about it).
Congress controls the budget, not the president. Congress should act. McConnell should act. Act like a legislator, instead of the party hack he is.
4
Trump is a bully - a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable.
Donald is willful but I wouldn't say he has will. He's petulant, petty, childish, undisciplined, and ridiculous. Pelosi is none of these things because she has will and vision. People continue to impute motives to Donald that are not there. He has no plan, he has impulses. That's why his businesses have all failed and why he's failing now. This wasn't a miscalculation; what we are seeing is a failure to make any calculation at all. This is a meaningful distinction. He is not an adversary, he is a brute.
1
What Trump *could* learn indeed. But this man does not learn. To learn would be to admit that there is something he doesn't already know, and that would be a sign of weakness.
A narcissist will do everything and anything to control the narrative so that his abuse can continue. The real problem lies in that the other party ( the country and media) actually gets hooked into the narrative; either by pushing back or going along.....codependent. If the narcissist does not have the attention and control he will self destruct and do some harm around him, but it will end. Staying tuned will prolong the dynamic. Pelosi seems to have caught on.
You are crediting Trump wrongly if you accept his claim to be the best negotiator. Negotiation means trying to find mutually acceptable solutions and involves compromise--I'll offer you something if you can give me something. Negotiations should leave both parties more or less equally satisfied or unsatisfied; equally is the key word.
Trump says give me what I want when I want it or I'll punish you and crush you. That's not negotiation. That's extortion. And that's who Trump is. He talks like a mob boss, acts like a mob boss, and does not negotiate--like a mob boss. It's time that we called extortion by its name and used the right descriptor for our president--extortionist.
2
Picking up on the article's reference to Sun Tzu's "know your enemy" observation, I'd like to know what positive developments could come out of this guy's antics.
With an AWOL U.S. foreign policy leadership, could other countries' leadership be inspired to act more independently for their populations' benefit, with less embezzling and more actions supporting their common good?
Could China rein in their business' theft of intellectual property?
As their lobbying effectiveness and government handouts become more exposed, could extractive industries become more sensitive to the physical destruction their activities inflict, and pivot towards a more sustainable business model?
Could his cuddling up with autocratic regimes and his rejection of military initiatives keep local conflicts from growing into larger proxy wars?
Could the growing rejection of this president's boorish, proudly ignorant public persona and throwing major media attention to discussing solutions for this country's issues put some brakes on hard right politics?
Oh Lord, I hope so.
Vote.
Too kind! The points made are true ... the DJT failures are far ominous for America .
DJT is a terrorist who undermines our democracy and his motives are suspect.
2
Nancy Pelosi! in the best way! He does not know how to deal with a woman in government who is about his age who is smart, powerful, accomplished, and focused. She knows infinitely more about government than him and his dwindling team of "advisers". He hasn't even found a nickname that sticks.
What does a misogynist do with a woman who he cannot dismiss through objectification or insults?
While her ability to stand there with dignity and say "no" or offer the occasional jibe (beaded curtain wall) may be causing him to prolong the shutdown, the problem is entirely his.
Who would a reasonable person want as president if impeachment proceeded? Trump? Pence? or Pelosi?
She has the winning hand and so does the House.
"How did we get into this sorry situation? "
Because the writers of the Constitution failed to anticipate a lunatic being in charge of the government. Many nations have a mechanism called a "no-confidence vote". Instead the Founders invented impeachment with numerous restrictions
2
Declaring a trumped up "national emergency" is straight out of he dictator playbook. It is in the second chapter after the parts on undermining the judiciary and the rule of law and making the free press an enemy of the state.
This is the only"reading" our man in the White House has done.
This goes along with today's NYT article on the embracing of autocrats by Trump and Pompey. It will be very clear in the alliance between The Trump "family" and Russia laid in in a future Mueller report.
2
Sometimes I cringe when I read well deserved criticisms of President Trump. I cringe because I believe that if he reads them it will only further embolden him. And if there is enough humiliation- then what? You have to wonder what the tipping point will be. The media can't, and shouldn't, stifle themselves so as not to make a mentally damaged president more angry. The Senate Republicans won't act. Where is the end to all of this? We are actually living a nightmare.
1
Democrats would do well in this case to adopt an adult role by removing the political calculus from this noxious contretemps.
Make a splashy offer to trade funding for the wall in exchange for reopening government, the cancellation of Trump's revocation protected immigrant status and his destruction of DACA. Take it or leave it, Mr. President.
As a practical matter, funding for the wall will make little difference, except for the mindless waste of nearly $6 billion. Extending the government shutdown indefinitely, however, will cost much more in the long run.
A majority of Americans want a government, any government, even one that its own leaders abuse so blithely. The Democrats have a winning hand here, simply by loudly and boldly proposing a compromise that sustains a government that taxpayers are forced to finance whether it functions or not.
Trump is incapable of learning; in fact, he is willfully ignorant and delusional. He has long since proven that.
"Someone needs to gently explain to the president that, going forward, he might want to adjust his negotiating strategy."
Explain how to negotiate to the man who thinks he has invented the "art of negotiation"? The man is so full of himself that has no room or patience for anyone's advice. He is power drunk and will not stop until he creates a catastrophe.
1
This editorial assumes an impossibility: that Trump is capable of learning.
Actually, it's hopeless. The blunders and idiocy will just increase in scope and magnitude until he's gone. Then, picking up the pieces--alliances abroad and a broken America at home--will take a long, long time. Good luck on all that.
2
Trump does not learn and will it learn from this.
Those of us who are sane and reasonable are witnessing what happens when a minority cult takes over a country. Aided by an enemy regime, Trump was installed to do destroy our country from the inside and do that regime's bidding. The media has been very small minded, incurious and vulnerable to false equivalence, just amplifying work already being done to cement that cult's thinking - non stop decades of hate radio and Faux TC state sponsored propaganda.
It has taken quite a while to get to where we are, even though trump has only been in office two years.....the groundwork was getting laid for this long ago. As to how we escape this mess with our lives and our lifestyles, it is anyone's guess....a severe misstep by trump, an uprising once this all comes out in the Mueller report - who knows. The issue, though, is that the cult in place will not open their minds to accept any of the findings. Fueled by fear, paranoia, right wing extreme religion or just pride, they will dig in and hold firm, watching our country get destroyed, but not really seeing it. We are now two countries intertwined - two paradigms in collision with each other. How will it all end, one wonders....