This is ridiculous. Trump had two years with a republican majority in the house and senate and couldn't get his wall. Open the government and then get down to brass tacks and negotiate a deal. An agreement is obviously not going to happen overnight so stop inflicting this unnecessary pain on hard working people who are just trying to get by. The government is supposed to work for us not against us.
7
Dear New York Times, what led to a federal government without “compromise”? That would be a good story to tell. (Provided every US resident has ignored everything the Republican Party has done for the last 30 years of course. This is a talented paper though. I’ve seen “both sides are to blame” pieces that equate criticism of an unpopular president by a co-equal branch of the government as valid grounds for bombs being mailed to them, so I have faith you can do it.)
3
Trump's agenda??? That would require critical thought; input from varied sources; and a discussion of potential outcomes. Whoever can manipulate his ego, like Putin or Fox News, "establishes" his agenda. Then, the Rudy, Sara, and Conway show fills in the cracks with lies, misinformation, and deflections. It's like waking up a spoiled 3 year old with an enabling family and wondering what his/her agenda is today.
5
I don't think I've ever seen this much animus and energy directed towards a...wall. Progressives have worked themselves into quite a state over it. One might almost believe it's about a...wall.
I wonder if its occurred to him that the moment he's out of office, any border wall building likely would cease and perhaps be dismantled.
2
If Trump’s Presidency is in fact on the line over the border wall, it is entirely his doing. Why would any President stake his whole Presidency on one goal? Lincoln had no choice: his re-election depended on his execution of the war whether he wanted it to or not. Obama staked a great deal on passage of the ACA, but not everything. He had the Great Recession to deal with. He knew he had to use his mandate wisely. The fact that Trump has invented this crisis for himself merely shows that he is completely out of his depth. I don’t see why the Democrats or anybody else should come to his rescue.
3
To the extent that Trump is responsible for the federal government, it may be desirable that it remain inoperative.
5
The sad part is, even if Trump gets his wall he aint going to be re-elected in 2020. So all this anxiety, pain and danger are for naught.
3
If Trump turns up at the Capital to give his State of the Union Speech, the Democrats in Congress MUST yeild their seats to government workers who are furloughed or being forced to work without pay.
2
Don't think that Trump is beavering away behind the scenes to resolve the border issue as quickly as possible. He's probably making the most of staying at home to catch up on watching himself on TV.
3
what we're witnessing is the professional wrestling version of a presidency, simple themes, an ominous bogeyman or men, and a simple solution that's easy to digest, black and white without nuance or sophistication, an easily consumed reality show or empty calorie snack. and tragically it's a proven formula honed at the knee of mark burnett and vince mcmahon. it's this bread and circuses routine that is keeping his base spellbound and feeds a riveted media that vacuums all of it up to great profit. but it's all fluff and leaves the nation breaking up, vulnerable, in crisis...yet spellbound and hypnotized in a catatonic state. media and entertainment are reality. i fear only a tragic crisis will break this, where we have no choice but to return to reality and push aside these fabrications.
4
Maybe if we suggest he build something else with his Tinker Toys, like a train, that would help. They say "distract and redirect" is a good way to deal with a temper tantrum. It's worked with my kid, so it could with the government's.
3
We already know the State of the Union.
Once SAD, now BAD.
While Trump is bunkered down in the White House with his Fox Friends on the other side of the screen, Americans should just stop paying more than they owe in taxes for the government they are not getting right now. If they still have a job and expect a tax refund every year, why are they still giving the government so much money right now?
Change your Witholding Forms.
Demand that this Oval Office occupant start spending more time in the job and less time on his hair watching Daytime TV.
Where’s the ‘Better and Cheaper’ Health Care plan? ....Where’s the Infrastructure Plan? More than 2 years into this Presidency and there are still no policies to match these two fundamental promises that Trump made as a candidate.
No Work, No Golf Buggy.
4
If he DOES get his wall, it will eventually come down, they always do. And there will go his legacy to our country.
3
I am struck by the fact that the President has not negotiated for American citizens, but rather with them. His China tariffs resulted in large losses for American farmers. Much of the bailout funds went to foreign corporations. He lost to the immigrants at the border by shutting down the government on the backs of government employees. He has blamed Nancy Pelosi even though the shut down occurred some ten days before the new Congress was sworn in. Frankly, The President, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan were at the helm during this negotiation. Mr. McConnell does not seem to think much of the separation of powers when he refuses to bring proposals to a vote unless the President agrees with the proposal. The way McConnell is obstructing the legislative process makes one wonder if he believes the Obama is still in office. This is shameful on so many levels.
5
I believe the real agenda is to start a little fire (in his mind) to divert emergency services from the conflagration that is the Mueller report and Congressional investigations.
5
Our goggle-eyed so-called president doesn't like to govern. Shutting down the government is his idea of nirvana. What's scary is that so many clueless followers agree with him.
4
Trump doesn't understand democracy and is annoyed by it. He wants to be King. He needs a history class. Or at least needs to go see "Hamilton."
The Emperor has no clothes.
3
Speaker Pelosi should not allow him to deliver the " State of the Union " address, until he drops the Wall non-sense.
1
When Trump leaves office, do Taxpayers have to keep paying for all his security needs or can we just stiff him? A cheaper alternative would be to build a wall and cut the cable. ( Asking for a friend.)
4
I would contend that a wall is not an issue, it is a solution. So Trump is really a zero issue president offering Americans a final solution. This will not end well.
1
Trump and Mitch McConnell want to privatize the government. Blackstone plans to give Elaine McConnell 1.5 trillion to do so. If government workers quit to find other work it will just make privatization that much easier.
Mitch McConnell has no incentive to keep government open and every incentive to keep it shut.
There is so much corruption within the GOP its astounding and they never get caught.
5
"In Pursuit of a Wall, Trump Puts the Rest of His Agenda on Hold"
Well, yeah! He is the government right now, so the rules apply for himself too.
Whatever he doesn't have to think! or read for that matters...
2
Maybe that Trump Balloon Baby can give his speech.
Same difference.
"I like acting" says Trump.
1
Don Trump is a total failure as President. His partial government shutdown that continues to inflict such pain and misery, is, hopefully, laying the foundation for his defeat in 2020. His defeat would be a great day; the problem is that if Trump is defeated, he would merely Smirk at the American worker and seek approval from his adoring one percent clan at MarALargo, where he and his type can hide from the realities of life, and the wreckage the shutdown caused this country.
21
Who would have believed that a "stable genius", could only concentrate on one thing at a time? Obviously the humanitarian crisis of 800,000 of his own people can easily be ignored.
18
What other priorities: Trump Tower Moscow, his next hate rally, fund raising for his foundation and legal fees, executive time?
11
Unless, of course, his agenda is truly to cripple the government irreparably, making it that much easier for him to create the chaos he needs to get his way as King. I think the Republican Party is not adverse to this outcome. And in that, he is succeeding. The damage being done during this shutdown is horrifying to contemplate.
11
He's not doing the job. FIRE HIM!!!
10
What is this all about? We can sum it up like this, first a wall to keep out the brown menace and last, immigration reform that will insure those that are here cannot challenge white supremacy. Trump does not see it any differently and therefore cannot negotiate. The only solution to this dilemma is impeachment.
8
He has another agenda?
6
It is perhaps the height of arrogance, hubris and danger that President Trump is basing his presidency on the wall. And the wall he proposes may not even be the solution required or needed. But he does not care as many are suffering and will continue to suffer because the manchild in the Oval Office is not getting his way. As one way to break this impasse I would offer President Trump the wall, exactly as he wants, if he will sit upon it, in perpetuity, and do his part to protect our southern border from the invasions he envisions.
3
The Democrats are as bad as the Republicans and don't care about unpaid workers. I thought slavery in the USA was abolished years ago. Problem with government on both sides of the fence is that all the hypocrites probably live in homes with big walls around them to keep people out and have personal security to keep them safe. Give up the game playing Democrats and put your money where your mouth is - USA citizens security and health first.
4
@CK
I don’t have a big wall around my house which sits within the largest population of undocumented people in the country and I’m perfectly safe. I see them driving around with there families and they frequent the park three blocks away every weekend with birthday parties, fiestas, and good feelings of celebration that make me smile everytime I drive by. I’m also very happy to see them at the local clinics and hospitals because I don’t want one member of any group having to forgo health care and vaccinations, the lack of which, and not just their mere presence in the country, could contribute to a disease outbreak that could eventually affect me or my own multicultural family.
My security and health, and most certainly yours, sitting on a remote island in the southern Atlantic Ocean, is not adversely affected whatsoever.
4
@CK Who shut the government down?? Who refuses to sign the appropriations bill?? Who is refusing to give bi-partisan spending bills to the 'president'?
Hint-it is not the Speaker of the House.
2
Prediction
Shutdown will be over by State of the Union. He really will not want own it as he said he would but rather will want to claim credit for re opening it in the face of opposition. But if it is not over.....
Trump will humiliate himself with all but his core supporters by turning the State of the Union into rancorous proof of our State of Disunion !
5
I'm not a professional psychologist but from my armchair, here, it seems pretty obvious that this man's obsession with a WALL...at all costs...suggests some early childhood trauma! I know a woman who never manages to unpack her boxes when she moves into a new home. She finally realized that this dates back to her childhood when her father used to beat her. She would hide in her room and barricade the door with boxes. One wonders what poor Trump endured as a child....But that's no reason why we should continue to allow him to bring down the country due to his personal paranoia. We need some sane people to intervene and stop this insanity!
6
There is a major irony in Trump's holding fast to his wall: Current poll numbers show that many in his base of support -- for whom he dedicates his intractability -- are now disgusted with him.
Indeed, 57% of Americans (including more than a million of Trump's supporters, and growing) have declared this week -- as a direct result of that intractability -- that should Trump run in 2020, they will not vote for him.
Stubbornness and anger (etc., etc., etc.) aren't Trump's only shortcomings. So is ignorance.
4
remember what you fellows did to Cuba / remember how effective that barricade was (??) ...
well, you're about to do this to your own southern half (alone/ unaided) while an entire world looks on.
3
Trump cannot multitask. Primary interest is himself. Himself is now fixated on wall. What a pity those who supported the orange maniac didn't get the hint no one with Narcissistic Personality Disorder should NEVER be elected to ANY public office. Case closed.
3
Now is the time to use our 'right... to bear Arms...' and rise up against this maniac and his 'administration'.
3
What "agenda"?
3
This has got to be the dumbest political situation I have seen.
tRump is saying that if he does not get his way, he is going to hold his breath until he turns blue; who cares, you only hurt yourself.
For god's sake, put these people back to work!!
3
Perhaps we will get lucky and he will hold his breath until the whole country turns "Blue." We'll have a true, Blue Wave.
1
Well, if Trump is not tending to his agenda then there is nothing to talk about at the State of the Union.
Invitation rescinded.
6
TSA and Air traffic controllers could end this in 2 days by striking tomorrow. If no settlement is found soon? They might strike.
5
Trump had no problem stiffing contractors on his projects, and he certainly has no problem stiffing 800,000 government employees.
11
Well, if there is any silver lining to this mess it's that the rest of "Trump's'" agenda (whatever that may be) is on hold.
7
What would happen if the House offered Trump his wall in exchange for his tax returns?
Any bets on Trump backing down quickly?
10
Isn't this just more evidence of a man who can only think bilaterally? He cannot comprehend multilateral thought. That is why multilateral deals were so far over his head that he cancelled the Paris Accord and TPP. Why do you think he negotiated with Mexico and only then with Canada to revise NAFTA? He has a one-track mind. Simply cannot multi-task.
6
What we are observing is the Art of the Deal. For Trump his business strategy is, you demand what you want and refuse any negotiations that appear to be a compromise. Those that are invested get fed up and launch a lawsuit to let the courts decide. Trump then says, I will settle but not without getting most of what I want. As for the wall, he is waiting for a constitutional crisis, it will got to the Supreme Court, and since he was the one that stacked the courts , they will rule in his favor.
4
Meanwhile, the "easy" trade war is proving difficult. The infrastructure is crumbling. The military gets more money than it asks for. Immigration reform going nowhere. No one knows what's going on with Syria, Iraq, or Iran. Intimidating a witness. Environment going downhill. "Easy" healthcare reform a complete failure. Trump's family getting new trademarks in China. Unpaid federal workers used like pawns and being declared "patriots" and "heroes". "No collusion".
6
@Martin
and ten minutes ago there was another mass shooting - this time at a bank.
(tell the new set of grieving families that their biggest problem is really a wall.)
1
In place of a wall, It would cost Americans about 6 billion less dollars to make any employers pay a penalty for hiring illegal immigrants. Don’t make it a crime with negative connotations, just make it prohibitively more expensive to employ illegal immigrants than others. Lawmakers can adjust the penalties based on needs for example farm workers.
9
@BG I concur
1
@BG
And that would start from the top down, right? Given that it's reported that Trump's fancy clubs employ those from Central America and even provide false documentation...
3
@BG There are many programs that allow foreigners to enter the US and work here-legally-they may even get Social Security cards! (news to me). Employers need workers-its good for the economy-allow migrant workers to fill needed jobs-with a reasonable minimum wage. Business owners want/need employees-everyone who wants a job is now employed (3% unemployment). We do not need to 'penalize' American business owners who are providing needed goods (milk, ice cream, cheese!) and services (care for elderly, landscaping) while sending their children to school to be needed professionals (engineers, doctors, computer geeks).
"His trade negotiators are focused on brokering an agreement to ease the tariff war with China."
Trump, looking for a way out of the trade war he promised would be "good, and easy to win."
You won't find a better summation of Trump's presidency: desperate to find a way out of a mess he created himself. And Fred Trump is not walking through that door to buy $3.5 million in casino chips.
15
It should be obvious that there is a national crisis. Fortunately it is isolated to one particular residence.
10
The tragedy here is that as the president continues to draw America into his increasingly paranoid mob boss self-centeredness, the real problems of the nation and the world continue to swirl around unattended, shamelessly ignored or malignly accelerated.
8
What's going on here? The president is holding the country hostage. Why don't Democrats (and ethical Republicans) just say one thing: The president can't risk people's livelihood, services, safety, and national security for a single item he wants funding for. End of story.
He has made up the basis for wanting the thing he is holding the country hostage for anyway.
12
Maybe Trump would accept putting his likeness on Mt. Rushmore instead of building a wall as a tribute.
5
@Michael Doubt it - he'd have to share the glory...
President Trump this may be an issue that ruins your chances at a 2nd term. There are too many unknown unknowns to use a phrase by Rumsfeld. The best you can hope for is that this is blocked so you can tell your base you tried.
1
@BG He is not getting a second term; he will be lucky to make it through his first. The Democrats could run Satan himself against him and win, so hated is he. And he IS hated, make no mistake. He is one of the most hated people in the world.
If he thinks his government-employee victims and their families are going to be forgetting his actions now, next year he has got a few rude shocks in store.
1
Trump's singular focus on a border wall is absolutely trivial. Political in the worst sense of the word. If his wall is that important, he should have already gotten it when Republicans held both houses of Congress. But now Democrats hold the house, not getting the wall is a crisis worth shutting down the government.
The last time I recall a "one-issue" presidency was under Carter when the Iranians took Americans hostage and held them 444 days. That was clearly a crisis. The nation was united behind their safe return. Just as clearly, this nation is divided by Trump's wall.
The bigger issue isn't the wall. It's about what we stand for as a nation. The wall is clearly meant to falsely label people as unworthy because of where they come from, the color of their skin, and being poor and persecuted.
10
"...one issue ..." Well, two actually. The one he wants you to focus on and the one he doesn't.
5
"It has become, as one administration official put it, a one-issue White House."
WHAT!?!
This has always been a one issue white house.
And that one issue?
President bone-spurs' massive ego.
11
Its the WALL, the Wall stupid!
This fiasco gives a whole new meaning to myopic and manic fixation.
Trump’s ego and political fortunes were and are inextricably fuzed to this one fabricated issue.
Clearly candidate Trump succeeded greatly on the merits of this hoax, a PR gimmick that became the most powerful part of Trump’s connection with his base. We-verses-them, the menace at the Southern Border and the wacky WALL repeated, chanted at hundreds of events.
Our President, or more accurately their President could not give a whit of consideration to being more than his signature flimflam and narrow and divisive agenda that by a terrible turn of political fortunes now perverts and hobbles all of America.
For Trump the only imperative is winning. As lone as he wins the impact and merits of the outcome are of no concern.
6
@G. Sears: Well said. I could not agree more. Trump cares nothing for unpaid federal workers. He said once, “they’ll adjust.“ Like you did Mr. Trump when your dad had to keep bailing you out after you failed in just about all your endeavors? Yeah, thought so.
Let 45 give his “State of the Union” address to the House. If the government is still closed, it would be the PERFECT tIme for the People to Occupy the Whitehouse...!
3
Oh how I wait for his grand fall.
6
This is all we need to know, and what we already knew. This extortion over the wall of likes, racism and fear is the sum total of what the Trump Republican White House is capable of. He will never sign an immigration and border law that is fact-based, sane and humane. It is likely that he conspired with a foreign adversary to steal an election and betray the nation. Impeach the Putin puppet already.
6
@Robert
Fixing an auto-correct:
This is all we need to know, and what we already knew. This extortion over the wall of LIES, racism and fear is the sum total of what the Trump Republican White House is capable of. He will never sign an immigration and border law that is fact-based, sane and humane. It is likely that he conspired with a foreign adversary to steal an election and betray the nation. Impeach the Putin puppet already.
1
trump is all about trump....his followers matter to him only in their adoration. If a trump follower says something in disagreement or even constructively critical, trump has no use for him and he becomes a "hater".
A hater, according to trump, is someone who loves humanity and its teachings of compassion to all(even if they are not born on the US side of the man made line called a border), but disagrees with trump.
I wish his followers knew what a failure he was in business and how his TV show was scripted and not real. Reading and research with an open mind does not make someone an elitist, it just makes them less ignorant.
3
China is going full steam ahead with thier "Belt and Road" initiative, to make inroads into other lands for trade and commerce, while our doofus "president" wants to waste money on a moronic wall....because going back to the fourth century makes some kind of sense to this infantile man.
How about America's infrastructure?
Most Americans would rather be at work improving our country with construction of roads, bridges and airports, but no, most are steeped in daylong nonsense from FOX news about a stupid wall.
Put a shovel in thier hands and get them OFF the couch and Build something.
Too ironic. And then, we have to endure the TeeVee White House Show, populated with TeeVee personalities....Trump, Kudlow, Bolton, and Trump's advisors.....Hannity, Limbaugh and Coulter.
What a travesty.
5
I am reminded of my elementary school yard days. One kid would come in wearing a distinctive hat or cap. (Maybe it said "Make America Great Again"). Another kid would grab it off his head, then, with his friends, play "keep away" while the hat owner chased back and forth to get it back.
Childish behavior on everyone's part.
3
This short phrase in a nut shell describes Trump's total focus now this Nov 2020, "the border wall is so central to his political identity and his campaign for re-election next year." No other issue(s) is worthy this single issue pol, his congressional faction and core supporters in 2020.
10
@Gretna Bear
Amazing isn't it, that the POTUS can be so fixated on that wall that Mexico was going to pay for that no other business can be conducted until that wall funding is in place. And the forced shut down which he said he'd be proud to do... Taking the government workers hostage and ruining their lives because he's petulant that he didn't get his way. Somebody... please remove him from office before he does something even worse!
1
I understand you're great believers in blockading this country and barricading that, but I would like to respectfully point out that you fellows are in danger of barricading your own southern half.
I wonder which enemy you're preparing to do battle with this time / and please don't say 'ourselves'.
4
Where is Howard Beale when you need him?
3
Trump had two years with a republican Congress, and had agreed to fund the government prior to his wall tantrum. He has a childish intellect and a rotten negotiating ability
16
This cruel insensitive man deserves no respect. We are less safe with his shutdown over his ego necessary wall. He ignores hurting people, the most despicable, probably illegitimate president in our history.
19
And the issue is do we have a president or a king.
I would have used another word to describe Trump but we all know that the NYT wouldn't have published it.
8
Trump is the lazy con man he always was. Trump is Trump's only priority. Ray Sipe
10
Interesting that the only thing the Republican Senate has passed is a bill to protect a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin. They didn't want Deripaska to lose a dime while federal workers are struggling to buy gas to get to their unpaid jobs. Disgraceful bunch of sycophants.
29
@Mary You're 100% correct and someone should be running a commercial about this right now.
4
This is perhaps the most gross mistake on Trump’s part and probably he knows that since the majority of Americans including those living where the wall would be oppose the idea.
Stubborn as he is, he made a big issue of the wall enough to foolishly close the government—-not even realizing exactly what that would mean.
All in all Trump is the most incompetently stupid President our country has ever known. He has continually damaged American lives: attacking healthcare, starving 800,000 federal workers, taxing only the poor and even polluting the very air his grandchildren must breath.
The shutdown is a farce and now he wants to give a State of the Union Address to praise himself. You Tell me what for?
13
@Grandma
He's someone who can now only cling to his base like a 2 year old with a baby blanket. He has been unable to win over any additional, significant numbers of people since he took office, and his support is even going down among the MAGA hat crowd. While he acts to keep his base happy, his self-destructive behavior is insuring that his base won't be enough to re-elect to him in 2020.
I'm sad to hear myself saying this -- because it means more people will get hurt -- but it's good that he seems committed to driving over a cliff: the expectations bar is set so low for this incompetent that any evidence of him being able to act rationally and responsibly would be a relief that might cause his poll numbers to move up.
1
When your agenda is aimed at 35% of voters, it is a loser. Period.
13
It's true that Donald Trump cares about one thing, but it's not the wall.
It's Donald Trump. He's a narcissist and will destroy our country to save face.
It's time for the Republicans to stand up to this incompetent bully.
16
One issue for one egomaniac and his sycophantic supporters.
7
For the last 25 years or so, shutting down the government to score political point has become a ritual of America's so-called democracy. Let's face the truth. We are living in a dysfunctional political system. The government is surely not for the people or by the people because income inequality is at the widest in history in addition to the rise nationalism and nativism. The wall is just a byproduct and a metaphor for the regressive in America. And yet, most Americans are indifferent, uninformed or passive about the profound changes happening.
9
**Tuesday, for instance, listed only his daily intelligence briefing **
I think he must have missed a few of these meetings ... either that or he needs them more frequently than just daily. He has some catching up when it comes to intelligence.
Hubris, on the other hand - Mr Trump certainly has that covered.
3
Are the Dems just plain stupid or nefarious? They are making trump sweat this out to humiliate him...or to make a deal??? Make a deal already! He’s vulnerable! The trump derangement syndrome is just unbelievable
1
@Ari -- the Dems are having a great time watching Trump destroy himself. Why should they do anything other than buy more popcorn, but their feet up, and enjoy the show?
Yes, they are making Trump sweat ... and worse.
Your comment about "trump derangement syndrome" means what? You think that they should give Trump anything he wants?
You seem very confused; Mr. Trump ran for the presidency as the nominee of the GOP ... perhaps you might remember that?
The GOP held Congress for the last two years, both house and senate. It didn't give Mr. Trump his wall, in fact Mr. Trump's administration never even ASKED for the wall.
What about the situation is so hard for you to understand?
6
@Ari
And just what don't you understand about Donald Trump's pathological need to always be right and always get his way?
This time it may be $5.7 billion of taxpayer's money for wall, and next time it'd be something else.
I'm not into having this country's government and its workers held hostage for a campaign promise -- are you?
2
Lee,
What Ari and other Trump followers want is the Dems to bail Trump out for breaking his repeated public promise that Americans wouldn’t have to pay for his wall. Donald Trump and his followers want a handout and believe they’re entitled to one, to prevent their fake savior from having to admit he lied to them.
1
This is the real state of the union:
Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, cried when Anne Coulter unfollowed him to Twitter.
Imagine that.
————————
“We are the laughingstock of the world. Everyone is laughing at us. Everyone.”
—Trump, Putin’s whipping boy
9
How many illegals are you currently housing and supporting? What is the total number of illegals you have housed and supported? By support, I don’t mean providing that which is cheap .... talk.
2
Border wall concept was also used by Hitler along the French border during his leadership to impress its people.All those barriers proved to be useless as the war advanced. It was complete waste of resource.Us cannot afford such wastes. The only solution is to help out all those countries with foreign aid so they can build their economies and not have there people run towards US border for survival. The foreign aid given to many rich countries should be stopped by congress and it should be properly utilized to help the needy.
5
@Rishi You mean the Maginot Line? That was built by the French, not Hitler. Less Fox News, more critical thinking.
Please tell Speaker Pelosi to stay firm, say little about White House antics, and stay true to democratic values of truth and family and country.
16
I can't help believing that Trump is enjoying the reprieve from FBI investigation implied by the Shutdown. Russia is still the real issue. Everything else we're seeing is Trump's thrashing escape attempt.
16
@Some Dude There is no 'reprieve' there will be no 'escape'. Robert Mueller and his staff have not been furloughed.
Does Trump care that his "agenda" is not being advanced? Of course not. That suggests Trump became President to govern. Trump became President to enrich Trump. Building connections with Vladimir Putin so Trump Tower Moscow will be built is why he ran for office. And, of course, other projects shortly to be announced in Saudi Arabia and, after next month's meeting, maybe some condos going up in North Korea. Agenda? The WALL is important to Trump because Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh say it is important, and Trump needs them to keep the support of his base, which in turn keeps Republicans in the Senate solidly behind him. Which means he might get impeached, but will not be removed from office or serve jail time. Now that is what is important!
16
What would happen if air traffic controllers called in sick ?
Their jobs are critical and it is unlikely they could be easily replaced.
I can only imagine the president, his keepers and Congress might be a bit more motivated to find a solution if all flights came to a stop.
To all Federal-workers working without pay, call in sick. Let those who created this debacle run the government without you for awhile.
The power needs to be shifted into the hands of the people.
I’m looking for my yellow vest.
13
@Mada,
And, when air traffic controllers begin quitting, remember it takes five years to train a competent replacement.
Five years.
Looks like I'll be avoiding air travel for the foreseeable future.
Can't risk some high school dropout replacement leading the plane I'm on, into the side of a mountain or some passenger sneaking a bomb onto the plane I'm on because there were no TSA agents screening for terrorists or bombs.
Sorry commercial airliners but nobody is going to fly unless their lives depend on it now.
3
Would it not be more efficient to build a moat and fill it with sharks? Does not that make more logical sense?
Just an idea? (or even alligators).
Seems like can be done for far less than $5 billion, just saying.
6
@Edward P.
And if that works -- let's build one around the New York so he doesn't think about coming back here when his time is up in Washington.
1
@Edward P. Around the WH? Absolutely!
1
The boarder (sic) wall discussion is simply something where the value is nowhere near worth the cost of $5.7B, itself only a down payment on more cash down the toilet. This amount of money is slightly more than the *total* cost of the Hubble Space Telescope, now a signature of American excellence, human inspiration, and scientific revolution, and now in its 20th year of operation. I hope after this dumpster-fire of a “presidential issue” nobody complains about the “cost” of space missions, or other things with far greater value than cost, that truly make America great.
12
It is a good thing for trump not to be able to further his hateful, harmful agenda. It is horrible that he is, starving and making homeless, millions of hardworking government employees and poor Americans in the process.
4
Trump is a one issue president- getting
re-elected at all costs. Everything he’s done so far, and is likely to do during the rest of his term , points towards that narcissistic obsession.
6
Always has been a one issue WH. That issue has always been trumps infatuation with trump.
7
728 days until President Warren (or Harris, or Biden, or etc) is sworn in to office. Every day that Trump wastes until then is good news for America.
5
he doesn't need press briefings if he's not doing anything...
4
"Mr. Trump has been willing to subordinate the rest of his agenda to the border wall, analysts said, because it is so central to his political identity and his campaign for re-election next year."
Nonsense. If it was so important he wouldn't have agreed to the December bi-partisan plan that he agreed to sigh before Ann and Rush challenged him on it.
Nothing is important to this guy except winning. It's the mother's milk his ego demands. He doesn't even particularly care what he wins. As long as he wins. This wall business is all about his ego and his need to win.
10
Attributing this blackmail attempt to Trump is actually obscuring what is happening here. Trump is actually in his dotage, a ventriloquist’s dummy, reiterating lines fed to him.
What actually is going on is an attempt by the billionaire cabal now running Trump and the GOP. They want an Oligarchy and a puppet President with unlimited power.
They therefore are intent upon using Presidential powers to extort Congress. In particular, the President is to implement damage to the Country unless Congress gives him what he wants.
Trump has been instructed. McConnell has been instructed. These billionaires are pushing to see how far they can go using a shutdown to gain passage of a ridiculous boondoggle and how far the main street media will go in urging concession.
7
Yes, the one issue is impeachment.
7
one issue White House: fear.
4
It's a mystery to me why the New York Times writes these stories as if Trump was a normal president. None of the material in the article about his agenda or policies is realistic in that he has no real agenda or policies or anything related to being presidential our governmental.
For him, it is all about his brand, making money, his pathological and pathetic need to feel superior, and crushing other people. Its also about cruelty.
9
....all the acting officials in the upper echelon of his administration. “I like acting,” he said. “It gives me more flexibility.”
The thing is that we don't want you to have more "flexibility". We demand that you work within the legal constraints of your office, the presidency.
Just as in your business life, you've demonstrated both a lack of understanding and a blithe unconcern about what's legal and not legal. Your focus is on what you can get away with.
Every system has ways it can be tricked or cheated. Some might say that you're a master at working around the constraints that put limits on the rest of us. But everyone knows that the essential requirement for success at this game is amorality.
Where others might hesitate to throw millions of lives into chaos just to get what they want, you seem to be almost oblivious to the suffering your actions cause. Unpaid contractors in Atlantic City--so what, you won, they lost.
If you only knew what a tired animal you are, the standard egocentric, ignorant, puffed up, narcissistic camera-posing wannabe dictator. Yes, we know you want a wall, but your subjects are rebelling against your wishes.
10
When you have the majority of the country not wanting a wall, a normal President would drop it and move on. However a monarch or dictator would press on just cause he says he wants it.
5
@DSS
The majority of the country didn't even want this president.
1
OK - begin building the wall but make it slow. So slow that there will not be much to tear down when he leaves office. It is sad to think this poor excuse for a human being has as his legacy a wall.
3
Well, I suppose that is cold comfort. Anything that stops Trump's 'agenda' can't be all bad.
3
So in addition to the 800,000 federal workers not being paid, the entire country is held hostage to this little boy’s outsized ego. Sad. Disgraceful.
3
EGO and SPITE. That's His " agenda ". Why is that so hard to admit ???
Thanks, GOP. 2020.
6
Here's and idea: Let's seize all the assets of all the elected officials in the federal government and use them to pay workers and fund the programs that aren't being funded. Sometime after they manage to pass an appropriations bill (not a CR) we'll see about giving them their money back.
10
Why does a one issue White House surprise anyone? There has always been one issue, hot great is Trump. We started with easily rebuttable claims about the size of the inauguration to policies and positions that always seemed to fall back on "mine's better than Obama's".
We're dealing with a president who is consumed with himself, corrupt, and very probably traitorous. Perhaps he will find a way to make that the bigger, greater, and more powerful, too. And of course, Obama could never have done it.
8
Trump inability to rule and organize the government to implement his policies is a blessing. Scary to imagine if he were effective and made all the needed appointments. The worse the better, I think, until he and GOP lose support (at least some of it).
4
NO SERVICE, NO TAX
Can somebody start a movement for conscientious objectors who refuse to
pay taxes whenever inaction by the executive and legislative branches of the government cause shutdowns? Citizens should not pay for non-existent public services. In addition, put salaries of President and Congress on hold until the logjam/problems are resolved. I am sure millions will join.
2
@Mel E. The taxes have, largely, been collected through withholding so a movement not to pay taxes would largely be futile. What you might consider is something new to America -- a general strike with a program demanding universal healthcare, education, term limits, equitable taxation, ending corporate welfare and mandatory and enforceable ethics for public servants
2
@Ronald Cohen Throw in SCOTUS on that list. They've never had any ethical restraints. Most recently, one of their members actually died while taking another massive handout at a Texas dude ranch!
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of garden ornaments usually associated with the class of buildings to which it belongs. (Wikipedia)
Follies (folly-- from the French for madness) were vanity projects often erected by wealthy land owners or royalty. It is time to speak of Trump's wall as what it is, Trump's Folly.
83
Imagine a CEO who refused to pay his 800,000 employees until the Board remodels his office - and then blames the Board.
Impossible at any corporation in the world, but business as usual at The Trump Organization.
14
You could look at this as a "one issue White House" or the first round in a long duel, the outcome of which will set the trajectory for final two years Trump's first term. I am thinking that is it more the latter.
1
Pelosi needs to INSTRUCT Trump to delay the State of Union speech until:
1. government reopened
2. all workers get back pay
3. all health care premiums for those workers paid up.
Be firm that it is HER decision whether he gets "invited", and when, to deliver the speech!
Period.
14
“The president believes that the wall represents his contract with America, certainly his contract with his supporters,” said Mr. Galston
His CONTRACT with America - all of America - was that we would not pay for the wall, that MEXICO would pay for the wall. He even spoke of receiving funds or a check so we aren't counting voodoo economics as being claimed now.
How his supporters forget that his contract with them was that they wouldn't have to pay the wall and that they are now happy to pay for it (or probably figure blue states will pay for it) is the greatest trick of all. Maybe they knew Trump was lying about that from the start?
4
@Marie The only "contract" the traitor has with Americans is the U.S. Constitution, and his oath to defend and protect it. And he's in violation of that oath. That's it. IMPEACH!
1
If Pelosi gives in, Trump will shut down the government for the October budget, among other things. Pelosi should affirmatively tell him he is not welcome to give a State of the Union address while the government shutdown continues. In a general way, we all know what the state of the union is anyway: completely chaotic.
9
The resident will probably use the State of the Union address to to point out yet another time that the $5.7 billion he is asking for isn't for just a border wall. It also would so pay for enhancements at ports of entry to enable Customs and Border Protection agents to reduce the amount of drugs smuggled through ports of entry. It wold also pay for thousands of new immigration judges and border Patrol agents.
The president probably will also point out yet another time that he is no longer asking for a border wall. Instead of the sea-to-sea wall envisioned in his campaign speeches, he is asking for a border barrier built to Border Patrol specifications. It would be a wall only in heavily trafficked urban area. In other areas it would be fence or just surveillance sensors.
The president would also probably reiterate his offer to extend DACA and TPS for three more years and permit Central American minor to apply fort asylum at U.S. consulates and embassies in their home countries, which would spare them the long and hazardous trek to the U.S. border. This last offer would significantly reduce the child migrant crisis the Democrats deplore, or at least pretend to deplore.
@William Case
Well then he would be lying, or changing his position without saying so, since he has been firm that the $5.7 billion is for the wall, the start of the wall, and nothing but the wall. Claiming anything else would, well, a lie.
And of course the Sumpreme Court weighed in on that last one regarding DACA.
2
@Marie
In my comment, I said the $5.7 would pay other things than just a wall. This is incorrect. This is incorrect, Trump is asking for $5.7 to build a physical barrier, but it won't be the way envisioned in his campaign speeches. He has changed his position. In his speech he said, "To physically secure our border, the plan includes $5.7 billion for a strategic deployment of physical barriers, or a wall. This is not a 2,000 mile concrete structure from sea to sea. These are steel barriers in high priority locations." This is the type of barrier the Border Patrol says it wants. .
@William Case -- gee, are you the new Huckabee-Sanders? No one else is reporting Trump's position as anything like what you claim.
And then your bigger problem is that nobody believes a word the Donald says, for good reason.
1
I certainly hope that Trump does not run his businesses (because he has never stopped and we all know that) the way he has run this government.
Is it correct to call this leadership?
2
The issue that propelled Trump to the White House was not the wall. It was Russian interference in the election and perhaps with the Trump campaign's help. That issue is another of the many that the Trump administration is ignoring.
As someone who can read and hear, I read and listened Trump's campaign statements regarding the wall. By any measure he failed to deliver on that promise long ago when Mexico rightly told him to pound salt. So the only explanation for his current irrationality over the wall is that he is scared of Ann Coulter. Big man isn't he?
2
@Catalina
Well, it's also conveniently deflecting attention away from his Russian connection. Breaking News: Trump Tower Moscow Approved, Financed by Oligarchs.
I don't think Trump is staying home during Davos because he is focused on the wall or anything else. I think he senses, however dimly, that he has so embarrassed himself and his country that he would only expose himself to more scorn should he try to keep up the pretense that he is a world leader.
13
@ss
That implies some sense of shame; I don't think he has it in him. If Putin wanted him there, he'd be there. No, this emperor would stride nastily nude into Davos.
Trump can’t do more than one thing at a time. Being fully occupied with his wall means the Presidency is on furlough as well.
3
I don't know how, but am quite certain the government shut down is part of a plan to benefit Mr Trump's personal wealth.
May I humbly suggest the Times research this connection.
It seems to me he is effectively building a wall between Americans on the left and right. I don't how that will get him reelected or solve any immigration problem or improve the economy. I can only think his tenacity and insistent attitude reflects something personal...like his own wealth.
I'm neither qualified nor inclined to cook up a conspiracy theory, but wonder if the Times might not "follow the money..."
6
@michael
Wealth, massive narcissistic personality disorder, delusions of grandeur - all the same in this guy.
And what exactly IS Trumps alleged "agenda" and "other priorities" ?
Besides obscene tax cuts for the very rich (is it ever enough?), all I have seen in 2-plus years is non-stop tweeting and slamming the free press.
The fact the wall is his sole focus is further proof to me of his slide into onset dementia. Add - inability to comprehend complex issues and inability to focus on more than one thing at a time (if that) to the long list of symptoms
6
I’m fine with letting Trump sulk in the White House, stewing over his Wall, It keeps him from interfering in matters he clearly does not understand. Meanwhile we will wait, albeit impatiently, for the Mueller report.
5
This $5.7 billion sounds like a lot of money-but how much of a wall would that amount actually pay for? And how many miles would still be 'needed'-and have to be paid for?
If ever it were to be constructed-and proved to be not the solution as promised to all migrant/drug problems-then maybe the 'voting public' would learn a-expensive-lesson. And it would be known as-Trump's Wall.
1
@PSmith
You bring up the core problem - lack of evidence. How did we get this number? What will it pay for? Where's the cost-benefit analysis?
I am astounded at Republican support for this Pig-in-a-poke demand. I apparently need to get rid of their old slogan of being the fiscal hawks. Forget spending like drunken sailors, who at least spend their own money; Republicans are more like a cash-flush robbery gang on a spending spree. Who cares about value for money, baby, they've got monuments to build!
1
Donald Trump’s playbook has always been to “never settle”. He’s gotten away with this for years because he uses strong-hold tactics over others. It’s worked because he pays people to do all his dirty work. He’s a bully and the only way to stand up to him is when enough people stand together against him and refuse him what he wants.
83
@Kris
Trump's BLUSTER is to "never settle," yet in fact he often does. (Think of his ignominious retreat regarding Trump University.)
8
Since the president is so concerned about "bad" people coming across our border - instead of a wall, how about using the same $5.7 billion to fund education and social programs south of the border, which will reduce the number of "bad" people altogether. It would be money well spent.
42
@skm The "Winning hearts and minds" strategy
@sarah
You're just paroting the same Fox News talking points that have been ROUNDLY debunked.
As far as taking time, how long do you think it would take to build Trump's wall? And why waste money on something that won't work?
5
@sarah
You might want to look at the government stats on that because it seems illegal border crossings by "terrorists, MS13 gang members drug lords and coyotes" are down...
And you might want to change your channel.
2
"We've agreed to build a Wall of Technology. It will be greatest, most High-Tech Wall the World has ever SEEN. China's Wall will look very tiny compared to the Great American High-Tech Wall. I NEVER said it would be concrete."
Compromise reached, victory proclaimed, shutdown over.
11
@John Hunt: China has already largely converted to electronic currency. Over-staying one's visa in China is very difficult.
2
@John Hunt We wish.
I keep reading comments that suggest people think this $5.7 billion is for the entire wall. It is not! It is only a fraction of total estimates that run as high as $70 billion, and that does not include associated costs for things like staffing & repair/maintenance. For those suggesting the Democrats cave in to potus's extortion because, in terms of federal spending, $5.7 billion isn't really that much, no! If he is rewarded for his unconscionable behavior this time, shutdowns will become his new, favorite "negotiating" tool. Besides, his monument-to-himself will never be completed & the $5.7 billion will be wasted. If the wall is ever started, it will end up being another freeway to nowhere.
45
@Robin: Trump's budget is enough to pay for the design and engineering work for the project.
@Robin Plus, we've had enough of Republican shutdowns. America does not negotiate with terrorists? Then we should know by now––that caving to one shutdown––just leads to the next and the next and the next. Enough. The way to end shutdowns, in one word: NO!
@sarah Respect is EARNED. He isn't a king nor dictator. A US citizen can choose how to address anyone in this country. Please see the First Amendment.
Trump has no "agenda. That term implies a plan more than 5 minutes into the future and he lacks the intellect to formulate such a thing.
29
The main thing on his agenda is distracting as much as possible from the Russia investigation. Though he doesn't do much anyway, most of his "free" time is probably spent dealing with the family's legal troubles, and obsessing over how he's gonna get out of them. What a productive Presidency. I'm sure it suits him just fine not to go to Davos where he would be like a fish out of water among people actually go to meetings.
18
@JCam
If Putin wanted him there, he'd be there.
Stephen Miller and Ann Coulter: POTUS and FLOTUS. I shake my head with disgust. They steer Donald's listing ship of state.
19
Why wait until you lost control of both houses to take a stand on this issue? Because the real issue here is not building a wall. They could have funded this easily in tha last two years and are sitting on over $1Billion in funds already allocated to security and doing nothing with it. How much Chinese Steel fence would that build? (Oh did you forget the republicans destroyed our industrial base?)
This sham process being cause by one man alone Mitch McConnell, is about building anger and resentment and bitterness and a desire for revenge in the republican electorate for the 2020 election cycle.
If McConnell allowed the voting process to go through there would never have been a shutdown.
The GOP is destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans they have sworn to protect and defend from exactly this sort of political abuse, to gain votes in an election that is 2 years away!
34
Yes, I am quite aware that the government of Trump is on hold. Trump is destroying his government and he doesn't care at all.
19
@Sutter. That's not a side-effect. That's his intent. He's simply doing Putin's bidding. The American president voted most likely to defect!
The singular issue Trump cares about is how to save his own skin. Everything else is distraction.
18
@Marie. Exactly. Smoke and mirrors, eking out the days until he and his family can set Air Force One safely down in Moscow.
This is the New York Times spinning today's news in favor of Russia.
In any traditional news cycle, the fact that Donald Trump sent his Treasury Secretary to the Senate this week to lobby for the removal of sanctions on Oleg Deripaska would be viewed at the very least to be a shocking legislative priority and at worst Treasonous. There is zero national interest in enriching Russian billionaires.
But the New York Times seems to be "following the bouncing ball" of the shutdown fight and failing to report on Administration actions that are scandalous and deserving of an A1 story.
There is no reason to award Russian Magnates with debt relief and deepening economic control other than to do the bidding of Vladimir Putin, once our rival, no longer. Please report the news.
18
@Ben You sound like Trump. Blame the Press for what Trump does, says or thinks! Because of course he believes someone has drilled into his brain, like a good mental patient would. Come on Ben...the problem is solely Trump, whatever he does is wrong. And that is what you should be focused on, not blaming the bearer of all the news, which they continue to do. They have written already about Derepaska.
@Ben
I agree. There are other HUGE issues to worry about that are getting shoved under the rug. That isn't to say Trump's Shudown isn't a big deal, it's just not the biggest deal.
Global Climate Change (we've GOT to get MOVING on that).
Russia - how many Republican's really want to surrender their government to THAT set of Oligarchs; ours are bad enough!
I could go on.
We know you do not have any regard for your Nation or your government’s employees because of your inability to overlook what you want at their cost and our cost. You are our elected Scrooge and we do not like it.
6
I really don’t get it....if it was his “ contract with American”, his biggest issue, why did he wait until 2 years into his presidency to make this stand? His party had control of Congress FOR TWO YEARS! Doe anyone ask him that?
22
Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Trumpty Dumpty had a big fall.
11
Has there ever been discussion/conversation about what is actually going on at the border, what the problems are, what needs to be addressed etc. etc.? It seems to be wall/no wall meanwhile there a lot of people down there actually dealing with it all.
4
Sorry Kim. You’re being way too thoughtful. This president can’t generate a though past his next Big Mac.
2
When are the media and legislators going to call out our country's unprecedented government shutdown for what it really is? SABOTAGE.
Our airways are increasingly unsafe, our law enforcement agencies have been undermined, our Coast Guard's ability to protect us has been crippled.
SABOTAGE.
9
@Susanna, Agree 100% - The shutdown is not about the wall, it is about destroying our country and nothing more. As ignorant as we think Trump is, he is doing what he has set out to do: break down all of our social, ethical and societal norms and weaken us from the inside out.
1
It boggles my mind that the Republicans in Senate are doing nothing about the shutdown. How can they justify letting 800,000 employees get shut out in the cold for an absolutely absurd border wall? Are they really willing to pay over $5 million for something that isn't needed? I was hoping after the midterms Republicans would develop backbones, but I obviously was wrong.
14
@Amy W. It's the perfect Republican policy in their minds, the people are finally getting nothing for something!
@Amy W.
The weird arch of the Republican party will be food for Chinese political scientists in a few decades.
For a man who did not know how to govern when elected and really does not want to, this shutdown must come as a relief to the current president. Why should he rush to end it? That would only cause him more grief. More pressure to pay attention to the many varied aspects of actually running an entire country. This way he can focus on the one thing that has caught his fancy--the Wall--where he can build something. Building is in his blood, his heritage. He can reward contractors and suppliers who have supported him--a process he knows very well. He has no concerns for the millions whose lives have been upended by the shutdown. They are the unfortunate victims of friendly fire to him. Collateral Damage.
7
How's this for a solution?
Agree to let Trump have his wall, but make a commitment to remove it in two years as soon as he is out of office.
6
@TT
Sounds like a waste of money. Let's just write Trump a $5.7 billion check to buy him off.
This is exactly why I am opposed to the Democrats making any concessions in this matter.
The current Republican president is acting like a toddler who has a tantrum because his parents said he couldn't have that candy bar he grabbed off the supermarket shelf. Meanwhile, the current Republican Party's main interest is using the Trump as a means of maintaining their hold on power and working toward their ultimate goal of turning this country into a hellhole with right-libertarian economics, Puritanical social mores, and fascist military and criminal justice policies.
Every savvy parent knows that giving in to a toddler's temper tantrum encourages more of the same. Everyone who has ever gone to school knows that giving in to a bully encourages more of the same.
The Democrats need to stand firm. The furloughed government employees need to stage sit-ins in the offices of their Republican Senators and Representatives, both in D.C. and in their local constituencies.
The Brat-in-Chief needs to be reined in.
47
I say send him to a military school so he can learn discipline. Oh wait, that was already tried and failed.
2
@Pdxtran Not only him. The entire Republican Party has been dining out for years on holding the country hostage. It's time to put an end to these "shutdowns" for good.
Just say NO!
Meanwhile, it would not take a political genius to realize that the Democratic Party must figure out what Mitch McConnell wants––and break it. He's made the nation cry "uncle" way too often. High time that he felt the pain.
@Pdxtran
Every Concerned American Citizen needs to participate in #WalkoutWednesdays in protest. Don't work, don't buy, stay home and make phone calls to politicians.
The Senate vote tomorrow is window dressing. It's not expected either bill would pas ( I secretly hope a few GOP'ers will vote to re-open with the temporary democratic bill but not holding my breath). This by no means removes McConnell from the equal responsibility for the continuation of this shutdown that never ought to have occurred. The fiscal year is Oct1-Sept 30. The budget for 2018-2019 should have been a done deal before Oct 1, 2018. No excuse for it.
The POTUS is an empty ,vacant, vessel. He lacks any empathy for anyone but himself. He is arrogant, ignorant, lacks language skills attributed to an 8th grader, any no ability to persuade others without lies. He has painted himself into a corner, and, lacking any ability to threaten using his old method, bullying, he is finding himself increasingly alone and isolated. His poll numbers are crashing. No one should ever give in to a hostage-taker for any reason. The democratic response must remain strong in holding the line: no negotiations over a wall until Federal workers are back to work. The absurdity of this is workers presently furloughed will receive their back pay for having done no work for it. They deserve compensation, but I am pointing out the incredible waste of human resource during this shutdown. I agree with the commenter who pointed out if ever there was a time to invoke the 25th amendment, that time is now. This man is the anthesis of character, intelligence, requirements of a POTUS.
27
LaPine you just insulted 8th graders everywhere.
1
If Trump feels that walls work so well why doesn't he talk about the Maginot and Siegfried lines? As far as keeping out invaders, the Maginot line didn't work so well for the French in WW II. Nor did the rebuilt Siegfried line do much to keep the Allies out of Germany during the last couple of years of WW II.
One would think that the Supreme Commander of "Space Force" would realize that there are a lot of both old (tunnels and ladders) and new technologies (planes, drones, etc.) which can overcome a wall.
I guess this must be a hard concept to understand for a guy who has never used a computer, even for email.
13
@Aaron Of London
For a couple of hundred dollars Amazon will deliver a 30-foot ladder to any place on the wall on the date you specify. Once you're over, you just call Uber.
2
@Aaron Of London
Trump doesn't talk about the Maginot and Siegfried lines because he doesn't know what they are -- After all, this is a president who thought Frederick Douglass is still alive.
4
Trump might be right that the wall is central to his presidency. If the wall stands for a switch in governmental styles prevalent in the executive branch to a kleptocracy, then it is central. He wants to cast the US into a mold that fits him and he can reside comfortably in.
7
Trump’s drive for a wall is the only thing on his agenda. Amazing is it not?
“At the One-Issue White House, the Standoff Over a Border Wall Displaces Other Priorities”.
7
@DENOTE MORDANT
Well, there is destroying the America we have known since it's beginning as one other thing on his agenda. We should all remember that this suffering of federal workers isn't the first horrifying and unnecessary suffering he has imposed upon us. Remember the babies and little children torn away from their families at the border. We will a be suffering in very real terms if we allow Trump's despotic behavior to succeed. He cannot blackmail our elected representatives by hurting us! He must be stopped at any cost.
2
@DENOTE MORDANT Maybe that's not such a bad thing.
1
@PSmith
And why do you say that?
Apparently GOP leadership agrees that The Wall is the top priority in the country and children and families must be held in harms way until they get their demands met. Although not as important as The Wall, the administration's refutation of the need for democratic allies and alliances in foreign policy and trade is also impossible to make rational sense.
The one thing that is clear is why male dominated Christian sects in particular stand solidly with this simple minded autocratic approach to running a government.
14
@Dave: They call it an immediate emergency and suggest a 20 year delayed response.
Their mojo is at stake. What are people who believe that government is inherently incompetent doing at its helm?
Trump isn't the only one who should be impeached. Impeach McConnell for not doing his job as Marjority Senate Leader. Let the House Democrats work on this while they while away their time during the shutdown.
26
@farhorizons: McConnell, as a Senator, is a juror in any and all impeachment trials that come before the Senate.
@Steve Bolger -- as I suspect you know, Senators can be expelled, by 2/3 vote of the senate.
A bunch were expelled for supporting the South in the Civil War ... other than that the only man ever expelled from the senate was William Blount, in 1797, for treason and conspiracy to incite the Creek and Cherokee Indians to assist Great Britain in invading Spanish Florida.
I think it is safe to presume McConnell's chances of expulsion are zero, at present.
It's hard for trump to think of more than one thing at a time.
13
@Steve Considering that his single thought is that of a hammer, which he applies to everything, and even It has too many moving parts!
1
"A one-issue President." That's the President, of the United States. He really is a simple man, isn't he.
11
This entire country is being held hostage, viciously & mercilessly, by 2 vicious & merciless old men. The laws that allow this to happen must be expunged forever, to ensure that this nightmare never happens again. Trump & McConnell are behaving like medieval kings. How can this be legal in the USA in 2019?
27
The joke growing up in Texas was "Well, we stole it from them. One day we'll have to make the border on the Red river." OH, that Texas humor. Now the saying make America Great Again sounds a lot like...... "The South will rise again" that I grew up with in the 60's.
The only Crisis on the border is the one we made with the DRUG war. Who knew the blk mkt would create strife in other countries to satisfy our cravings. If only Prohibition had taught us something. sarc
7
Trump looks at this as his Mt. Rushmore. He has twisted priorities, but what can you expect from a lifelong con artist.
16
What agenda, more lies, falsehoods, and fake statements?
All I have seen is incompetence, ignorance, bravado and braggadocio. Other than that....what?
14
Just another silly article pretending that this is a real serious president with a real serious agenda. Anyone with a pulse knows that he neither understands nor cares about any of these issues, including his ridiculous wall. It is all about conflict, winning, self-aggrandizement and furthering his financial interests. As for his delusion that this particular fight will either make or break his presidency, I have real news for Pinocchio. Your presidency is Dead Man Walking.
22
I'm throwing my support to the Democrats. So tired of the "Confederacy" holding us back. Time to get back to governing all of us, not just the intransigent old white boys that see the federal system up for plunder.
29
@B.Guthrie Makes one realize that the "NeoCons" were not Neo-Con(servatives) but instead Neo-Con(federates) with an entirely different direction of governing that tends to be fascist and places most people into abject servitude due to enforced poverty of the masses which keeps wages low and money sources scarce.
They would be very happy with a slave population working their arms plants for them, selling war and forcing their power overseas as well.
People think it is a 'Conservative' movement, just the Con part is right, it being a Confederacy movement instead, and if that is what the right wing is, The Confederacy rose again, then they need to be rounded up and charged, as a group, with treason, with McConnell their ringleader, presently, and funded by the likes of the Adelsons, Mercers, and Kochs.
But taking us hostage and plundering is exactly what they do, Trump is merely doing it openly this time.
2
The wall is his white whale.
9
The headline is incorrect. It should read: in pursuit of his dictatorship, Trump’s only agenda.
11
You aptly illustrate one more way this presidency has become a disaster. There is a way out, and it is relatively simple. Ultimately it might result in a win for the Republicans, but it would be worth it to be rid of Donald Trump.
14 Republican senators must agree to oppose everything done by Trump that is not in accordance with "traditional conservative values" (the list is long). The Democrats should go along with most of the legislation proposed by the R 14. As Donald Trump’s empire crumbles, he can save face by claiming that he never wavered on his promises. No need for impeachment.
This is actually a win for Trump, because he will have the option to resign before the full impact of the Mueller report, and he can blame the disloyal R 14. It could also be a big win for Republicans in 2020, because they could be praised as the party of unity. (This assumes that the Dems remain as divided as they are today).
10
@JDC: Why the dogma? In my experience, selling conservation to gluttons is like selling refrigerators to Eskimos.
Many times I have met entitled people like Mr T. They are vain, spoiled and clueless about the world around them, because they simply don't care about it. As T. is large and loutish, he probably had his entire family scared of him from puberty onwards. He then realized that due to his inherited station in life he could bully wantonly and there would never be a price to pay, because most people simply avoid thuggish behavior. He disdained those people as just jealous of his perceived wealth. He is the textbook example of The Dunning-Krueger Effect writ large. Very scary.
17
Nothing new here. Where is your imagination?
1
"I like acting." That may be the most truthful statement Trump has made in the last three years.
If there was a category for "Worst Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role" he could, like Mariano Rivera, be the first unanimous choice.
15
@Tom Q
There is such a category, and that's why Donald Trump was nominated for a "Razzie" (or "Golden Raspberry") award.
2
The President has created this issue at this time (and not before) to make clear that he is going to ignore the effect of the 2018 election, and force the House of Representatives to bend to his will. If we let him do it once, he'll do it over and over.
Moreover, the State of the Union is an event of serious proportion, in terms of security. One member of the cabinet is traditionally left behind in the White House in case a bomb destroys the Capitol and all the other members of the government. How come nobody mentions that? Nancy Pelosi is not being petty in raising the issue--it's a real issue.
Democrats must hang tough. The analogy with a toddler holding his breath is overused but it's also utterly apt. Sorry--I didn't "demand feed" my children--on the grounds that it would teach them to demand stuff. (All grown up now, they don't seem to blame me for it, though they may be waiting to publish their "Mommie Dearest" tell-alls until after my demise.)
We must not give in to the demands of the First Baby.
16
Keep going Donald. The harm, a lot of it unrepairable, that you are forcing on innocent people and their families is being burned indelibly in their minds, and will NOT be forgotten when November 2020 arrives. Right now almost 60% of the country blames you and the Republicans for this travesty and that is not likely to change because you and the Republicans can't change. So enjoy your ego trip Donald. You know, I honestly didn't think you were this dumb, but you are.
24
He should feel humiliated that federal workers now have to go to food banks.
14
@Jean Trump has always had nothing but contempt for the American public-especially for his 'supporters' who cheer his inanities. He cares nothing for any who may be seriously inconvenienced by the shut down-which is to him, probably a sign of his own 'power'. He knows-on some level-how inadequate he really is-how could anyone support him? And look at those who he chooses to admire-Putin, Duterte, et al.
Just what President Putin wanted. Systematically weaken the U.S.
Congress has had decades to make a logical immigration plan, but never did.
So now, other world powers can seize on our weaknesses and greed.
11
Into the bunker goes Trump. Hopefully never to emerge again.
8
The reason why Trump made the wall his battle cry during the election is that he knew that his supporters were afraid of immigrants and many were discriminatory against non-whites so he stoked and fueled fear in order to win the election. Just like the caravan he screamed about right before the mid terms, then nothing after. It’s all about fear mongering.
11
Pres. Trump should fire all furloughed federal workers so they can receive their unemployment benefits.
2
"Mr. Trump expressed no urgency when asked by reporters recently about all the acting officials in the upper echelon of his administration. “I like acting,” he said. “It gives me more flexibility.”"
Perhaps the most telling and straightforward thing Trump has said this year. He likes that senior portfolios are in the hands of acting appointments because he can more easily push them around. How is it okay with Americans that this charade of a presidency persists? He is a pathetic caricature of a president, a transparently unfit poseur masquerading as a world leader. After two years of gradually ebbing institutional momentum, the U.S. government has ground to a halt. Departments are now headed by inept, third rate talent. Morale is nonexistent. Almost a million federal employees aren't being paid. Services are not being offered. White house factions scurry for favor from a dunce with an unquenchable Faux News addiction and an attention span comparable to a three year old. The whole thing is a colossal cosmic joke, and no one can do anything about it. My God, what will it take for people to go into the streets demanding an end to this farcical presidency?
140
@Rob
But don't forget the good news - his path of destruction has narrowed. Look at all the ruin he could be causing if he focused on more than one issue.
12
Please don't insult three-year-olds! @Rob
5
And in Democratic strategy rooms, the pursuit of no border wall has put their other legislative goals on hold as well.
Reminds me of a battle between Godzilla and Rodan, with Tokyo caught in the middle.
6
RM? Have you forgotten to note that the Dems have passed legislation to reopen the government?
5
@RM Just controlling the House doesn't give Democrats the ability to push their agenda!
1
@DENOTE MORDANT
Which they know with either get no Senate vote, or a Presidential veto. Just more wall follies. Not time spent on anything productive.
One of the world's leading authorities on border walls. El Chapo, stated that a wall can be easily compromised. Trump and Miller at the very least should consult him not only about building a border wall, but how drugs are smuggled in. Why not even hire him as a consultant. He's no worse than Miller, Kushner, Conway, and Sanders. And Trump would like his new title, El Caudillo.
20
Trump has his back to the wall.
He made it his campaign issue, rather his aides did so so he would have something to focus on during stump speeches, in 2016, he’s kicked off his 2020 campaign with the wall yet again!
Because he’s intellectually (and morally) bankrupt-story of his life! He’s incapable of doing anything more than to recycle an old idea. Only this time he’s ticked off 2/3 of the electorate, he’s only got his core base and they will not be enough to get him another term. This is, of course, if he gets to finish the current term. Something many, many of us pray will not happen, as the noose of all of the investigations is tightening around him.
Donald is getting signal after signal that he will not make it back, even if he does not get thrown out before, and he is desperate.
Narcissism, laziness and bombastic simple mindedness can only get you so far. It’s run its course.
18
Your accusations toward Trump are a rehash of prior acknowledgements of his faults and egregious weaknesses. How about some new information?
@DENOTE MORDANT Isn't the old information bad enough!
2
The rest of his "agenda" can remain on hold and the country will be better off for it.
20
The idea of building a 5+ billion dollar wall bears on more issues than immigration and the Democrats should raise those issues.
We might paraphrase Eisenhower: Any wall built is "a theft from those who hunger and are not fed..." It will cost many schools, teachers, power plants, and other benefits to the public, as Eisenhower said.
The focus on a wall has obviously supplanted the more constructive bipartisan goal of a public infrastructure project that would provide jobs while making us all safer and better off.
11
Maybe it would help if Trump stopped listening to that Coulter Club song: "Do you Really Want to Hurt Me (Do you really want to make me cry)"
4
The Republicans had two years in control of both houses of Congress and failed to fund the Wall. Don't blame Democrats. This is our so-called president's scorched-earth approach to dealing with resistance to his baffling, false, hateful priorities.
20
NASA should've accepted his challenge to send a man to Mars before the end of his first term - provided he was the man and it was a one-way trip...
15
Trump should just announce that he "won, the wall has been built, and MAGA!"
Most of his followers will believe it, as sure as they believe everything else he says.
I'm surprised this hasn't occurred to him yet.
15
To: Donald J. Trump, President of the United States.
From: All the Federal employees not being paid.
Mr. President, take this job and shove it.
Signed: Enough
16
@Doremus Jessup
Also send to Pelosi and Schumer. Equally culpable.
@clarity007
Incorrect.
The Dem's have passed legislation to re-open the government.
The obstruction to that is wholly Trump and the Republicans.
3
@clarity007
Just for some "clarity", it was Donald Trump who said he would be "proud" to shut down the government.
Guess what? -- He owns this.
3
It’s not about the wall! It’s about sabotaging the incoming party. Shutting down the government is just like Republican efforts in Wisconsin and North Carolina to change the authority of the Governors office because the newly elected are Democrats. The voice of the people rang loudly in 2018 and Republicans now find themselves exposed to Congressional investigations and actual oversight. So Republicans decided to take control of the conversation and sabotage the incoming party. Therefore the wall.
13
This article and many of the readers' comments share a dubious assumption: that this man (to use a less-insulting term) is actually The President of the United States.
He is nothing more than a petulant, sulking 14-year old who has never been told "no" in his life and is unconsciously doing everything he can to say "NO," punishing daddy and mommy for never being there for him. Not only is he a narcissistic sociopath, but a paradigm of Attachment Disorder: he cares for nothing and no one but himself because he has never experienced anyone truly caring for him.
Were he not so busily destroying everything that America has always attempted to be, I'd feel sorry for him.
10
There’s an agenda? Other than watching TV?
15
That Americans allow one man (yes, that's right, one man) to shut down their government continues to amaze me.
17
@Robert McKee
not true. It also takes Pelosi and Schumer.
1
@clarity007
Actually it is true.
The Dem's have passed legislation to re-open the government.
The obstruction is wholly Trump and the Republicans.
1
@Robert McKee Well Mitch McConnell could have opened it by bringing the 2 (if I'm not mistaken) bi-partisan bills that were passed in the House after the shutdown. Trump would veto them, and perhaps the Congress would have overridden one of them. Mitch McConnell is equally to blame for refusing to bring bills to a vote that Trump doesn't like. If he would, that would be a check on Trump, and isn't that how the government is supposed to work?
1
Looking at the bright side, maybe the wrecking ball in the White House is necessary before progress can be made on the existential threat of global warming. Isn’t anyone in Washington listening to the climatologists?
4
Just an excuse for Trump to watch more television.
7
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, …………".
That particular wall story didn't end so well for the king.
7
Let's face it our president gets his orders from the Koke brothers, the NRA, the large corporations, drug companies and of course president Putin. He has been caught in so many lies even his lawyer doesn't know what to say. This man could care less about all the government employees that are missing their paycheck. Everything this man does is to cover up his fears his inadequacies. The greatest thing that this man will go down in the history books as the biggest failure; he has ruined the lives of those around him. He might get the vote of white men who think like him, but with the Hispanic and the women's vote and all the other minorities, we can shame this man out of office.
5
Wow, it's shocking to read that our monomaniacal leader can't walk and chew gum at the same time.
7
Trump has finally figured out how to vacation IN our White House since he cant get to Mar A Lago.
7
Once again, Donald doesn't have a plan B so he'll try to win the battle even if it means losing the war. This is how he bankrupted those casinos in Atlantic City. He fought Merv Griffin for control of the Taj Mahal, overpaid and promptly slid into bankruptcy, dragging all three of his casinos down the tubes. When it comes to wars, Donald is not a general, he's a kamikaze pilot.
12
He doesn't have the votes. He never had the votes. Now he is a lame duck. Dems need to hold their ground against this one-trick pony.
14
We need to fix our broken border laws and fund the tools needed to enforce the border before moving on. I remember the Ronald Reagan "one time" amnesty that was supposed to be followed by border security. There is wide evidence that there is an unwillingness to support the present set of laws including sanctuary cities and millions of aliens.
So let's finally fix the border situation where fixed means we have a set of laws most agree with, and where such laws are both enforceable and enforced. Let's get back to rule of law borders designed to benefit both the United States and those who America can benefit by allowing in. Let's have an immigration policy focused on win-win rather then our broken system which is based on self selection including criminals and previous deportees.
When someone contemplates what America can do for them, we should also consider what they can do for us.
1
@John
So true. And in that spirit, I will post my recommendation for ending this shutdown:
Pres. Trump should declare the national emergency for the full amount, but if the Democrats will follow through on his suggestion that they address legislation that would restrict asylum-seekers to designated 'ports-of-entry' (for the safety of all involved) and an immediate return (to the nearest port-of-entry) of all those who try to cross our borders elsewhere, without a hearing, Pres. Trump will lower his wall-funding demand to $2.8 billion.
It's a win/win for everybody!
1
@John: "Amnesty" is generally understood to mean giving a certificate of citizenship to everyone found to be established here, and making this certificate, or a guest version thereof, essential to participate in commerce. Reagan's amnesty did not close the door with a national ID registry.
@Steve Bolger
I think step 1 is getting laws that we have the will to support. I am personally not for granting citizenship but a right to reside and work. I would offer protection to those who are presently self sufficient, and having a clean criminal record and no past deportations. I would also like to see a financial penalty for past years including any back taxes and repayment of any medical bills.
I would also be happy with a 2.8 billion dollar barrier compromised proposed by @betazoid.
To me, a willingness and ability to enforce is step one. Near term there sho
With each day that I read another story about the Toddler-in-Chief, I wonder when news organizations will stop running stories about him that are written as if he is a president. He does not have "issues." He does not heed intelligence briefings. He does not have an agenda. He does not have policies. He does not have positions on issues. He does not address anything. He is not worried or concerned about any of the worrisome problems that beset us. He is not a president. We do not have a president. As former Secretary of State John Kerry said recently, he doesn't take any of this seriously. The country is his expensive toy and his (and his family's) personal ATM machine.
Trump is dangerously unfit to occupy the office of President. It's time our news outlets report that to be the case.
40
Trump’s premise for demanding the wall is for “security”. But instead of negotiating, planning, and doing cost analysis for various security options, he shuts down the government work of almost a million people which is causing the worst national security problem the US has faced in it’s history. FBI agents themselves are endangered if they are working undercover, contacts with international agents and intel are placed on hold, grand juries are suspended, investigations in local child abuse and drug enforcement is discontinued, airport security is lacking, traffic controllers are working with no pay and are calling in sick, government contractors are going broke, the economy itself is contracting because of the shutdown, Congress offices are closed, etc., etc.
So bottom line: Trump does NOT want a wall for national security. He wants a wall because of a foolish campaign promise he made in order to get votes.
26
I hope the government shutdown, given Mr. Trump's obvious self-dealings in offices, evolves into the permanent shutdown of Mr. Trump and his band of enablers. Furthermore, to facilitate the Trump shutdown, unpaid federal workers should walk off the job. It will be interesting to see how the art-of-the-steal artist takes the heat.
5
The government shut down has nothing to do with border security. It is part and parcel with the GOP’s desire to shrink the size of the government by whatever means possible, no matter the hardship on the public or the long term consequences. Polluted air and water? So what. Our taxes are lower. Cut backs at the FDA, so what. Who cares about dangerous drugs?
6
During the first 2 years of his presidency, Trump and the GOP controlled both houses of Congress. If the "Wall" was so critical and important, why didn't Trump, McConnell and Ryan pursue funding it in 2017 and 2018?
Just asking...
23
@Silvio M
Border wall is not an issue. Border security is. There are so many ways of skinning the cat other than just to build a wall of concrete or steel plates. If this is so important to him, he should have sat down with the Dems to arrive at a solution palatable to all. There is always a middle ground between 5.7B and 1.3B and how we utilize the funds to secure the borders from infiltration. Trump has proven beyond doubt that he is no negotiator but simply an under-developed child who takes the marbles and goes away home. It's so sad we have someone like this who masquerades as POTUS. He cares two hoots about the plight of the federal workers but it's all about him. Pelosi and the Dems should stay the course.
55
Trump does nothing but ceaselessly tweet to his base and watch Fox news. He has no other "work" or real agenda.
16
The shutdown has nothing to do with the want for a wall, it has a much more sinister underbelly. It is simply a tactical maneuver to slow down and take eyes off of the conspiracy that this administration took part in selling American democracy for personal enrichment.
Folks this is so much worse than it even looks like right now. If you have been reading the "fake news" as Donald has called it for the last two years it is more than obvious how the pieces line up.
He has programmed the conservative media over the last couple years to repeat his rhetoric to help give him cover for this very moment.
The Kremlin has infected, and is inside our highest levels of government paying our elected representatives to give Oleg Deripaska a pass with sanctions. And there is a tipping point where a living creature (or a government) can no longer fight such an infection because it's gotten the upper hand.
We are close to that scenario right now. If you believe in a higher power of any kind, now is the time to pray as the checks and balances in our government are NOT infallible.
8
There is no agenda for Trump but himself. To associate him with any policy, good or bad, that requires thought, belief, or consequences, is pointless. He is actually a cypher who thrives only on that which points directly to himself, and feeds his self-loathing ego.
7
Trump’s agenda at this point should be:
1) border security,
2) ensuring two more SCOTUS picks (expecting Thomas to retire and, perhaps, Ginsburg, as well),
3) rebuilding the Federal courts with conservative jurists
4) rebuilding our Navy and our nuclear forces.
Items 2 and 3 can be done through a Republican Senate; I expect more pushback from Dems on 1 and 4.
Dems have zero interest in preventing illegal immigration (visa overstays or border crossers), and I don’t see Dems spending what is necessary to modernize our forces.
@EGD...nope, #1 is reopening the government FIRST, then all you state after that
4
@EGD If "building the Wall" is so critical, then why didn't the president, McConnell and Ryan pursue this when the GOP controlled both Houses of Congress during 2017 and 2018?
6
I can’t believe you’re from California. I expect this sort of nonsense thinking from Kentucky or Georgia. Immigrants are good for both our countries: they do jobs we aren’t willing to do at very low rates. Crimes rates in areas with high immigration are lower than in areas that have low immigration. Most drugs come through legal points of entry. Ever heard of boat people? The Wall is bogus, useless and just a tool used by Trump to get suckers to support him. Name one “illegal” involved in one of your horrendous mass-shootings. You can’t, because they were all done by legal (and almost entirely white men born in the States) Americans. Stop blaming and read the facts, not the “alternative” ones.
4
The Catholics and evangelicals are to blame for this one issue White House. I am annoyed that Trump has so much energy for this fake issue and can’t get an affordable health plan for us.
11
@D.j.j.k. -- none of the Catholics I know are pro-Trump.
5
I am so sick of hearing about the "Problem Solvers Caucus". Bipartisanship is not admirable when the other party is run by fascists in the grip of a madman.
10
He doesn’t appear the intellectual capacity to do more than one thing at a time
7
He is giving the middle class government workers a tax cut! No pay, no taxes! It is just awful!
5
The reason “The Wall” is Trump’s signature issue is that previously nobody on either side of the political mainstream was ignorant enough to propose such a monument to stupidity as serious policy. It took an ignoramus like Trump to champion the idea. Now that Trump has built a powerful cult of personality, the survival of the cult of personality depends on this most Trumpian of issues. And of course, most Republican politicians being cowards, they are indulging in this fantasy so as to dodge Trump’s ire and further their own careers.
13
@citybumpkin
A few years back Hillary and Schumer both favored a wall. it's not only the Republicans who pander.
@farhorizons
But neither Hillary or Chuck Schumer are president -- and as Democrats, they would have never shut the government down for it.
4
That this President is the most superficial one in history is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that he is easily analyzed and understood for what he is and wants. A curse because his depth of understanding or interest of world issues is so shallow that his knee jerk reactions lead to chaos. We should all read what Mr. McGurk has written and use that as a case study of Mr. Trump's dangerous behavior
2
I’m tired of these old reruns of government shutdowns. It’s time for all parties to get smart and end this kaos (by the way that’s how Trump misspells it). Stay tuned.
4
@Jay Orchard
This comment also is a rerun.
2
How can it possibly be legal to compel people to work without pay or without a budget? They are all violating the spirit and the letter of fiscal sanity while running up the deficit while picking and choosing arbitrarily who works or gets paid or who doesn’t. The rule of law has been replaced by the rule of a dictator while we watch befuddled and the Senate refuses to work. Throw the bums out!
30
@Carolyn C: The US Constitution, as originally constituted, established liberty to enslave.
Rich people have to pay taxes that government redistributes to workers, and many who, for one reason or another, are unable to work. The richest protest that this is slavery, and they are entitled to invest their wealth as they see fit. They're in charge, and Trump is their messenger.
I recall that during one of George W Bush,s terms, it was discovered that the steel being used for the wall was being produced in China. I also remember that Trump generally uses Chinese steel for his buildings. Does anyone know where the current steel is being produced?
9
Russia perhaps?
1
during his campaign, President Trump seized on the anxieties and false beliefs of a small segment of the electorate that felt beleaguered and neglected. now, he is using the same concocted border issue that worked for him then as a distraction from his mounting legal problems and his ineptness at actually governing. he seems to know that hammering on his appeal to this limited segment is really all he can hang on to. this is a play straight out of his days in reality tv, so, it's no wonder he is concentrating on it to the exclusion of most everything else, proving yet again, as if it needed unscoring, that Trump is totally out of his depth. he is forcing the whole country into his fantasy land and dragging us all down. he can't be removed fast enough. maybe he should be relegted to late night syndication in secondary markets, where he belongs.
18
What am I missing here? We heard candidate Trump drone over and over about building a wall and that Mexico was going to pay for it - no problem, he would MAKE them pay! Now, hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans, through no fault of their own, are without paychecks because they are being held hostage by wall funding. Why not just call Mexico and ask for their check? Surely, with the great relationships Trump has built with our neighbors, they would be happy to help.
21
The central problem here is Constitutional : the Legislative Branch determines how the budget is divided and what laws are written. The President can either sign or not sign. If Trump succeeds in getting the budget bent to his will this time by shutting down the government and holding Federal Employees and potentially the economy hostage, then a dangerous precedent will be established. The GOP better pay attention and propose a bill they can pass without him as the Constitution prescribes. The only thing right now that stands between them becoming a powerless anachronism is, ironically, Nancy Pelosi and an election that puts the Dems in the White House. To paraphrase the Bard, this way lies madness.
15
Of course having the USA government shut serves Mr. Putin’s interests in multiple ways. Hmmm. I wonder why the President is doing that?
10
Wasn't his campaign promise to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it? Why is he asking for funding?
15
The real villain in this shutdown is McConnell. He knows better what the shutdown is doing to the country. Trump cannot look past himself let alone the country. History will judge McConnell harshly and rightly so .
21
@Rahul
We can only hope that the Kentucky voters will judge him harshly in 2020. Time for this vengeful racist to go.
It has been a firm policy for years that we don't negotiate with terrorists. Trump, as someone who has been shutting down our government and putting hundreds of thousands out of work, can be considered the same: so don't negotiate with him.
Forget the wall, Trump. And forget 2020, too.
12
The problem is that Trump has gone way out on a Limbaugh with his wall and doesn’t know how to get back.
17
He’s waiting until the poor people start rioting when their food stamps don’t arrive. Then he’s going to seize emergency powers and you will
Gladly give them to him because you will be afraid of the rioting mobs. Sound familiar? Think back in history. If it’s not, you Americans are beyond all hope. Stockpile emergency food, keep your gas tank full and have an emergency plan for when the supermarkets get shut down for a few days. The New York Times isn’t adequately reporting the working man’s concerns or the poor’s. And that’s pretty crazy. But it fits when the media is also so far removed from the reality of the poor. A friend of mine works distributing food stamps, her and her supervisor have quietly come to the conclusion that there will be riots if food stamps aren’t paid, which is exactly what Trump wants. Their phones are ringing off the hook with clients who are afraid they will starve. Not good.
8
@Temp attorney
Another interesting aspect to this scenario is the fact that the majority of those depending on food stamps are the rural, white, working-class poor -- which also happens to constitute the majority of Trump's support-base.
2
@N. Smith
I live in Staten Island among conservative people although I myself vote Democrat. A substantial number of Republicans have long thought that food stamps should no longer be available to anyone, or at least dramatically reduced, and would actually support Trump in halting the distribution of food stamps. Trump would also seek to divide and conquer on racial lines, as he always has.
1
@Temp attorney
Rest assured, the Republicans who support repealing or reducing food stamps are not the ones who depend most on them.
I’ve been a staunch Trump supporter from the beginning, but I can’t take it anymore. He’s turned his back on those of us who trusted him and needed him the most for his own personal, petty agenda. This is not why I voted for him!
Yeah, not really. I’ve never supported him. But if Obama or Hilary or whomever the next Democratic president is pulled this, that’s exactly what I’d be saying. That anyone is still supporting Trump at this point is just mind blowing. You’d think flipping red states would be a breeze now, and yet….
10
Will go down as "Trumps Folly" and serve as a perfect lead-in for the Mueller Report as well as the main "story line" of a troubled president as history looks back on Trump.
7
Governing by Tweet and by tantrum.
12
Democrats will eventually back down because of a lack of pain threshold and give in, they might as well do it sooner than later and stop hurting these people that are expected to work for free.....
@There NO!
1
Remember the whole "wall" thing was to jog his memory on the campaign trail. This was because he couldn't really focus, had no idea how to govern and his sole focus in life was making money for himself by building up an image and lying constantly.
Is it such a bad thing that the rest of his rotten "agenda" is on hold?
9
What I find incomprehensible, is that Trump who keeps insisting that the Wall was his major promise of his campaign, is actually NULL-and-VOID
. His repeated chants, over and over were, "Mexico will pay for it", to the thunderous applause of his admirers.
And now, Mexico has categorically denied any financial obligations for the Trump Wall, but, who now stealthily commits US tax payers money instead and shuts down the government...insanity!.
The Wall that catapulted him to the Presidency, is now no promise at all!
9
People like trump, who take hostages are usually referred to as criminals and terrorists. Sometimes toddlers also try to get away with it.
7
Trump is a one-trick pony who might have made it to the Chicago World's Fair in Wild West by William Cody with his derring-do and sense of no fear when facing challenges. He has been encouraged and allowed to do as he wishes due to the snivelling McConnell and the rest of the GOP party in the land and in Congress. We wait and we wait, a nation under attack as some of us see it, for some relief from this badgering and incompetent man who sits where he does through accidents of many kinds.
7
Mr. President,
You can block more illegal immigrants with something other than a wall. Tackling visa overstays comes to mind. You have a news megaphone in the conservative media. Do something more effective then have Coulter and Hannity sell it to your base. They will follow you there. You have boxed yourself into a corner over a bad idea. Trading a path to citizenship for dreamers could net you a tremendous number of anti-immigration policies.
2
To paraphrase MIA Mitch, it would make America great if trump could bcome a half-term Wall presidency.
4
Yes, the President only has one pressing agenda...himself. He doesn't care if the wall is the best solution or not. If he gets his way, then he "wins", which is all he cares about.
8
Ousting Donald J. Trump and his enablers would reduce crime. Crime is an evergreen but the social engineering that creates crime, i.e., laws involving gambling, drugs, prostitution, and the grand-daddy that created organized crime, prohibition, is ignored. The prisons are filled -- the U.S. having more incarcerated people than the rest of the Western World combined -- and the the crime continues. Build a wall around Donald J. Trump or use the existing wall at Leavenworth.
13
@Ronald Cohen
I prefer the latter option. And grand-daddy was deported from Germany, and banned from ever returning, after trying to move back with his homesick German wife for having failed to complete his mandatory military service in Bavaria.
In 1905 he write teary letter begging Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria to let his family stay.
Blame it one the Germans for not having kept Friedrich Drumpf there.
3
@Sarah I wonder if Friedrich had bone spurs! Cowardice and special pleading seems to be hereditary.
2
When I was about 5 I once spent days pestering Dad for something, undoubtedly a toy, but I have no memory of what it was that I so urgently had to have. Finally, as the family was on a walk around our neighborhood, Dad stopped in his tracks and said, "Glen, you have a one-track mind." I was too young to understand what that meant, but I knew enough about Dad to cease my pleas when he used that tone of voice.
Dad never met Donald Trump. But Dad was a negotiator, as any or all of the new and used-car dealers in town would attest. I believe Dad would have told Trump the same thing he told me 67 years ago. And if he used that same tone of voice, Trump would shut up, too. And the negotiations would begin.
33
I think the Democrats should meet Trump halfway on “border control” but without a wall. If they give in to Trump on the wall I will become a registered Independent, which is what I should be anyway.
9
@Oliver: A political party of one person?
5
@Steve Bolger
No, Steve, there are many of us registered Indenpendents.
What priorities have been displaced?
In the last week, 51 judicial appointments - another firm campaign promise to his electorate - to moving another notch closer to globalizing North Korea, participating in a fair and honest pricing in healthcare round table, a missile defense review - having scheduled 80 meetings and 15 public events so far this month.
Is the real rub here that he's been leaving the press off the meeting lists? Fair coverage and objective accounts might help that.
2
@JBC: What a tremendous sacrifice Trump has made to give up 16 days of golf at Mar a Lago.
4
@JBC
Everything you list (partially accurate) happens in spite of him, not because of him.
2
@JBCWhat notch exactly has been completed in making N Korea more "globalized?" It's been rhetoric. The issue is nuclear weapons, not globalization, anyhow.
How about you list his legislative accomplishments besides helping that 1% get its largest tax windfall?
Oh, and do you care about deficits? Compared to Obama's, the Trump legacy dwarfs even Reagan's.
4
Trump does not seem to be interested to keep the Govt running. In fact, he has reasons to stop all investigation against him, deny Dem led House to do its job. We all know that Trump does not have any attachment to just any ideology (religious and political included), or ethics, or morality. He is only interested in his own money and power and for that he is ready to do anything- just anything- including holding the country hostage.
It's the GOP senators who must share the the blame now.
18
@bonku
I think trump enjoys the power he has over the "little" people. Maybe he sees the slowdown as punishment for all those people who didn't force the Democrats to give him money for his wall.
With the US economic transmission downshifting and the global economy warning of a tepid future ahead - it's amazing how one immature man can change the fate of the 21st century world entering its third decade.
1
What agenda is being put on hold?
This assume this man has a plan further out than the next week's news cycle.
The last 2 years has proven this to be a false assumption.
25
Nick, are you really gonna give Trump credit for being able to look 7 whole days ahead?
2
Is Mitch McConnell on the Trump family business payroll?
There is no defense of for this Trump-McConnell Republican Government Shutdown, it must end immediately before any negotiations or budget talks begin, or this hostage taking method will be Trump's only way of dealing with a Democratic majority.
This is irresponsible and a disgraceful way for a President to try and conduct a policy negotiation, and he would use this hostage taken method all of the time causing constant turmoil and chaos.
There were already Pro-Lifers in that march chanting to shutdown the government to get their way.
This Government Shutdown cannot be allowed as bargaining tool or chip, under any circumstances , by any party Republican or Democrat, ever, period!
20
@Chico Is McConnell on the Trump family payroll? Sort of, yes. His wife is the secretary of transportation, and Trump just named his brother-in-law to a post in the Labor Department. Trump is not merely a Russian stooge, he is also a real estate developer who knows very well how to grease the wheels. Don't expect Mitch to show any spine.
7
The book House of Trump House of Putin by Craig Unger reports that McConnell is employed by the Kremlin. He became a salaried employee the day Trump got the Republican nomination.
The same book also reports that when Paul Ryan knew about this, he said:
“This doesn’t leave the Republican Party. That’s how we know we are family.”
At the end of the well-researched book is an appendix listing published sources a reader may independently check out.
1
It would not be an original observation to point out that Mr.Trump is running the country like a business, and the businesses Trump run have a steady record of failure.
When a large concern is failing, the CEO gets fired, the board gives him or her the previously agreed upon Golden Parachute, and the offending party vacates to parts unknown.
The deals Mr. has the most experience with are out of court settlements. The Wall is his metaphor for the payouts for failure that he has come to expected throughout his coddled life.
Right now the White House is running on a very meager staff. If Mr.Trump were a rouge nation run by a tin horn despot we would know what to do. Lay siege to the castle.
Does somebody know if McDonald's reserves the right to refuse service to anyone?
8
@Skeexix -- remember what happened when ENRON failed? Remember who convicted Lay and Skillings?
Psst: Mueller.
Lay died of a heart attack shortly after conviction. Skillings is still in jail.
Remember how he did it?
Convicted Fastow, even convicted Fastow's wife. She was also a financial officer at ENRON, had also signed fraudulent tax returns.
He squealed.
Bobby Three-sticks (Mueller's jocular nickname in the FBI because he is Robert Mueller III) is on Trump's tail, and Letitia James (have you heard of her, maybe not?) is too.
I think Trump and some portion of his family will end up in jail -- too much dirt, too many frauds and corrupt deals.
Pence can't pardon New York State convictions.
What do you think the odds are of a pardon from Cuomo?
6
@Lee Harrison - Homeboy put a smile on my face.
I grew up in Albany, left in 1979, Letitia James sounds like a name I've heard on the news talk circuit. Do recall the ENRON mess, and the blowback from Arthur Anderson.
Still chuckling about the Cuomo question. Nice birthday present from a stranger.
Thanks.
2
@Skeexix -- I grew up on the west coast and got to Albany in '89. It's been interesting.
"Individual 1" committed felony violations of FECA with the hidden payoffs of McDougal and Cliffords; these may never be charged due to the DOJ memo that a president may not be indicted by the DOJ.
But he also committed both money-laundering and tax fraud with the repayment of 430 k$ to Cohen, for the 130 k$ payment to Clliffords. This was both a federal crime and one prosecutable in New York: Trump was a NY citizen, his businesses and Cohen's are here.
This is a slam-dunk indictment and prosecution for Letitia James, presuming the Supreme Court doesn't stop the trial ... a reason to go bigger.
New York State has "Corrupt Organization" statutes that parallel RICO. I suspect that James is building a Corrupt Organization prosecution against the Trumps (plural), starting from the exposure of the Trump Foundation frauds, Cohen's plea bargain, and likely pursuing Weisselberg either as co-conspirator or prosecution witness with immunity.
The Supreme Court would have a much harder time stopping this prosecution.
Wait,wasn't Mexico was going to pay for this? And if Mexico is going to be paying for this, then why are we having an issue over funding of something we were told we would not have to pay for?
18
@Steve R
I suppose we can put Trump’s promise next to Obama’s deliberate ‘keep your doctor/plan’ lie in the Deception Hall of Fame.
No matter, illegal immigration and Democrats’ enabling of it is a problem.
1
As people wake up and as The House becomes more democratic (reflecting the voting citizenship at large) The GOP will find more ways of curbing government (i.e.: making government smaller by disabling oversight and offices.)
McConnell has been working toward that end for years while stacking the supreme court, circumventing the will of the general public. Trump cuts to the chase. He just shuts government down and is glad of it. The two working together are working to destroy this country and democracy as we know it.
31
@M L H Whoever you are, you would be better than what we have now.
1
Nothing is put on hold.
Trump's politically appointed surrogate termites are still ruining the national parks: erasing environmental regulations; putting children in cages; dismantling much of the education system; spreading lies; helping Putin and trying to undermine our democracy and rule of law, especially at the Department of Justice.
The problem is that most of the media isn't paying attention.
25
I agree with everything except the jibe at the media. I’m Canadian and I know about all the things the Donald and his specious spineless GOP are doing. People who want to be informed have many media options. Those who don’t watch Fox News.
4
Obama always seemed to be so busy. So did Bush and Clinton and and and and and Washington.
The presidency must be getting easier to do. I'm thinking, "I've got some free time, maybe I should run."
22
@RonRich Well, at least trump has proved the old adage that anybody can be president.
5
@RonRich
There's a big difference between making a job look easy, and it actually being easy -- And that's exactly why we have a government shutdown now.
2
Nancy Pelosi needs to affirmative disinvite Trump from giving his SOTU speech unless government re-opens. Not just suggest that he wait, but issue a dis-invitation to him. Maybe then his ego will push him to end the shutdown.
11
The Constitution needs a new amendment that makes provisions for the president to be fired by Congress on grounds of incompetence -- along the same lines that a CEO may be fired by the Board for unfitness and negligence.
Trump doesn't lead effectively, he doesn't manage effectively -- he doesn't even play figurehead effectively. The only thing he is effective at is sitting around waiting for his Republican congressional lemmings to furnish "winning" bills for his signature (and watching TV).
Forget impeachment. Forget collusion. And forget obstruction. It's already proven this man hasn't the requisite skills to manage America. This disgrace is cause enough to can him.
24
@Ken
You are so right. And in 650 days we can all send him packing.
Everyone needs to vote, and get everyone they know to vote. It's really difficult to type this because it literally makes me nauseous, but I'm scared that he might get re-elected. I worry that while a lot of people are angsty and full of complaints, that somehow they still think their vote won't matter. I run across people all the time who don't seem to realize how important their vote is. It's those people who need to find motivation to get out there with the rest of us.
How can we fix that? How do we get people off of their couches and into the voting booths? There is a very large group of people out here who do not read the paper, or take time to pay attention to what's going on outside of their little bubbles. How can we climb into those bubbles and get their attention? How can we make them understand that there are things going on now that have the potential to impact future generations?
4
25 45
1
What strikes me is how foes and fans alike see, and handle, Trump as someoe child-like: excusing, coddling and scolding him, and rarely, rarely expecting anything Presidential. But he's the Presdident. He needs to "Prez up." And we, including you all at the New York Times, should require that he do that, and call him out, straight up, when he faiks. Call him out with no inflections of [but oh really he never do right will cause he's a damaged and now-spolied baby actually] stuff to soften how we message about what we need as a people, as a society, as a polity. Even this article, so sharp in its analysis, carries some of that inflection.
Please, save your pity and mercy for those millions Trump's job has power over, not for the infantile character who was accidentally placed in the job by sloppy, somewhat-naive politics.
Ask the man to live up to the job. Don't excuse him even for a moment when he doesn't. Because he will always give himself a pass. Don't you do it too.
13
This article presumes that Trump has a political agenda. He only has a personal agenda. He never expected to get the job and simply wants a large group of people who cheer him at rallies and/or pay attention to him out of fear. After this job is over (and he probably prefer 4 years to 8 years as long as he can claim victim-dom rather than loser-dom) he plans to use the first group to milk as much money as he can from the fame it brought him.
17
Actually, the point of the shutdown for Trump is distracting Congress and the public from the Russian probe.
14
Why hasn't he gotten Justice Department fully funded, and appointed twice as many immigration judges, to cease the cost in overhead, labor and human capital of thousands of detained would-be immigrants??!!!
Why hasn't he promised a path to citizenship for any Dreamers who go into USA military or who teach in our ghettos for a couple years after undergrad school?
11
@Jean: Why does Trump even think about uprooting people who have grown up in the US and dumping them into foreign countries struggling to assimilate their own populations?
2
Saving face for Donald Trump: And so many have thought that face-saving was a Chinese social exigency! Not so. It's a superpneed for Donald, so OK, here's the plan:
Donald: you pledged a wall paid for by Mexico. That's not going to happen, so let our government function until the NEXT election. Now get the RNC to make the wall Item One on its 2020 platform for your re-election.
The get yourself re-elected and you and the wall have a mandate! Simple. Easy. Why did you not think of this before?? you save face. they save face. America decides in 2020, and your wall is a reality by 2021. No roads, no bridges, no rapid transit. But wow, what a wall!!!
6
Who’s to say the current situation is not the goal? Government shut down, vacancies infilled, legislation impossible, chaos, paralysis, ineptness and uncertainty in all things international, rudderlessness everywhere. Makes Putin happy, and if Putin ain’t happy...
22
@Tom Hayden Good point: we assume somehow that trump is trying to get things done. If that isn't true, everything starts to make more sense.
6
@Tom Hayden: Government is evidently circling the drain of Grover Norquist's bathtub.
1
Coulter, Ingraham, and Hannity, trump's political and economic advisers, are who made trump a one issue president. Fox News is running the country, not trump, not Mitch, not the Senate, and not the House. It's Fox News. And that's troubling.
Evidently, it is not trump who is the most powerful man in the nation, it's two Fox commentators who publicly shamed trump into a government shutdown, closing the EPA, IRS, the departments of State, Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, Interior and Justice and Homeland Security. Those last two should concern us.
trump took an oath to protect our nation and now, drawing a line in the sand for steel slats, trump has made our country extremely vulnerable to attacks from internal and external enemy sources.
The WaPo (1/10/19) reported that "are subject to high security standards that include rigorous and routine financial background checks. . . . Missing payments on debts could create delays in securing or renewing security clearances, and could even disqualify agents from continuing to serve in some cases.”
trump has been railing against the intelligence community and now, by the lack of a stroke of the pen, trump wins without having to fire anyone.
119
The Republicans are complicit in the crimes with Fox. They are allowing it to happen even though they gave the power to stand up against the plunder
18
@LivingWithInterest What is equally troubling, we the people did not elect Fox News, nor 45's three wizards, and therefore they do not take responsibility for the government shutdown. I saw a story about the FBI not having support staff and running out of supplies just to do the basic work. The claim building the "Wall" is necessary for security fails to convince because hobbling the FBI, DHS, Coast Guard, and TSA demonstrates national security is not a real concern. Moreover, the Federal Government has shown itself to be an unattractive place to work and will have trouble hiring quality people. This is not making America Great. This is making America like his Atlantic City Casinos.
31
@LivingWithInterest: One of my neighbors, who recently visited the 22nd Precinct station of the NYPD, described the scene there as somewhat of a shrine to Trump, with copies of his ghost-written book available, and Fox News running on the waiting area TV. This is in the heart of Upper West Side Manhattan. It spooked her. I can imagine its effects on others.
The last time I was there, Obama was president, and there was no shrine to him.
14
“But the wall has become the singular issue for Mr. Trump because he has become convinced that his presidency is on the line.”
The end can never justify the means. Even through the darkly opportunistic scanning of Donald Trump’s eyes.
5
@ubique: "Means" are what one deploys to defer the end.
@Steve Bolger
“Border security” is an increasingly meaningless argument when people are needlessly suffering in the process.
2
It has occurred to me that the wall is important to Trump and his administration for a reason that has yet to be unveiled; the policy that allows people to seek amnesty in America may be changed in the future, as in drastically curtailed, or completely removed, so that no one is allowed into the country through the Southern border at established points of entry. Should that happen migrants will go around the existing walls, and the only way to prevent that is to have a solid physical barrier across the entirety of the border.
Although it sounds preposterous, a policy change like this, regarding amnesty, is in line with Trump's expressed prejudices against non-white people.
So first things first: get the wall up. Change the policy.
The second thing to consider is that Trump is running the country as though it is a company he owns and everyone in the company must bend to his will. However, our country is a democracy, where our elected leaders debate and negotiate policies that preserve our safety, freedom, and prosperity. The owner of a company does not negotiate, he dictates. If he meets resistance he uses his power to get his way: you're fired.
You can't fire a democracy, but you can destroy a democracy by systematically dismantling it. Could that be what Steve Bannon meant by "deconstruct the administrative state"?
7
@Katherine H: Corporations are tools to implement the intentions of their managements. They have no will of their own.
Like ALL of Mr. Trump's problems, this is one of his own making.
13
@JVG: Trump holds public order itself hostage to his negotiations.
@JVG
“The president believes that the wall represents his contract with America, certainly his contract with his supporters".
Trump's "CONTRACT" with America was for a "Wall Paid For by Mexico"!
Once again, Trump lies.
2
Let's back up from this focus on a wall.
Historically what has the US policy on immigration been? And why. Has it changed?
What, historically, has the national attitude been, and why?
How do we think about the statue of liberty?
Let's think about what we as a nation WANT the policy to be.
If we wish to restrict immigration now, how does that fit with the above?
I have heard varying statements about the WALL. What would the real purposes, and effects of the wall be? Or lack of effectiveness? Some news stories point out that most of the drugs entering the US do not come over that border, but rather through ports of entry. ??? Again, re the crossing of criminals and terrorists? What is the real story there?
How did the Great Wall of China work, even before higher tech? Does a wall even work?
We also hear peripherally that the number of crossings is down from the past. ???
What is the economic effect or effects of immigration? Does it put native born Americans out of work or does it provide labor that we need?
We need to think this whole thing through.
What do we as a nation want to be, and how does all this support that self concept?
Thee needs to be a whole lot more discussion about who we are and want to be, and how immigration fits in. How about a big, double page analysis by the NYT, or more,to start with? How about some community discussions all over the country?
We need a vision as to who we are, which seems to have been lost. Alas.
2
@WJA: The "Wall" is Trump's Maginot Line. A means to re-fight the last war.
1
The State of the Union is at a standstill. It would have been wise for Trump to postpone this. With the longest shutdown in American history, and with 800,000 federal workers as well as between one to one and a half million federal contractors and their families not receiving paychecks, the message is: Work for me, and I will stiff you. This was true for those who worked for his businesses also.
The difference now is that it is taxpayers who are paying the salaries of these people who are either furloughed or working without pay. Trump is gambling with other people's money.
But then, I wonder if Trump will announce that he has added two trillion dollars to the national debt in two years.
6
What about his other campaign promises, such as a "big, beautiful" healthcare plan? Or how he promised to take care of "my African-Americans"? Or his promise to protect rights for LGBTQ? He made plenty of promises. He could always pick another issue to focus on. But of course, that might actually benefit a lot of Americans, so he has to stick with the wall, since that fits in with the rest of his "agenda": making the U.S. look like it is afraid of everyone else in the world.
10
The fact that the Trump administration is completely lacking any substantive national conversation on the multitude of serious issues that confront us, and that such conversation has not been taking place, was obvious even before the beginning of the wall debacle. That one president can derail the American media and establishment from serious and substantive ongoing discussion in a time of multiple grave and even existential challenges bodes ill for our future.
7
@Jeffrey It isn't just "on president" though. He is aided and abetted by the Republicans in general, McConnell and Graham and Ryan in particular, plus Fox, and an uneducated populace.
3
In reading Herman Wouk's masterpiece "War and Rembrance," this line stands out for me:
"Democracy satisfies best the human thirst for freedom; yet, being undisciplined, turbulent, and luxury-seeking, it fall time and again to austere single-minded despotism."
6
If this is how Trump will govern the remaining two years of this term then the Democrats must push for impeachment immediately. The government is frozen over a wall that has no purpose other than to appease Trump's base for the 2020 election. He obviously cannot be dealt with in a rational manner and cares more about himself then the country so lets start the impeachment now. There are enough legitimate reasons to start the process and let Mueller's report add to the testimony when it's ready once the process has started. We cannot wait any longer. Trump must go!
15
May Individual 1 spend every waking moment for the remainder of his Administration thinking about The Wall. He will then have precious little time or energy to shred the texture and fabric of our beloved country.
7
Yesterday evening was so very enjoyable, as I was busy paying attention to whether or not Mariano Rivera was going to be the first unanimous Hall of Fame selection, and not whether the fool in the oval office was embarrassing this country yet again.
I am just so tired of having a prepubescent child representing this once great country. What will happen when people on both sides of the border try to destroy this monument to hatred? I hope it happens with the frequency with which people destroy this fool's star. Don't give the people who construct this monstrosity a moment's peace while they are working on it.
6
Trump has had a wall around himself his entire life that he built himself and declared his own reality within. National embarrassment for the World to watch day in and day out.
13
trump is an easy target, he is his own effigy...the wall issue is rather a reduction of the entire border security issue...in that regard both sides are complicit.
the democrats are worse because they have called for and supported walls and fences, see how many miles of barrier were built by obama.
fact is some wall is needed...think of patrolling a vulnerable area...without a barrier border crossers need only wait until the motor patrol passses...drones? better but unless they’re armed, there will stiil be some time until help arrivres and unimpeded crossers won’t wait.
true progressives, committed to the achievement of equal opportunity for citizens and woukd be citizens, support immigration...and many who immigrated are passionate about border control, it is one important way that they feel we can ensure that the america immigrants sought and found, is not denatured by the degrading of citizenship guaranteed by loose borders.
It's getting harder and harder to tell what constitutes actual journalism and bitter-fueled op-ed jabs, and this article was no exception. With a headline expressing a sense of fear or apprehension by the President, there was scant evidence of that in the article. It wonderfully highlighted just how much has not gotten done, and I'm thankful for that insight. But the look inside the President's mind the headline alluded to was only vaguely explored at best. Perhaps an overzealous editor trumped it up. But as vile as the President's tactics and tantrums are, where is the learned and adult perspective of my favorite news source? If I wanted gossip and hearsay, I'd buy the Enquirer.
2
5.7 billion dollars of wall translates into .7 billion for the actual wall,( now that might be high) 3 billion in profits, and a 2 billion kickback to the RNC.
Econemallomics 101.
6
"I like acting (officials)” he said. “It gives me more flexibility. Translation: "Only I can do it alone. I am your Supreme Leader." And so speaks a true authoritarian drunk on his ever growing power. Frightening.
10
From mnemonic device for a forgetful candidate to a his personal symbol of force, the idea of the Wall has gotten entirely out of hand.
No one, not even Trump, wanted to build a wall -- it was a memory trick his team gave him to get him to talk about immigration.
That Trump is racist and holds no liking for Mexico, Central or South America, except for the illegal immigrants he's hired at his resorts, is indisputable.
That he refuses to follow, or has rescinded, any U.S. laws that protect immigrants, or any persons of color, is painfully notable.
He does not do his job as defined in the Constitution, constantly overstepping his boundaries and abusing the power of the Oval Office to enrich himself.
It's not surprising to read that appointments aren't important to him because he likes to do everything. Most dictators do.
This stopping of all Federal functions, for a mnemonic device, is moronic. He's abusing his power, unconstitutionally, because borders, immigration and budget are the purview of Congress.
It is unfortunate that Congressional Republicans have chosen not to check the Executive, and not to legislate, as defined in the Constitution.
They have chosen to do dictator Trump's bidding. Together, they bring the basest values and the most destructive strategies to everything they touch.
There are not enough courageous people in Congress to stop him, and Americans are left to the whims of an immoral and self-absorbed wrecking ball.
7
Hold firm, Speaker Pelosi. No State of the Dictatorship in OUR U.S. House of Representatives or OUR Senate or OUR White House.
The Con Don told Sarah Huckabee Sanders not to have any daily press briefings. None of OUR business what the chief thief is up to? The press is simply stupid if they cover anything he passes off as a state of our union that he has caused. The state is chaos and he is giddy as a baby destroying a china shop.
Time to storm OUR bastille. Time for people in power in OUR political/legal/military/secret service complexes to stand up as one and throw The Con Don (or is that just The Don) and his International Mafia brethren OUT of OUR governments and regulatory agencies RIGHT NOW.
What are you waiting for, Good People? WE THE PEOPLE know The Con Don thinks he's some "dictator king". WE know he's not and that WE do not want him or anyone like him trying to destroy OUR United States of America from inside and out.
Just Do It!
16
@njglea Bravo! Could not agree more!
2
So America is being held hostage so Trump can get a stage prop to rally his base, to get re-elected.
15
It seems that Trump's agenda is undo everything that Obama did even if it is bad for America. Cutting taxes and running up the deficit; dismantling the Affordable Care Act and leaving people with bad or no health insurance; removing environmental regulations which leave more Americans at risk; etc... Everything he supports is bad for America. Perhaps it is good that he is consumed by his wall.
11
Seems Trump has taken a page from Lincoln: A divided nation cannot stand or endure such vagaries, especially without secure borders, so the civil war is now between parties, one with the face of Cuba 1959, the other with American sovereignty as it shibboleth.
As they "stand" now, it seems, there is no future political synthesis--just armed conflict.
2
The NYT once again ducks the true nature of Trump’s action. It is not about an”Wall”. It is about using Presidential powers for extortion to replace the powers of Congress with Presidential fiat. It is about a takeover. It is about a coup d’etat.
Doing harm to the country, in this case at the expense of 800,000 workers not involved in the matter at stake, to force the House to approve allocation of $5.7 billion dollars against its will, is not how the Constitution envisages such decisions. It is also contrary to the Constitution for McConnell to refuse to place bills before the Senate unless Trump gives PRIOR approval.
These acts together and individually amount to an assault upon the Constitution and an attempt to make the President a dictator.
It is not the case that “among the hostages has been his own presidency”. Au contraire, it is a blunt blatant attempt at usurpation.
17
@John Brews ..✅✅
Once again I ask....what can we DO?? We forced change in the sixties.....need ideas to stop this American tragedy before it's too late.
Is it too late?
2
One thing we can do is to insist the NYT call a spade a spade. Blackmail and extortion are not “squabbles”, not an ”impasse”, not a “partisan dispute”. All terms used by the NYT. Likewise, on PBS, Woodward consistently poses leading questions suggesting the Dems are being intransigent by not offering a “sliver” of concession to Trump.
Yes, Trump is deliberately harming the Country. Yes, he is doing it to get his way. No, ending deliberately harmful acts is not a method the Constitution offers the President to force his whims.
3
In many ways "The Wall" is little more than a smokescreen. Conservatives are achieving their goal of less government given we have seemingly disposed of 800,000 government employees. Hate radio pundits and their puppets in Congress must be absolutely ecstatic about such a reduction. Given the nature of King Donald's support, Speaker Pelosi should cancel the SOU altogether and conduct some meaningful business. Responsible TV networks should also decline to carry any alternative coverage, as well. It is time to say enough is enough and give the perpetrators of hate radio their due.
9
Donald Trump cannot spin more than one plate at a time. If his Twitter feed is any reflection on his obsessive-compulsive personality - with a large dose of narcissism thrown in for good measure - it's no surprise that everything else is on hold.
It is pure luck that there has been no major terrorist attack or other threat to the nation in the past two years. I just don't know how much longer our luck can hold out.
9
The Federal shutdown is not going to end. Trump has decided to stake his presidency on it. He has co-opted the Republican Party.
Trump is in his comfort zone now. It's all up to him; it's all about him. The damage to the workers and the country is considered collateral.
It's all easier to understand, but no less ominous, if you believe Trump is certifiably mentally ill. There were conversations about the 25th Amendment for a reason.
6
@JL Is he mentally ill?
Or is this a well thought out plan to enable him to become dictator for life?
Maybe this is the reason that his talks with Putin were top secret with no witnesses and confiscation of the interpreter's notes.
1
I wasn’t aware he actually had/has an agenda.
7
The one issue scenario is due to one simple reason, Trump is a solo act, he cannot lead a large organization because of this lack of leadership skills.
9
What would Trump do if none of us filed our taxes his year? Just wondering. Sure would be a lot less money for him to steal.
5
The wall and shut down will be a major distraction until the Mueller report causes a nuclear blast....
5
Trump's "presidency" just like Trump's business dealings, relationships, and his entire life have always been about one-issue... Trump.
4
Trump is attempting to force his wall on us - He
attempts to manipulate people with fear, lies and political drama. He is holding federal employees hostage and the government hostage in an attempt to force his wall on us.
Enough !
The vast majority of people don't want a wall and the vast majority of people want the government open and working for the people.
Open the government back up, and work on immigration reform in a reasonable and calculated manner. This chaos has to stop.
127
@S B Agree. And wonder if I am missing something. Why wasn't the so called "Wall" funding issue raised when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress?
13
It's the old story of the monkey, the nut and the bottle.
2
@Jim Very insightful
"In Pursuit of a Border Wall, Trump Puts the Rest of His Agenda on Hold"
Nonsense. Environmental protections are still being eliminated, right-wing judges are still being approved, self-dealing by Trump hires is still being done, women's right to self-determination is under threat, honorable Americans are being denied careers in the military, and on and on. The trashing of America continues.
59
@The Poet McTeagle
Meanwhile Rome burns.
The Times would serve us so much better if they included a daily sidebar or page, titled MEANWHILE, that chronicles the short and long term damage this administration continues to inflict on our institutions and culture...on the very idea of America itself.
We can't hope to deal with the damage if we don't know what it is. Enough of the bright shiny objects. What's really going on is what's really the matter.
We will be dealing with that long after Trump is gone.
6
You're absolutely right. What he is, is a tool. He's a tool of the Koch brothers and the right wing religious bloc, and not just the fundamentalist Christians - the American Catholic Church is tight there in the mix. He who prides himself as being his own man. What a travesty of a human being.
2
What a relief he must feel now! He doesn't have to pretend he cares about all the irritating problems he has never understood and never had any curiosity about. He doesn't have to read policy since nothing much is happening. He hates to read. He has an excuse to be a lazy rich man waiting for his meals. He has more time to watch T.V. He can now nakedly exercise his bottomless personal anger on the whole nation in peace. He never wanted to be a serious president. He was hoping the job would make him finally feel whole. But he realizes it hasn't made him feel better, and he is furious. The whole presidency was a vanity project from the beginning, people.
29
Donald's hyperbolic rhetoric during the campaign helped lay the groundwork for this disaster. He probably could've gotten much of what he wanted if he simply learned to approach things in a rational manner and speak like an adult. Instead of making a comprehensive case to all of the American people on why his ideas about border security are a good approach, he chose to continue to play the carnival barker instead. It's all he knows. He has all the foresight and deal-making prowess of a steel ball.
8
Please make this story go away. We WANT him to think the shutdown is the only issue. God forbid he continue trying to address others...
10
This has , from the beginning, been a one issue Whitehouse. Much has been accomplished, but not by him. He is the Distractor in Chief while the right wing of our country quietly brings their vision of what America really should be into fruition. Our President is oblivious to what is taking place beyond his tiny bubble. He's like a child trying to drive a car but he 's not tall enough to see over the steering wheel and his feet don't reach the pedals.
12
Trump is focused on one thing. Mueller is also singularly focused on something entirely different. Coincidence? DJT is the master of smoke and mirrors, "don't look over there, keep looking at me..." Careful what you wish for, someone is looking, very closely and methodically at your past, Don.
P.S. One can only hope this ridiculous government shutdown (temper tantrum by a 3 year old) will finally turn some of his loyalist base against him.
9
Considering the support congressional Democrats have given the wall, or barrier, or fence in the no so distant past, maybe he thought they would be on board? Clearly, his advisors miscalculated the hatred he cultivated in them over time, and now he sits in perpetual petulance about not getting his way.
2
No hatred. You seem to forget that only last year the Senate unanimously passed legislation to keep the government open. You’re also forgetting that over the last two years, while Republicans had control of both houses, nothing was done about The Wall. So it’s not a question of hatred by Democrats, but the simple fact that Republicans also don’t have a majority in favor of building the wall.
Trump understands that for his base, the wall is the central issue. He’s probably right that unless the wall is built, he won’t be reelected.
5
@James K. Lowden: And his base consists of people who never see an actual Latino immigrant but have been taught to view them as scapegoats for all the social problems exist in this country.
5
It's clear that he's keeping the government shut down because he doesn't like having to work hard at a job he never wanted in the first place. Now he has plenty of time for TV and tweeting. The downside is that it wouldn't look good for him to be playing golf and holding vanity rallies for himself at taxpayer expense, so he's even grouchier and more isolated than ever.
12
The real question for Americans in 2019 (after having experienced 2 years of a Trump presidency) will be: which is worse for the country, Trump's border "wall" or the rest of his agenda (whatever that might be)???
2
Open the Government Now!
Negotiate Later!
Leader McConnell is finally going to allow a vote on the House passed bill that will open the government now. 13 patriotic senators will vote for the bill. Your senator should be one of them!
6
@Dan Mabbutt
Anything that Mitch McConnell says or does should be taken with a grain of salt.
5
First off, I highly doubt that if Trump put the wall issue aside for the time being, his 30% base would turn on him. But Coulter and Limbaugh most certainly will shame him along with bits and pieces of FOX. That is the most scary part of this entire predicament and essentially an impediment to any possible compromise.
For example, while Trump's most recent play included a few crumbs that Democrats might take as bait, among the first to denounce these crumbs as caving in on immigration where not members of his base but instead, Coulter, Limbaugh and FOX. This forced Trump to water down the crumbs even more.
So the real impasse isn't just "the wall", it is the fact that Trump has absolutely no wiggle room when it comes to packaging a deal with other meaningful immigration issues.
The true enemies of the state in addition to Trump himself, are Coulter, Limbaugh and FOX. His base won't run but Trump isn't really listening to his base, is he?
So it is truly up to the most moderate and secure Senate Republicans to get behind a bill that will just open the government with a veto-proof vote. That is about the only way Trump can now save face, not with his base, but with Coulter, Limbaugh and FOX.
10
What if the Democrats said we will keep the government shut down unless Trump allows the Democrats to select all judicial appointees? Would you be encouraging the Republicans to reach a compromise? Would you say both sides should give in? Would you suggest that Democrats only appoint 50% of all judges? Or, would you say it was intolerable hostage taking that should not be rewarded?
5
Trump was never interested in governing. This man is driven by two primary goals:
(1) Public adulation
(2) Making money
On the first point, Trump spends a disproportionate amount of time on the campaign trail and filed paperwork for 2020 well before the end of his second year. He's a lot like former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in the sens that both men seemed to enjoy clowning before rapturous audiences. In Trump's case he's finally found his place in front of a sea of red hats. This is what gets Trump out of bed in the morning. He has no vision other than keeping this party going.
To the second point, unlike any other American president Trump has largely marginalized the White House ethics office and proceeded to wipe his shoes all over the emoluments clause. His tax returns never materialized and a publicly announced plan to track money flowing into Trump properties from foreign businesses and turn that revenue over to the U.S Department of the Treasury has largely been forgotten. Since his inauguration rates at Mar O Laga have risen and Trump's sons are scouring the globe for new deals.
Building the wall is red meat from Trump's base, and in turn an extended glide path to sustain both aforementioned priorities. It should be noted that Trump never decided to make an end run around Congress for border wall funding because any claims that the issue has risen to the level of a national emergency would never have withstood a certain legal challenges.
11
1 @Steve Agreed! While Trump continually tells us about how much he's accomplished, looking at the actual output, it's a pretty slim agenda. The tax cut and criminal justice reform (both of which were originally formed in Congress) are about the only items of significance while must of Trump's attempts to rule via executive order have been enjoined by the courts. Infrastructure, a better healthcare plan and other promises have fallen by the wayside because of him focus on the bloody wall. He couldn't get it funded in the two years that the GOP had control of Congress because he was too lazy to make the kinds of deals that are required in a political process. Now, with the control of the House in the hands of the opposition, his legs have been cut out from under him and he has no understanding of how to advance his agenda. His oft-proclaimed "deal making skills" that work so well when bullying vendors and competitors in the private sector don't play so well in politics. Boo hoo Donald, you're a failure as president.
5
We need to stop letting Trump bully us into accepting his simplistic notion that border cotrol is the problem. The problem is immigration control (Unless we opt for open borders.) Yes, we need to end the spectacle of caravans of undocumented persons appearing at the sourhern border demanding entry. But most undocumented residents and abusers of immigration law have not crossed the border illegally, they have entered legally, usual by air, and overstay their visas. Enforcement of the laws we already have would go much further in ending illegal entry and illegal overstaying of visa, but neither party is talking about enforcement of these laws as a way to control illegal immigration. Enforce the law prohibiting employment of undocumented aliens. Enforce the law that says anyone who overstays a visa cannot apply for another visa from within the US--cannot 'change status' (i.e. be issued a fiance visa, a spousal or family member visa, or a work or investor visa) without returning to their home country to wait for a visa.
Why aren't the Democrats demaning more enforcement of the e-Verfy system? Because like the Replublicans they fear the backlash of their donors who depend on low-paid illegal workers. It's time to move past this silly talk of border control via a wall and get real about the immigration control that might better protect American workers.
5
@farhorizons: I have often said that anyone who is *sincerely* interested in controlling illegal immigration should advocate draconian penalties on *employers.* Illegal immigration is best viewed as a demand-side problem (too many employers willing to hire people with no legal status) rather than a supply-side problem (untold numbers of people crossing the border to take the many jobs that exist in the underground economy, thanks to minimal penalties on employers).
4
"But the wall has become the singular issue for Mr. Trump because he has become convinced that his presidency is on the line."
Yes, indeed. He's terrified of being impeached by Ann Coulter.
11
Obviously the wall is not the President’s highest priority. If it were, he would have got funding for it from the Republican Congress. Instead, he cut his own taxes. To Trump, the horror of Ivanka and Jared paying inheritance taxes is far more urgent than border security.
If the President were in fact concerned about illegal immigration, he would be using E-Verify at all his businesses. Instead, he deliberately and illegally hires workers with fraudulent documents to save money.
10
@kkseattle -- the fact of the matter is that Republican interests are what support most of the illegal immigrants and depend on them.
"The Wall" is a shiny not-so-little charade to distract and satisfy Trump's angry base.
4
Trump affirmes and proclams that he is acting to protect border secuity . OK
And assume that indeed the WALL may contribute to national security, and that no other measures may be as efficient, which clearly is not the case.
But, eventhought, can claim as he does , that he prefers the shut down to last ( forever?), than giving up on this specific campaign promess, when IN FACT Trump shut down is contributing to to our INSECURITY
Border patrol and airport inspectiions are down; permitting the entry of drugs and criminals
Tax collections are down. And what about"unemployement" of the laid off.
Is ruining our economy, our friendship with our allies, and creating an artificial gap beteween americans worth the WALL;
Will this end up in a second civil war or a third world war.
I may be exagerating. but who would have believed that we could now be in this situation.
Doctor Folamour is among us.
4
Despite a few comments urging Democrats to cave in to Trump's demand for a wall as the price for re-opening our government, it is becoming crystal clear why they should not do so. There is no reason to believe that Trump won't shut down the government again to get something that the deal maker can't otherwise achieve politically. Trump is engaging in an attempt at extortion. He can't be allowed to win on this or our system of governance will be smashed.
9
I don't see how it's a problem that Trump is unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. Any policies he will enact will be to the detriment of the American public, so the less effective a president he is, the better.
Oh and let's hope he's a one-termer.
5
Trump's negotiating style reminds me of the bully in the playground who wants your football. When you refuse to give it to him, he takes your bike and then offers to trade you the bike for the football. Trump creates bargaining chips by taking something away from his opponent and then offering to trade it for what he wants.
9
@Paul -- the fifth-grade bully I remember disappeared from my school one day. Years later he reappeared in my high school.
We learned that his parents had put him into a strict residential military academy, because he was facing expulsion -- public schools did that back then.
Why was he back in a public high school? Because the military academy had expelled him!
He wasn't the tough kid anymore though; things did not go well for him, and he disappeared again. Rumors were that he was incarcerated, I don't know, never found out, didn't really care.
This story remind you of anyone?
5
@Paul
Exactly. And by doing so, he's now exhibiting everything he's learned from Roy Cohn.
3
His only issue, throughout his entire "presidency" (if we continue to call it that), and throughout his life, has been his ego.
4
I supposes I should not be surprised that the President's base is not mad at him for lying about Mexico paying for the wall. If we're going to fork over billions of tax dollars for border security, it seems to me that the spending should be allocated according to evidence-based conclusions and not campaign memes—but what do I know?
13
The federal government, under Trump, has become dysfunctional. Trump's only goal is to save face on his promise to build a useless border wall. National security is compromised and millions of Americans are being harmed financially. The national economy is no doubt next in line. The only relief offered by our rather limited constitution is impeachment or the 25th Amendment. If there was ever a time to take either route, it's now.
109
@Clark Landrum
I once thought Trump's obsession was simple -- that the word "wall" simply translates "ego". But as the damage to our government and our nation continues to mount, I've had a second thought.
I now believe the damage is purposeful and that our president is doing Vladimir Putin's bidding in freezing our government. The White House is the little Kremlin by the Potomac. It is still supported by the great majority of GOP senators in its undoing of our nation.
While federal employees are going without pay, Trump and his GOP loyalists in the Senate just made sure that Putin ally Deripaska will reap hundreds of millions of dollars in the lifting of sanctions imposed as a result of their theft of our last presidential election.
16
@William Lazarus, Trump's actions toward Russia or lack thereof would appear to support your theory.
9
I have a feeling this is going to get ugly soon. Federal workers will soon walk off the job and then the clown will say they are unpatriotic. Watch this space. Seriously what has a wall got to do with American federal workers? they are Trump's hostages. What a complete joke this bafoon is, and what a mess he has put America in. Shame on the republican party. This isn't about policy, but about racism and power through that.
14
@Kris
Not only federal workers, the entire country is Trump's hostage -- And things will get ugly enough as soon as Trump's base starts to feel the effects, the economy tanks, or some malevolent force out there realizes that with the government shut down, we're basically no more than a sitting duck.
3
This is what you get when you put a man suffering from a serious mental illness in the Oval Office.
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder with a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Those affected often spend much time thinking about achieving power or success, or on their appearance. They often take advantage of the people around them. The behavior typically begins by early adulthood, and occurs across a variety of social situations.
Caligor, Eve; Levy, Kenneth N.; Yeomans, Frank E. (May 2015). "Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Diagnostic and Clinical Challenges". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 172 (5): 415–22
23
Chuck, we will primary you if you cave! Remember, there were Thousands of us outside your Brooklyn home in 2017 protesting you! Do the write thing Neighbor.
10
@Steve I meant right thing!!!
2
However insulting to the public, and cruel to the federal employees being denied their livelihood, the shutdown may have a 'positive', the temporary halting of further stupid, and cruel, measures to screw us all, as seems the intent of 'our' vulgar bully in-chief, a brutus ignoramus so incompetent that he won't recognize that his ' border wall payable by Mejico' is, and always was, pure demagoguery.
4
He is like the toddler who threatens to hold his breath till he gets the toy in the store. This is only exacerbated by his lack of humanity. He does not care about anyone he can possibly hurt. He is a mendacious and malevolent dictator. . . aspiring to depths of those he admires.
12
The maniac wants the wall to be a memorial to himself.
A better memorial is to have the Trump name in large gold and flashing letters on the main gate of the high-security prison in which he is incarcerated for the rest of his despicable life.
7
“...he has become convinced that his presidency is on the line...”
His was always a one-issue presidency. Donald Trump may not have expected to win but he ran hard on keeping non-whites—Hispanics in particular—out of America. He pushed the fear meter off the charts with his sermons about MS-13 gangs and “rapists” and drug dealers.
What other pressing domestic or foreign issue was he ever serious about? Trade and tariff measures were just diversions, another of his racist riffs to persuade white workers that he would make America over again in their image. He ran the game down on them that they had become like “those others” that he (and they) so despised; that they were in tremendous danger of second-class citizenship. His fulminations about the national anthem have had a limited shelf life.
And, since he’s been in office, his entire approach to government and governing has been to exacerbate racial and ethnic tensions because he has nothing else in his playbook.
He is a lazy, disinterested man, scheduling nothing of serious import for his day, holding not only his besieged White House hostage but also the entire country, one which he swore to “preserve, protect and defend...so help me God.”
The legislative apparatus on The Hill awaits his pleasure. Meanwhile, the diminishing good will of even his most staunch supporters is taking its toll.
144
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,
I agree he was basically a one-issue candidate. But if you think that the only people who supported him were anti-Hispanic racists you are blind to the realities. Many people who are not racist are in favor of immigration control and for effective measures to control illegal immigration, and the Dems hardly spoke about these things. DACA isn't an answer to the problem of illegal immigration, but the Democrats haven't focused on other solutions, such as enforcement of e-Verify to end (at least substantially end) employment of persons who don't have the right to work in the US. Unless the Democratic Party face up to the issue of illegal immigration they may well lost again in 2020.
2
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,
Seriously, if ever a POTUS violated his oath of office...
12
Obsessive-compulsive disporder.
You can add that to the list of Donald's mental …….. oddities.
If only the man could become obsessed by something useful. That is to say, something other than himself.
7
The less this President does, the better.
11
Why are we still even discussing what this man says????
In the first 2 years of office we have over 8,000 lies and or mis-leading statements. He will agree to one thing and then change his mercurial mind. I know the Times doesn't like hearing this, but, this whole mess is the fault of the 40% of Republican voters who are either racist, or stupid or both.
Anyone who watched the convention and "Only I can fix it" and thought, "yeah, I'm with this guy" isn't very bright. Sorry NYT but sometime the truths is painful to print.
10
Why don't the Democrats give Trump his Wall,
in exchange for his resignation, ASAP?
-----------------------------------------------
Let it be officially designated: "The Great Wall of Trump".
But let Donald Trump resign to save the nation from insanity.
It is the "Art of the Deal". Make Trump an offer he cannot refuse?
Trump's Wall will put him in history books, with a national shrine.
Come on, Nancy and Chuck. Make a deal with Trump, right now!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2
I love it. Finally a republican president who has guts. It is absolutely insane that we don’t have a wall. We’re a sovereign country. The democrats make me sick.
1
@Thomas Aquinas
The Democrats make you sick? -- you do realize that it was Trump who said: "I am proud to shut down the government."
Sorry. He owns this.
4
If Trump has guts, he would have picked up the phone on day one and called Mexico to ask for the money for the wall.
Two years and counting, still no phone call.
Why?
Because Trump is a coward.
Remember bone spurs?
3
To oppose this idiot in the next election, a man named Buttijudge has declared his candidacy. I take issue with Buttijudge's statement that America needs to figure out a way for this generation to earn as much as their parents did. Their parents did it on the back of the environment, leading to climate change and the future death of the earth as we know it. This generation needs to realize that earning more and more money is not the answer. Accepting a lower wage for a better, cleaner environment is the answer. We can't have the big houses and the fancy cars AND a cleaner environment.
Mr. T. is a lazy fake, himself, and the less he has to do the better he likes it. And until the Republicans crawl out from their hiding and call him unfit, he is happy to tweet, watch television and fight for air (airhead) time. The only activity that pleases him more than lying, is stiffing his workers and rewarding his flunkies.
Considering his fondness for mob slang ("rat") perhaps "fence" reminds him of his role in profiteering stolen sections of America, and its history.
T. Ripoff could be a suitable nickname. or Tripov, if Russianized... Hood robbin'... steal from the poor and give to the rich.
3
To state that: "The US President was and still is a victim, a hostage in the White House." is a really strange thing to think and state. Apparently you are an admirer and defender of him. SAD, VERY SAD.
3
Lie and repeat while you out-white your opponents...it’s the American way.
1
I know how to get Trump to reopen parts of the government.
Find a wack right wing radio-podcaster who deals in conspiracies
Feed him the tale that there are credible terrorist threats against allTrump properties at this very minute. Faux buys it.
The terrorists are allgay- transgender-muslim-illegal immigrants who voted for Hillary. Three hundred times each. In each and every state. They fund their activities with child prostitution rings in the basements of pizza places.
They are on the move now from Guatemala. By land, sea, and air. Hiding beneath prayer rugs. Transferring funds as we speak.
He will open it up to save his hide. And tweet how he saved the nation.
2
I’m sorry, I couldn’t make it past the headline.
Every time anyone, least of all The Times, associates Trump with the word “agenda”, this moronic charade of a presidency is subtly burnished with a veneer of normalcy it doesn’t deserve. This is true even when the point of the reference is that this so-called “agenda” is failing.
Donald Trump does not have an agenda. He does not have priorities, he does not have a strategy or goals or doctrine. In lieu of these things he has simply an astounding capacity for shamelessness and narcissism. He speaks whatever thought pops into his head at any given moment and the more excited a response he receives, no matter whether it’s mindless adulation or bewilderment and anger, the more he repeats it. And as he repeats it so it becomes true; objective reality notwithstanding.
We’re in a terrible spot, folks. It is nothing short of terrifying to look clearly at the depth of the depravity we’re facing. But we do ourselves no favors to avoid doing so in favor of suggesting that Donald Trump has some kind of governing philosophy that we merely tend to disagree with.
The only story here is that the President is a malignant narcissist with the attention span of a golden retriever. Anything else is, dare I say it, fake news.
10
Please do not insult golden retrievers! They are focused, loyal, brave and steady - in a word, UnTrumpian.
The liar in Chief promised time and time again at his rallies that Mexico would pay; that he would be happy to shutdown the government. Well, Mr. Art of the Con go do your deal with the Mexican government. The man lies like he breathes. Second nature to the beast. The Dems should not back down do this and then the man/child will shut down the government anytime he doesn't get his way. It's blackmail defined. The odious repubs paly along. Good luck fellas 202 isn't too far away voters will remember you were in lockstep with this man. You can run but you can't hide.
7
Rome burns while Trump fiddles.
5
not with my money, not with my children's money and not with my grandchildren's money. Feel free to eliminate Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid-then you will have enough money for your ignorant fence looking statue
2
@Scott Don't be so quick to throw others under the bus to protect your money, the your children's money and your grandchildren's money. I earned my social security and medicare; I paid for it and I need it in order to live and pay my bills and for my health care. If you want to give your social security and medicare moneys to The Donald, go for it, but don't pull the rug out from others.
3
Every dark cloud has a silver lining....
1
What agenda?
8
Trump's so incompetent and lazy he can only watch Fox TV, lie and think about one thing at a time, thank God.
Vote my friends.
This morally bankrupt conman Trump needs to be kicked to the curb along with a number of shameless, spineless Republican Congressmen and Senators,
7
Pathetic, really, but it's been obvious from day one and by day one, I mean the day he came down the escalator and put his hate filled views right out there for everyone to see and hear, Mr. Trump is only a one-issue person. He's not a worker -- I don't think he's ever worked, just blown hot air and cheated as many people as he could and as the Times reported a few months back, like father, like son -- grifters in every sense of the word. Sadly because some 77k "deplorables" put him in office, he now gets to grift all of us. What a sham it has all been and continues to be.
9
Treat him like the toddler he is and limit his "screen time"
9
Worst president ever.
Bigoted, racist liar. Ignorant, incompetent, corrupt. Compromised by Russia.
Trump has no agenda but Trump. He has no vision for the country - only for himself. He is under increasing pressure from the Mueller investigations, coming House hearings, and the real media - while the right wing fake news machine feeds his ego and his malevolent world view. There are serious questions about his mental health.
And the Republican Party stands behind him and enables him while they shovel wealth upward, cripple the government, pack the judiciary with activist hacks, destroy institutions, and mortgage the future while the world burns.
MAGA was nothing but an empty sales pitch; the Wall is a fake issue. It’s not accurate to say Trump’s agenda is at a standstill. He deliberately destroys everything he touches, and if anything the pace is picking up.
Nixon may have become increasingly dysfunctional as Watergate played out, but the people around him were halfway competent. Trump has surrounded himself with toadies, rogues, crooks, and worse.
Nixon was a cancer on the presidency; his legacy has metastasized into the modern GOP and right wing media, to saddle us with Trump and the oligarchs who own them - including Putin apparently.
It’s going to take radical treatment if America is to survive the pathology Trump and the GOP embodies. They all must go.
8
The only good thing about Mafia Don’s border wall obsession is that the rest of his dangerous, anti-American, pro-Russia agenda is going nowhere. By the way, when are The Times and the rest of the media going to realize that Trump continues to bear hug Putin because he still lusts for a Trump Tower in Moscow after he is thrown out of office? I never hear this discussed, though it is obvious.
6
Given Trump's practice of making decisions based primarily on his ego or catering to his base, it is actually a silver lining that all of his attention has been absorbed by the border wall. The fewer matters he is involved with, the fewer matters are screwed up.
6
For what it is worth-maybe this one issue is a good thing.
It keep Trump away from other issues he can screw up.
That is why it is best he stay on the golf course and watch
TV.
Compare the schedule of the moron president and that of president Obama. It's night and day. But since the moron one has no brains to chew on and walk at the same time he hasn't said a word again about Ford's closing plants in Ohio announcement a few weeks ago. He hasn't said a word about Brexit. He hasn't said a word about infrastructure. He hasn't said a word about Healthcare. The country is rapidly slipping off the world stage and no word from the moron president.
5
If you elect a moron they govern as a moron.
9
His agenda is to destroy Democracy and suck the middle class dry while driving a stake into the hearts of anyone with a soul. That's an agenda we don't need.
4
Awww give him a break, his previous schedule of lots and lots of Fox watching and tweeting about all sorts of stuff he could not even picture gave the boy/man a headache. He can build a wallish deal in his sandbox so it suits the idiot incompetent. Please please my and our Senate join with the House and do your sworn duty> remove this completely unqualified illegal criminal from our executive house.
3
Let’s please fund the poorest area so that we can have better schooling there. Maybe then we won’t have Americans voting for this type of irresponsible idiots.
3
Trump bet the farm and America is going to kick his butt. He has it coming.
4
I'm sure Putin wakes up in a better mood than I do. My President is a TV addicted fool who endangers the security of our country, while Mitch McConnell fiddles. It shouldn't be this way. A citizenry which elected those two jackasses has a long way to go before it can claim "greatness."
5
Progress on immigration policy reform is way overdue and is now being held up by an egomaniac who has boxed himself into his present position.
Reopen the government without the security provision.
Both sides then sit down and work up logical, workable immigration policies. Including Dreamers, etc.
Are we an advanced 21st century nation and government or one who will not address our problems as rational adults?
We citizens are watching! If need be, freeze the salaries of the Congress until they come up with a solution. It is not an impossible dream unless we continue to make it so.
22
@JB
First, humans are rarely "rational" in their daily activities and especially politics--history is replete with such.
And second, no secure borders, no point in calling ourselves a nation, and no need for taxes and federal employees--perhaps where this is all headed.
1
@Alice's Restaurant -- Canada's borders are very porous. You claiming they are not a nation?
This man is not fit for office, but if his "agenda" is anything like the wall, then it can all wait. What can't wait are the paychecks for the 800,000 federal employees who are bearing the brunt of this shutdown.
23
I agree that the wall is too politically important for Trump to cave. All these people who think he'll agree to open the govt now, then negotiate later to fund the wall, are suffering from confirmation bias. There is no way that will happen. The question is, how will Trump turn up the heat in an attempt to win. Watch out for Trump RIF'ing federal workers; this can be done more easily once these workers have been furloughed for 30 days or more. The Dems ought to design a compromise that gives Trump a face-saving way out. Otherwise, this battle will go on and on until some horrible unintended consequence occurs. The place to beat Trump is at the polls in 2020.
5
@Chris-zzz
When our airports close for a day or two, then the Republican donor class will order the Republican Senators they own to reopen the government and it will happen quickly.
4
@kkseattle The "Republican Donor Class" does not fly commercial.
4
There are many solutions to the impasse of Trump's "Big Beautiful Wall": Trump could declare a "National Emergency" and pull all coal miners out of the mines and instead pay them to help build his wall with the funds that would have been spent treating their respiratory failure from black lung disease and silicosis, and also preventing other environmentally induced diseases caused by using coal to produce electricity. America would be a lot cleaner and healthier and the wall would pay for itself.
8
We paid our taxes faithfully. We made our estimated tax payments. We have paid, and we have not received our government services. What a rip off!
Trump must never win this fight. This fight must be the one that shows all the Senators and Congress members that it does not work to use a shutdown to achieve legislative success. If he wins this fight, our democracy has lost THE key process of interaction and debate that distinguishes us from autocratic rule.
To my mind, all air travel, all food stamps, all border security, all tax refunds, everything must be sacrificed to prevent Trump from prevailing.
His “presidency”, if anyone could use that word to describe what he has brought us, is not worth losing our established processes of democracy.
21
The dems should agree to fund the wall, and in exchange they should offer Medicare for all, 2 billion infrastructure spending over 4 years and a tax cut for middle income. The wall can have trump’s name and even a picture of him.
9
If Democrats cave, what will stop Trump and future presidents from adopting the same tactic on any issue where they don't have the votes?
29
The man is simple-minded, lazy and foremost, greedy. The details of complex immigration reform and border security is too difficult and boring for him to comprehend. However, "wall good" is his go to for 3 reasons:
1) Riles up the basest base and their penchant for racism based on fear (& hate)
2) The one thing the-guy-in-the-WH understands is how to skim dollars (in this case millions, billions?) off a construction project for himself.
3) His master, Putin, has instructed him to create chaos and division.
And the big plus in this fiasco for trump & putin is undermining our intelligence & law enforcement entities (see yesterday's FBI report).
Yes, we have a national emergency. But it's not at the border -- it's in the WH.
24
trump said that Mexico would pay for the wall. He said it many times. Now he says the wall will pay for itself while at the same time blaming the DEMs for not paying for it. These persistent inconsistencies make no sense. trump has no credibility ... none!
14
So Trump is putting his agenda on hold to pursue the border wall? That's great, because as near as I can tell his agenda is nothing less than the deconstruction of our federal government. He should change his slogan to MAGA (Make America Go Away).
11
When I pay my federal taxes, which I hate doing but understand that I must in order to help sustain a viable country, I never thought that I would be paying for what has essentially turned out to be a spitting contest.
10
Fighting over this wall provides a distraction from a far more important issue. RUSSIA'S TIES TO TRUMP AND DIVERSION TO AVOID IMPEACHMENT.
This is Trump's best shot at avoiding being charged with treason . It sure appears that Trump is Putin's puppet. Evidence is mounting so Trump is creating a distraction. Americans have a hard time accepting the fact that a fellow citizen would consider giving thought to such a thing.
Well Mr. President once again we are going to hear the words you made famous, but this time you will be the victim.
"You're Fired!"
11
My take-away — Trump is unable to hold more than one thought at a time in his head.
9
@Thinking
A clear sign of dementia.
2
"Almost entirely focused on the border dispute?" According to several reports about the president's daily calendar, he doesn't seem to be focused on anything at all.
13
@John lebaron -- except golf, and what all those people he paid to keep their mouths shut, are blabbing.
2
No pesos, no wall.
13
Trump should be removed from office.
16
He's truly a one issue president. And the issue is him. ALL he cares about is his image as a tough guy. Makes his base giddy (why?), keeps Limbaugh, Ingraham and that other guy happy and smiling, he thinks it scares the leaders of other countries.
It scares me, because he's willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING THIS COUNTRY STANDS FOR for his ego.
One would think enough Senate dwellers would put the country before the wannabe king and vote to open the government and once and for all TEAR DOWN THAT WALL.
10
The Border Wall is Trump's Prize Hog!
President Lincoln's story: The Prize Hog
I used to know an old farmer out in Illinois. ... His new prize hog was put in a pen and the farmer’s two mischievous boys, James and John, were told to be sure not to let it out. But James let the brute out the very next day.
The hog went straight for the boys and drove John up a tree. Then it went for the seat of James’ trousers, and the only way the boy could save himself was by holding onto the porker’s tail. The hog would not give up his hunt, nor the boy his hold. After they had made a good many circles around the tree, the boy’s courage began to give out, and he shouted to his brother: "I say John, come down quick and help me let go of this hog!"
— Story supposedly told to Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin (1817-1894).
7
I read that no Senator in a border state wants Trump fantasy wall. Wouldn't it just be easier to get rid of Trump than to argue for years with a fool with "One Issue".
The guy is psychologically obsessed with Not Reality.
11
Trump continues to conduct the nation's affairs as if government was just one big reality TV show. He only cares about his TV ratings, and his ratings from right-wing news commentators and his base (never mind that the general populace doesn't support him according to polls, which are all fake, since they predicted his defeat in 2016).
But hundreds of thousands of federal works going without pay is reality, not TV where "reality" is scripted.
So Trump lives in his TV fantasy, and those who do live in the real world, namely the Republican senate and Mitch McConnell, are unwilling to disabuse their celebrity of his delusion. The real blame lies with the enablers, not the delusional and erratic "star," God help us all.
So let's regard this whole thing realistically and label it accordingly: this is the McConnell-Ryan Republican shutdown.
40
The Democrats and increasing majority percentages of the voting public recognize Trump's tactic for what it is: extortion. As his former associates confirm, this is his classic bullying strategy, but as those associates also point out, he has no idea how to really negotiate. Democrats have called his bluff and he's throwing a little tantrum because his bullying hasn't worked. Complicit Republicans will stand by him until they realize that this toddler's tantrum will cost them their reelection bid in 2020. We're not quite there yet, but its coming.
And we won't even mention the lack of merit of that border-to-border wall as an immigration tool...
14
Look at the bright side of Trump's singular focus on the border wall. At least the malevolent influence of his narcissism is being limited to one political issue, instead of many other important ones.
17
@Jay Orchard
The only bright side I see comes from the hundreds of thoughtful Americans who are offering their support by feeding those federal employees and their families who have been left without a job and a paycheck.
3
@Jay Orchard
He put Mitch in charge of those.
2
@Jay Orchard
You will hear NEVER Trump say utter one word of empathy about the immense hardship and pain he is inflicting on millions of American citizens people because of his shutdown.
Trump congressional opponents challenge him about one wildly ill conceived, wasteful expense and Trump turns vicious.
Instead of battling the congressional reps responsible for restricting his spending, Trump grabs 800,000 innocent federal workers, who have NOTHING to do with his stupid wall, and dangles them over a cliff, threatening the national security of all of America
Then with all American eyes glued to the wall showdown, Trump underhandedly lifts key sanctions, unanimously approved by Congress, on his Russian oligarch friend, Deripaska, who reports to Putin.
Wake up America, Trump's working for Putin.
4
Trump has one and only one thing on his agenda, but it isn’t building a wall. It’s opposing and reversing anything and everything President Obama accomplished during his eight years in office. ACA, DACA, Clean Power, CAFE standards, Iran denuclearization, TPP, welcoming Syrian refugees and doing our part to ameliorate a terrible humanitarian crisis, Consumer Protection Agency, transgender service in the military, to name a few. The ones he could reverse by executive order are tied up in court challenges; those that required congressional approval have failed, even though he had a Republican Congress during the first two years. Anything beyond that, like an infrastructure bill, is not a priority for him.
11
Trump will have the last laugh. He will be rewarded for compromising because his supporters, despite popular stereotyping, are not extremists and just want sensible control over the border. It's Speaker Pelosi who will be brutally savaged by her leftwing for striking a deal with the president.
The smartest thing the president could do is go "big" and strike a historical agreement.
4
Lunatics always do.
2
@AACNY
Trump's "last laugh" is coming at the expense of the entire nation and those federal workers who have been left without a job and a paycheck.
The smartest thing the president could do is gain a sense of humanity.
4
@AACNY
If his supporters want sensible control over the border, they got the wrong guy. Trump himself illegally hires immigrants with forged documents, and refuses to use E-Verify unless he is forced to by state law.
4
WHAT other priorities ? It's ALL about feeding HIS massive ego.
Period.
12
"... Senate leaders briefly raised hopes of a possible cease-fire in the shutdown on Tuesday by agreeing to hold votes on a pair of measures this week, …"
What an utter stupid waste of time.
How about this measure: McConnell schedules a vote on the funding bill Pelosi has placed before him. NOW. PERIOD,
8
So, speaking of walls, I see that VP pence assured the Venezuelan people that the US stands with them 100% against their dictator (and trump's idol) Maduro.
So I wonder what happens when a bunch of Venezuelans show up at the US border seeking asylum. Under what were once normal circumstances I suspect that the asylum seekers would be welcomed, even if only temporarily.
I can just hear pence now: well of course we stand behind you, but not THAT much!
6
Dear Republicans. You can’t possibly take this president seriously, can you?
14
The wall is Trump's oxygen. Good governance is not his thing. If and when this is resolved he will find something else to latch on to. That's what we face. Until 2020 - one can still hope, right?
3
More like his testosterone.
Walls go up and walls come down!
4
Are your "president" and "congress-members" getting their paychecks during the shutdown? If he is and they are, they are not experiencing the pain that millions of your fellow citizens are feeling. If they are being paid, it is shameful that they are not subjected to the same misery they are inflicting.
10
They're not in it for the paycheck. But send the help home without pay, and they'll notice that.
1
@Dr. Mandrill Balanitis and Research Team Balanitis
Trump is pulling in millions from his businesses that are directly profiting from him being president. His daughter and son in law are also capitalizing on his status, using it to get access to foreign markets and investors.
So, yeah, they are getting paid during the shutdown.
5
We don’t need the wall. Texas can take care of Texas. Lot’s of experience here with walls that Mexico actually did pay for. Remember the Alamo? We didn’t win that one.
5
The Big Bluff. That's Trump's way of operating. And McConnell falls for it.
6
These divisive circumstances are not a new thing to this president. He's behaved like this all his life. What he doesn't have now is a bunch of cronies to get him out of this mess as they have all been charged with crimes, or resigned in disgust. There is nothing new here except that THIS TIME, it is enlarged to enclose an entire country, and one of just three countries on the North American continent. It's just his life so far, blown up larger than life.
It's time for the Congress and the American people to just say "Enough already. Go home and eat a hamburger!"
7
Any way you look at it, it's hard to fathom why a sitting U.S. president would have the government of this country grind to a standstill in perpetuity, just so that he could get his way.
And the most amazing aspect of this all is the fact that he's blaming the other side for creating a situation he once claimed that he was "proud" to own.
It makes no difference that in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Americans have either been "furloughed" or expected to work without pay -- and that includes the very federal workers whose jobs are to keep the ground and air borders safe and secure.
Any legislation put forth that would allow federal employees to go back to their jobs and receive a salary should be quickly and unanimously passed while a compromise regarding the wall is reached.
That would be the American thing to do.
8
The President is allowing the government shutdown because Democrats are refusing to negotiate with him on one of his corr camlaign promises.
Easy as that. Get Pelosi and Schumet to the table, make a deal, and the shutdown ends.
@david
What is this, a case of selective memory?
Trump said he was "proud to shutdown the government".
1
Trump watches television and tweets. ff someone took his television and his phone away he might get some work done.
40
@susan
No, he'd get a heart attack.
3
@susan
He'd resort to daily trips to visit the cheering crowds in some small red town on Air Force One. The Freedom of Information Act led to this clip regarding the costs involved when Obama was president. Probably higher now.
"The FY15 cost per flying hour (CPFH) for Air Force One (VC-25A) is $206.337.00. Please note that the CPFH includes fuel, flight consumables, depot level repairables, aircraft overhaul, and engine overhaul."
3
@KJ
And while Trump grounded Pelosi's plane, Melania and Barron took off from Joint Base Andrews in a military plane to jet to Mar-a-Gaudy for the holiday weekend.
Nice job if you can get after having worked without a visa in the US.
Instead of being deported you got yourself a big-fish golden boy, while your parents where allowed to stay here under Trump's derided "chain" immigration.
6
Most Presidents when elected rise above their campaign appeals to govern in the best interest of the country. From the outset, Trump's decisions have focused on maintaining his base for purposes of his own political interests. The wall has been a symbol appealing to his base's white identiy nationalism and xenophobia. With winds of impeachment blowing harder and Democratic control of the House, Trump must demonstrate support of his base to Republican Senators who fear primary challengers supported by Trump, so they don't say or do anything to increase his risk of impeachment and loss of office.
27
In our local news, a new word for this reader, 'Boondoggle', a popular American word in the 1920s, "A work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value". Originally used for Boy Scouts, when they were asked to braid and knot colorful strips of leather and plastic into belts, neckerchief holders and bracelets, the harmless boondoggle took a more sinister turn in 1937.
'The boondoggle - in its political context - survived The Great Depression, wars and prosperity, often in the form of earmarks passed by Congress to please an individual lawmaker's constituency with funding from the rest of us' and today it is defined as "A project considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations'.
Now. Before bristling about promises to keep the 'Undesirables' from getting to us, there is also the beautiful magic of infrastructure which Trump does not have to worry about on his airplane. 'See that roadblock over there; well, we are paying for this", from a staunch Republican acquaintance. Silence is golden when you are the passenger with the driving skills of a friendly Labrador. But whether he is informed of 'The Great American Trump Boondoggle', I would not be able to say.
4
Does Trump even have an agenda? He just pinballs from one crisis to the next, tearing the social fabric, ruining the standing of the country, promoting bigotry and undermining democracy.
Trump's sole interest is Trump. He has a permanent single item agenda.
33
You're right, Trump has no coherent agenda, merely an incoherent collection of slogans. Anyone suggesting otherwise clearly hasn't been paying attention.
For all intents and purposes, he doesn't even have a cabinet left, just a collection of sycophants and yes-men, without any discernible expertise or experience.
5
The catholics and evangelicals did not get divine intervention when they voted for this worse GOP President. I wish he had this much energy for helping all Americans achieve a permanent affordable health care plan. Shame full. The mayors of Barnsville,Texas and many other border cities are not having any serious Mexican crime waves. This is a fake diversion to the real problems facing Americans health care, homelessness and climate made worse by the GOP and their support of coal.
11
Trump is like the boy who didn’t get the toy fire truck for Christmas. Now he pouts that the house might burn down.
10
Trump is laying bare his desperate need for his rallies. If he can't hear them chanting 'Build the Wall' he apparently thinks he will dissolve into a pile of dust.
One trick pony. HIS re-election. That's all he can think about while watching TV and his phone to see if Ann Coulter has tweeted something mean.
Trump is lazy, selfish and a liar. Why would anyone let alone the Democrats trust him to keep his word? He doesn't.
The Senate needs to act now. Override Trump's veto. Put our federal employees back to work. Then Trump can 'negotiate'.
21
The possibility of Trump gloating about keeping his campaign promise at the expense of federal workers, taxpayers, and just plain common sense is truly nauseating. I had my doubts about Pelosi but I admire her for hanging tough and drawing a line with this nonsense.
19
Trump has positioned the Democrats perfectly. No wall = loss of base = no Trump. Democrats would be foolish to give in at this point.
17
When we look back at this whole wall flap in a few years it will become clear how petty and ridiculous it all is. To hurt so many for something that should be a minor foot note in the mush larger issue of our security is beyond unreasoning in its complete stupidity. That we have a president that will risk a deep recession and bring to a stop the lives of millions for hiss own small political gain is astonishing. But considering the character of Trump now has become completely normal.
6
No doubt anxiously perched in front of cable TV, wondering if he is ‘winning’. This clown has been happily spending other people’s money for all of his life, and stiffing many in his wake. Not Now, not with our money.No Wall.
12
I still believe this shutdown is not about a wall. It's about scoring that "win" and not looking like he caved under pressure. Meanwhile, Trump is a lame duck president and nothing at all is getting accomplished. When is the Great going to start?
7
lol sure. and what are the house democrats doing these days besides sitting around spiting trump ( and the dreamers and the govt furloughed employees) ? not much that I can see. werent they supposed to be laser focused on health care?
1
Mia Farrow had a very simple response to Donald Trump's Tweets. Mia's Tweet was re-Tweeted by many. It's very simple. She wrote one word - Resign.
13
Negotiating should be a two-way street instead of just a double road-block. There is probably a need for a border "wall" of some sort in some areas and other forms of border security in most areas. But instead of arguing for what is best for the whole country both sides are arguing over who will give in first. This is no way to run a government. All parties need to open the government IMMEDIATELY. Once the rest of the government is operating effectively there should be a real open discussion about how the border can best be protected. (Border security is indeed an important issue that should be debated independently and not linked to any other issue.)Send the children to detention and bring in the expert adults who know what they are talking about to deal with border security in whatever form works best. Trump needs to listen to the entire American public. Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity and the other screaming meanies on Fox do not represent a majority of American voters.
11
Sadly, the children are in detention, separated from their parents. Trump's negotiating skills include lying through his teeth to get his way. He and his Republican supporters cannot be trusted. Giving in to his demands will encourage more such tactics. Someone has to stand up to the bully and call his bluff. This is where McConnell could be his own man and truly work out a compromise.
4
Trump wants compromise to the problems he created and is looking to everyone else for a resolution but the person that matters the most……himself, President Trump. The DACA mess was his doing when he ended it in 2017; the so called humanitarian crisis at the border, refugee mess and children being separated from their parents was his doing; the longest shutdown in history is his doing while other government priorities are non-existent.
This is the same man who publicly said he would be proud to own a shutdown and boasted about taking full responsibility on camera and National TV. Since making these irresponsible and ludicrous remarks coupled with the criticism from right wingers like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, he does a complete 180 degrees. The liar and con man that he is continues to incessantly blame the Democrats and others for the shutdown and the myriad of problems he has created in our Nation.
Meanwhile, 800,000 federal employees are still without pay. It is also sad and disgusting how the majority of a complicit GOP including VP Pence fails to call out this President for the debacles he has created. They instead join Trump and blame the continually blame the Democrats.
This is Trump’s shutdown and 100% of the blame falls on him. Trump is using our Democracy, Federal workers, people and the Nation as political pawns.
I have 7 words for President Trump…………………end the shutdown now and start talking.
42
“I like acting,” he said. “It gives me more flexibility.”
Thus he describes his desire for disorder.
Another point that concerns me is does an acting cabinet member qualify when it comes to enactment of the 25th amendment's constitutional responsibility. Not that any of the cabinet members would consider that anyway. I do hope that the Mueller investigation quickly gives us what we need to remove this person from office.
13
I think the real reason for Trump's obsession with the wall is that i is easy to visualize and get excited about.
From filling posts to dealing with hundreds of other promises and issues, it is all too complicated for him to cope with or gets "too boring" for him to care about.
11
Trump is really smart with his Wall.
He puts it on the table and walks away. Everyone else also walks away.
It's genius. Now he can watch TV and golf all day while getting paid.
12
@FourteenBut then again he might just get himself..fired.
2
In Trump-world there is nothing of equal importance to mollifying Trump's vast ego. This isn't new to anyone who has been privy to Trump's life. Defy him and he will put everything aside in order to score a win - at least what he deems a win.
The only person Trump cares about is Trump. He will throw anyone under the proverbial bus including his own family members if they are stupid enough to defy him.
On top of it all we have a Senate Majority Leader who is hiding inside his shell trembling at every word of Trump. (Strange he didn't have this kind of deference for president Obama.)
We have Trump as president because that is who the people want and that is who we have to deal with. Yeah, he has his cheering crowds (with a lot of the same faces at every rally) and a lot of Americans are deathly afraid of Trump.
Is anyone going to stand up to him? Or will we all fall in lockstep and worship Trump?
5
@George N. Wells The Donny is NOT "who the people want", not by a long shot, and he lost in actual votes
3
@George N. Wells: McConnell is not trembling. He's tolerating Trump for as long as his caucus permits it. Meanwhile, two words: Gorsuch, Kavanaugh. Other words: 80+ right wing judges appointed to lower courts. Plus, more to come, as McC contemplates the nuclear option which would allow him to roll his puppet judges off the assembly line.
2
Considering a comprehension immigration reform in exchange for the wall (money for the parts that need to be fixed or built plus all the technology necessary to secure our border) would be a good way of starting conversations and becoming a rational country again, out of the reality- show we are living now (obviously we are not being invaded, terrorists don't cross our south border on foot -they fly first class-) We just need a good immigration policy, a different relationship with Central and South America, and some common sense.
59
@Tess If there is a compromise bill to be passed that bill should deal with the prime Democratic concern, GOP hostage taking to advance their political priorities. I suggest that Speaker Pelosi give Trump his $5 billion in exchange for a legislative change (others have suggested this) that bans government shutdowns by automatically extending spending six months at a time if Congress can't pass a normal spending bill. Trump can use his money to improve border security, he will have to return to normal legislation to get enough money to complete the dumb wall.
8
@Tess -- " a comprehens[ive] immigration reform in exchange for the wall (money for the parts that need to be fixed or built plus all the technology necessary to secure our border) "
Nothing like that is on offer, and probably is not possible.
I suspect that Democrats would come to the table and give Trump 5.7 B$ to obtain a real future for the DACA population, and something viable (gosh knows what that would be) for the roughly 11 million long-term illegal immigrants we have in our country.
But Trump cannot offer that -- political suicide. In case you don't remember "the gang of eight" read here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_(immigration)
Boehner and the House Republicans responded to the Fox/Limbaugh campaign of demonization. It nearly destroyed Marco Rubio ("Little Marco") ...
Trump's whole appeal to his base of angry whites would blow up if he accepts anything other than the full expulsion of every illegal immigrant.
Trump's base will never get that -- it's not possible for starters, and the fact nobody wants to talk about is that it is Republican interests principally that brought the illegals here and pays them.
As to "secure our border" -- borders are hard to secure. The majority of the smuggling (particularly drugs) and illegal immigrants just get through our checkpoints, or come through tunnels, or fly or boat in.
If anybody really wanted to do something about illegal immigrants: E-verify.
8
@Tess I agree with youn however, we should not give into the demand of $5.7 billion for the border wall because to me paying a hostage taker, namely Trump, this kind of money is giving in to the hostage taker. That is so wrong on so many levels. How can you negotiate with a hostage taker, especially when he leaves his demand for $5.7 billion on the table, how? It is very obviously a loosing proposition for the democrats and a win-win situation for Trump, McConnel, the GOP and their ilk. Shame on them all!
10
It has been reported that despite the callback of I.R.S. employees by this scrambling, seat of the pants Administration to process taxpayer refunds, without being paid of course, many of them are not expected to return to their scandalous involuntary servitude. The dire financial effects upon individual taxpayers and the general economy could be the "tipping point" in an accelerated nationwide worsening of Trump's negative polling as citizens, including his inveterate base, say "enough ". This may be the only factor on the near horizon that gets his attention enough to abandon his reprehensible, totally unacceptable "hostage taking" of innocent federal employees.
10
@John Grillo
I don't understand why Democrats are waiting for Mueller's report before impeaching Trump. Doesn't his order to thousands of people to work without pay constitute slavery, in violation of the 14th amendment? Never mind the Russian connection; he can be charged with treason later.
2
Trump has his wall, Stephen Miller has Trump and the rest of us suffer the consequences of a government and administration in utter collapse. Just how Trump self implodes is anyone’s guess. What is truly scary is that when it inevitably happens, Trump is manifestly evil enough to try to take us all with him.
13
I predict that he will soon start lashing out at those who don't have the money to get to work because they can't afford gasoline because they're trying to feed themselves.
You know how he loves to fire people.
10
Trump's agenda is to use the presidency to make money for himself.
Putin's agenda is to use Donald Trump to break the United States government, alienate all of our allies and destroy any possibility our political system will ever work again.
Done and done.
20
I pray this remains the only agenda item he has til 2020 - the country is safer that way.
3
@rob: Wait! You pray that turning America into a white, stockaded community remains the agenda?
2
Has anyone explained to this fellow what the word NO! means? or has anyone in GOP circus what the phrase "elections have consequences" actually means? He campaigned with his absurd wall in mind during the last election and HE LOST!
Is he THAT D?
1
Has anyone explained to you that "GOP" is a branding statement? Why do you insist that it is a Grand Old Party?
Not so much one issue as Campaign Meme that doubles as a diversion from his many illicit business/political dealings.
7
At this point, with Trump lying at least several times a day, I think we have to reset to remind Trump and his followers who he was before he faked this Christian alright human collage:
Trump is on record saying that Democratic presidential administrations have better economies than Republican administrations.
Trump is on record hiring illegal immigrants.
Trump, and his daughter, are on record producing Trump goods in China.
Trump is on record cheating on all 3 wives.
Trump is on record bragging about committing sexual assault.
Trump's financial record includes 6 bankruptcies, and a massive financial bailout with Russian central when no more US banks would touch him.
Trump University was exposed for fraud, because nobody taught students anything about business, other than - be careful because there are criminals like Donald Trump who will take away your money.
The author who wrote Trump's Art of the Deal now admits it's all fake.
We have to stop reeling from crisis to crisis that Trump manufactures because it's all fake.
HE'S fake.
31
@common sense advocate
No this crisis is not fake, FACT: 800,000 government workers not being paid.
1
@Margo Channing - I completely agree - my point is, there was no immigration crisis before Trump created this Shutdown crisis. The trigger for refusing to pay 800,000 workers was completely fraudulent, just like Trump is. 800,000 workers are in crisis because Trump is a fraud.
A couple of typos in my original post: alright was meant to be alt-right, and Russian central was meant to be Russian capital.
2
What is happening today is the result of two years of Obstruction, Resist Movements and the unimaginable Hatred manifested against not a man - Donald Trump, but against the most important and visible institution around the world - White House, against United States Presidency, against the American people .
The US President was and still is a victim, a hostage in the White House. The president was held hostage for two years without being able to deal with internal politics or foreign policy. He was simply tied up, bound to the wall of the White House and terrorized.
Being in this situation, what could a hostage do if he was given a bomb to commit suicide? Make the bomb explode. But before the President dies he will destroy their shanty too - Pelosi's House of Democrats.
It is indeed advisable that all these governants of Washington disappear if they are not able to do their job.
We need people with brains, intelligent people who know how to talk, what they need to talk to and who to talk to.
1
Quick fact check to your bizarre statement: Trump had a republican controlled house and senate for the last two years. Obstruction?
9
Trump had majority in both houses. How is this being obstructed? How can you report something like this falsehood?
6
@Ardan
"The president was held hostage for two years without being able to deal with internal politics or foreign policy."
You're talking about what the Republicans did to Obama, right?
6
His agenda?
What agenda? You mean his next attention grabbing stunt. There is no agenda, only posturing and chaos.
15
@Oisin: Trump has delivered a major tax gift to the wealthy, has unleashed the polluters from restraints, has comforted the walking dead of fossil fuels, and has packed the federal courts. No agenda? Look again!
4
@Des Johnson
You cite the agenda of Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party, not Trump. Trump is a free agent invested only in himself. His damage has no bias; he is a free range offender. It is about him, his life-long indulged ego and nothing else. He destroys everything he touches and enjoys doing it. He is abetted by the Republicans only because as an apostle of greed he plays to their animus. When he is no longer of use they will abandon him for a newly minted shill.
"Mr. Trump has all but put on hold advancing the rest of his agenda." Thank God for small favors.
11
A “One Issue White House”? What rubbish. North Korea no longer explodes hydrogen bombs or shoots missiles over Japan. President Trump succeeded with North Korea where Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton failed. Soon he will get the money to build that wall. One thing at a time. President Trump knows that to be successful you must focus your efforts.
2
Dude. Trump’s own administration just announced last week that North Korea had not taken promised steps towards de-nuclearization. You don’t do anyone any good by parroting fictions you’ve picked up here and there.
3
Huh? Whaa? Kim under control because of your "president's" influence? Now, we suppose, we don't have to worry about N. Korean nuclear missiles ... we have to worry about his missles carrying biological weapons. Kim knows exactly what your "president" is and wants to be, and is using him as the tool he (your president) is.
1
@Dr. Mandrill Balanitis and Research Team Balanitis
You have lived too long at the South Pole and are not cognizant of current events. It so happens that a second summit has been scheduled for President Trump and Chairman Kim to meet in Vietnam at the end of February. Any misunderstandings between the two countries may well be fixed at that venue.
TSA will fall apart in February, grounding half the fleet of passenger airlines. Pelosi knows this is a lose - lose for Trumplicans.
4
@Epicurus
Right. The shutdown is a disaster waiting to happen. The country is being kept functioning by heroes who keep doing their duty without the pay to which they are entitled. Once they wear out, the country will collapse.
1
The Republican Senate and House of Representatives could not/ would not fund a wall. Why should a Democratic House of Representatives fund it?
Is it a political stunt gone wrong?
Will it only end when it impacts the White House gang?
Republicans in Congress and the gang-in-the-whitehouse-who-can't-think-straight stop holding us 325.7million people in the U.S. hostages.
7
The wall is about re-election not humanitarian crisis of his own making, not border security for who would water his golf course lawn or change beds in his hotel if not for immigrants. This is the re-election bid to his blind and loyal base.
5
He needs to feel like a winner. Anyone who doesn't win exactly what they want is a loser in his mind. This is the child we are dealing with.
5
Among the many traits that disqualify Individual-1 from being presidential material is that he cares more about himself than he does the American people he ostensibly represents. He’s like the writer who can’t get his novel published, so he goes to a vanity press or publishes it himself. His wall borders on the same thing—a monument to himself, his very own Mt. Rushmore vanity project. It is, if you will, like the man himself, a work of fiction dedicated to separating and dividing America from the rest of the word, as well as its citizens from themselves. Trump seems to be the only one that fails to grasp what Robert Frost wrote in his poem ‘Mending Wall’: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”
135
@Steve Griffith
The poem makes a pitch for both sides (although I think the author like the narrator favors no wall). The neighbor is conservative, has learned to "wall out" from his father and believes that a "good neighbor" requires distance and boundary. "He moves in darkness," suggests both that he is ignorant and of the past as well as Hobbesian. Trump moves in darkness despite the riches and glory that surround him. He is not benevolent but rather afraid like the neighbor. The narrator has optimism. Trump does not. That may be the worst contribution he makes: a pessimism that walls us in.
12
@Christine A. Roux
Fine prose, and great imagery! Thanks!
4
Regardless of whether one supports The Wall or not, President Trump’s tactic of resorting to a government shut down is indicative of political weakness and ineptitude. A politically strong president would have the votes. A well skilled president would be able persuade the votes. A savvy president would recognize when it is time to admit defeat, stop antagonizing people she will later need to persuade on other issues and move on to something she can more likely get accomplish.
26
The wall is a diversion. The actual agenda of Trump and his allies and sponsors with this shutdown is to destroy the federal government, especially regulatory agencies, public health and assistance agencies, and the IRS.
Another primary goal of gangster Trump is to starve the FBI, Mueller and Mueller's grand jury of funds.
Trump is following the Grover Norquist template.
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
Grover Norquist, on NPR's Morning Edition, May 25, 2001
5
I believe most Americans know our borders our probably pretty well protected. Mr. Trump made a campaign promise - that's what this is all about..right? Of course it is.
Americans were pretty tired of politics in Washington DC and elected the guy on the Apprentice - unbelievable really...even today, I'm still amazed.
Well, you get what you get - the Democrats are going to have to continue agonizing over the President's antics for the next 24 months - I don't think he's even close to being impeached - he's not going anywhere....
I don't think I want him impeached.....with Mr. Pence waiting in the wings...he's worse.
You now see DC politics in its finest hour - so pathetic - neither side will move - there are so many other pressing issues facing America. It serves them all right - they laid the groundwork for this type of divisiveness with changes to processes and voting majorities.
The Democrats need to do one thing and only one thing - select a candidate in 2020 that is viable. It's not Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders - they don't represent America anymore than Donald Trump does.
If the Democratic Party had nominated Joe Biden instead of Hillary Clinton, he'd be sitting in the White House now...and we wouldn't be having a shutdown.
4
@JMS
"Americans were pretty tired of politics in Washington DC and elected the guy on the Apprentice - unbelievable really...even today, I'm still amazed. "
Americans didn't elect Trump. Trump became president because of the Electoral College clause of the Constitution. What's amazing is that nobody took it out after two centuries of uselessness.
Once the lunatics are out of the government, the Constitution needs a huge overhaul. Electoral College. Rules for removing incompetent presidents. Limiting the power of Congressional leaders to block legislation. A mechanism for overruling failed Supreme Court decisions, plus term limits for the judges. Requiring the federal government to stay "open" as long as any business is to be done. These were all disasters waiting to happen.
1
Your headline writers need to do a better job. Trump is not, in fact, "putting the rest of his agenda on hold." There is no "agenda" for Trump other than creating chaos and tearing down everything around him. So in fact, he's right on track.
Mitch McConnell is the one who could be said to be putting the Republican agenda on hold. And the fact that McConnell is so willing to do so here indicates to me that this shutdown represents an opportunity for Republicans to do something they've dreamed of since the time of Reagan: shrinking the government as much as they can. They still want to drown it in a bathtub.
12
One can only wonder how much the Administration will get done once oversight hearings in the House start. Then imagine what would get done should there be impeachment hearings.
On the other hand, maybe that would be a good thing.
1
What if we spent all that money on, say, lifting southern countries out of life-threatening peril and installing vital infrastructure?
Might that help reduce the number of people desperately seeking refuge in the US?
8
It is said that “The Plan” is always the first casualty of war. Trump doesn’t act like he knows that.
4
This is the endgame of Trump's dogmatic libertarianism. Someone with the proper respect for the power of government to affect our lives would never do this.
4
Relax, everyone, let’s just see how it turns out if we hand over the entire United Stated government to one guy. What could go wrong?
7
There is no other issue. The President is holding the nation hostage in order to achieve an agenda item central to his far right supporters. To give in to him is only to embolden him, and them.
3
@Eugene A. Melino
Giving in is a down payment on his reelection.
1
This wall thing is classic Trump: He wants something for and about himself...and have other people pay for it. I wonder if he'll, also per his usual pattern of labor hires, hire undocumented workers to build it, should he manage to get Mexico to pay for it.
2
Trump's presidency has always been a "one-issue" presidency. Promotion of the Trump brand. The bully-in-chief has no empathy for paycheck-less federal workers. Pelosi is right to insist on re-opening the government before any negotiation about border security measures. In the end, Trump will declare victory no matter the actual outcome. The American people know that Trump is a delusional 72 year old who still thinks he's the center of the universe. He will spin it so that his supporters believe it.
6
Even El Chapo says a wall will not halt the flow of drugs across our southern border. Trump should listen to this advice from one crook to another instead of holding the nation to ransom for his temper tantrum.
12
I wish that the media would stop enabling Trump by presenting the wall as a legitimate issue! Talk about this wall serves only 40% of Americans. How about covering issues that serve all Americans?
6
The only thing the Wall will protect is Trump's ego.
6
Behold, a major benefit of the shutdown: Trump is doing nothing else.
1
@joel bergsman: Lifting sanctions on Russian oligarchs?
2
"Mr. Trump expressed no urgency when asked by reporters recently about all the acting officials in the upper echelon of his administration. 'I like acting,' he said. 'It gives me more flexibility.'”
By "flexibility" Trump really means power. He wants to be able to virtually cut off the legs of anybody around him who has power. This is the definition of a dictator.
7
Mr. Baker,
Trump has no policy. His presidency is a pure vanity project. This narcissist only cares about "policy" suggested by Fox and Friends that will whip up adulation for him by his base.
His build the wall promise and the response that he gets gives him the best vanity high he has ever gotten. He is now like a heroine addict that is so hooked to that high that nothing else matters. Just like an addict who will destroy his life and the family around him by stealing from friends and family to support his addiction, Trump will let the US government crash around him as he continues the shutdown to support his wall pledge.
BTW, look at the picture of the slatted wall that Kirstjen Nielsen in the article "‘It’s Not a Wall,’ but Steel Slats and Barbed Wire Roil a Border Town" is standing in front of. One of El Chapo's lieutenants could, with a single pass of one hand, smuggle enough fentanyl through one of the slots to support the habits of every addict in CA for a week.
7
There should be a massive demonstration to block Trump's access to the House and block his speech, or should one say tale of lies.
How many thousand people would it take to cause the Secret service to tell him no, its not wise.
Stand up to the bullying infant.
Let him start planning exile overseas. It will beat Club Fed.
6
@Lawrence
I would suggest St Helena. It was good enough for Napoleon and I understand the weather is dreadful.
1
Poor Donnie One Note has no "agenda" now or in the past unless one counts destroying the nation.
3
Donald Trump, has indeed, turned into a Johnny One-Note.
And he is singing that note until he becomes blue in the face.
If this shutdown doesn't end soon, and by soon I mean Friday. Workers will miss their second paycheck. Johnny One-Note will surely turn into a one-term president.
He's holding that note for self preservation. Nancy Pelosi is hitting all the right notes.
"The wall represents his contract with America."
Since when does Donald Trump honor contracts? (See all the law suits bout by contractors over the years.)
4
The title of the article says it all...this is a "one agenda" President and White House, from what we read one mired in chaos and with an incompetent leader. He has no agenda and knows little and educates himself even less. He does not care about the environment or the planet. He does not care about long standing allies or our troops and their needs or those of the poorer peoples of the world who need help, not derision (because in his eyes they are weak). He more than anything panders to the bullies who he identifies with. America is in a low place now and I feel the tide is turning thanks to his nasty treatment of the "average" American, including the Dreamers. He will lose in 2020.
2
What, exactly, are Trump's "other priorities" (other than playing golf and watching Fox News)? Trump isn't capable of focusing on a variety of issues to begin with. Don't forget, this is the person who doesn't have the patience to read briefing papers. Having his mythical Wall as a single issue is perfect for his mental capabilities. And it accomplishes so many other goals simultaneously as well: (1) it allows him to, literally, shutter the Administrative State (making Steve Bannon chortle with glee); (2) it keeps his manhood out of range from Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity; (3) it gives what's left of the now-skeletal White House staff some breathing room, since literally that handful of people doesn't have the human capacity to deal with more than the bare minimum; (4) it forces the news media to continue to focus completely on Trump, who's made the federal government shutdown the single biggest piece of news on a day-to-day basis -- and puts Trump at the epicenter; (5) it throws red meat to his base on a minute-by-minute basis without Trump having to do anything except refuse a deal to reopen the government.
5
@ALB
You left out a motive.
Under pretense of negotiating a partial reopening, Trump said he would open "essential" services. This gives him the huge propaganda power of declaring services that Republicans don't like as "non-essential" and later eliminating them. He started talking like that about a week ago and Democrats didn't even seem to notice what he was doing.
1
Can we sure that none of the wall be built using steel or aluminum from mills owned by Trump's Russian friends?
3
Will the furloughed feds be paid retroactively? If so, then pay them now. Much of the chaos from withholding pay will be solved.
6
Follow the money: who is going to financially gain from this "wall" monument? We know that he's asking for $5 billion right now ("pocket change" according to his cult); we know at minimum it will cost $23 billion in the long run. So, which companies will make the most profit and which are directly tied to the Orange Stain? We know and he knows there are no consequences and no barriers for him to personally profit from tax-payer money; his cult thinks it's part of "the deal," it's what makes him "smart." His party accepts it as the price for power. Only the majority of Americans know it for what it is.
21
The tax cut represented Trump’s contract with his wealthy financial supporters. “Done!”
The wall represents Trump’s contract with his voting supporters. “In Progress.”
That will be his 2020 bragging platform even though the tax cuts damaged our revenue base and Mexico will not pay. He’ll package a series of convoluted lies and half-truths to peddle to his base and once again they will take it hook, line, and sinker!
That is all Trump is fixated on. That’s all he is capable of.
Others better start being fixated on slowing global trade, declining GDP, rising debt and everything else that needs fixing in our country.
We must find a way to hold self-interested and self-enriching Elected Politicians, government officials, their staffers and operatives from both parties personally and financially liable, responsible and accountable for the lies and half-truths they have told US, their gross mismanagement of our county, our $22 T and growing national debt (107% of GDP), and our $80 T in future, unfunded liabilities they forced on US jeopardizing our economic and national security, while benefiting themselves, their staffers, their party and special interest donors.
10
Federal workers who are working without pay could end the GOP's government shutdown by refusing to work after February 1. That would give Trump and McConnell something to think about. No air travel, no security guards for politicians. If they choose to continue with their little game, I suspect they would pay dearly for it.
7
Only the Coast Guard can't stand down, and AFAIK the Feds can't strike. If NPS walked off, there might be strength in numbers. Unfortunately, if TSA walks, their jobs will be contracted out faster than Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, which Republicans will chalk up as another win.
The Democrats are negotiating with the wrong people. The GOP is forever tied to Trump and his blindly loyal supporters who are forever tied to right wing media. Basically, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity set US policy. Get those three to agree to terms to end the shut down and then they'll tell Trump and his supporters what to do.
10
@Anine
Actually somebody needs to tell Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity to stuff it.
The Democrats equally have the power to end this shutdown. Their goal is not to help Dreamers, the unpaid Government workers or any of the groups they claim to care about.
Their goal is 2020 and they will go to extreme lengths to try and deny the President from fulfilling any campaign promises and to keep every possible investigation going with the goal of taking down the President of the United States of America.
2
Sort of like what the GOP has been doing since 2012, right?
3
@Genxer They equally have the power to end it in the same way a parent of a kidnapped daughter has the power to end it if they simply pay the ransom. They should send a message that taking hostages will not be rewarded no matter what. Otherwise, he'll just keep doing it to get whatever he wants.
6
WRONG! The president isn't offering anything for dreamers that the supreme Court hasn't already given them. Trump out then in that situation in the first place.
His little evil buddy, Stevie, is also trying to toss in more restrictions to prevent ANYONE from seeking asylum. Guess he thought he could just sneak that one by!
It is Trump's shutdown, and it is Trump's responsibility to end it. Democrats are not negotiating with a hostage taker.
This is not the way a president of the United States behaves! He is supposed to represent the whole country, and its values, not just cater to his little cult club.
No one is buying the lies, except the people trying to push the lies in the first place.
3
give him a portion of the money for his wall on one condition--that he permanently stays on the other side of it.
isn't it true that he is doing all this to draw attention away from the fact that he doesn't have a clue as to what the other issues are?
5
The true hostage to the shutdown is the American People and it is being orchestrated by Schumer. He is on record as saying that 'we' do not want the wall, 'we' want the image of the US to be as it has always been, the Statue of Liberty not a wall. One must remember that he was for the 'wall' before he was against it, a typical political flip flop, probably because Trump is in office. He must have forgotten that the Statue of Liberty was present during the mass immigration of the early 1900s and that all immigrants were funneled through Ellis Island where they were segregated, cataloged, received health screenings and were cleared or quarantined as necessary before being allowed entry. Schumer wants the border left open where illegals can walk, run, or sneak into this country. I am not against legal immigration but there must be a legal, logical, workable solution which can handle the number of persons seeking asylum and citizenship not the come one come all Democratic solution. It will be costly initially and on an ongoing basis but security and sovereignty are not cheap.
1
@The SGM. Can you provide a cite please wherein Schumer advocated leaving the border open? You do realize that because something being a Republican talking point does not mean it is true? Right?
5
Not buying it! Trump said he would BE PROUD to shut down the government, and that is what he is doing. That is where the responsibility lies, regardless of the attempts to walk it back now because the optics went all wrong on him.
No negotiation with hostage takers over something that 2/3 of Americans DON'T WANT!
@The SGM Stop watching Fox and state where Schumer or any other Democrat wanted open borders....We all await your answer and proof.
BTW....Bone Spurs promised Mexico would pay or did you forget that fact? Perhaps you also missed that he also said he would be proud to take credit for the shutdown, and that sir is a fact he's on TV saying it.
1
I might actually be happy with this singular focus on a wall, while republicans put rest of their agenda on hold. But even less reason to compromise then I guess.
2
Listening to news from Davos, the shutdown is barely news in the grand scheme of a world economy. Dems control 1/3 of government and are not in a position to ultimately drive the political agenda. Trump looks tough and gains stature in his base as this progresses. Take this shutdown off the table. Political chicken will boomerang. Trump can’t sink any lower but dems can and will.
That isn't what I read about Davos!
What makes anyone think that this 'so-called' president has any priorities of his own? Is it not possible that Russia's Putin, the puppet master, is still pulling his strings? Might he not be concerned about the shutdown and the people hurt by it, because it has never been his priority to care for Americans before and certainly isn't now, when he continues to be more obsessed with the wall to get reelected than leading the country where he is president. Putin's goals are still going forward. He(Putin) successfully got his main oligarch's wealth reestablished by having sanctions pulled back from Deripaski by Mnuchin's treasury department and the Republicans in Congress, that I still maintain must be getting paid somehow to keep up this farce. (Possibly through the NRA, which is how Mueller is following the money.) Then, Trump is still set on withdrawing from NATO which I hope Congress will stop this consideration soon, as it would be dangerous for our National Security, but not only for us, but the rest of the world. Putin is still attempting to hack into our elections and the DNC to continue election fraud, with support if not collusion (conspiracy) with the Trump administration. Putin has achieved more than he ever dreamed with less resources, in attempting to disrupt democracy and Western powers around the world, by just courting one man and reeling him in with the promise of more riches and a Trump Tower in Moscow. Justice will be served. The day of reckoning comes.
3
When Trump's supporters still chant "Build the wall", it apparently hasn't yet registered with them that THEY are the ones who will pay for it, not Mexico. It won't be until they actually suffer the sting of increased taxes and reduced services that it will finally, belatedly dawn on them that they insisted on something that made no difference to their security, but that destroyed the help offered when living in a democracy.
7
Trump’s supporters are indifferent to the outcome of a wall. If it gets built, fine; if not, they will rationalize why it didn’t get built. They will not blame Trump. And most Americans don’t even want it. There are better border security uses for the money Trump seeks.
Thus, Trump could accept less money and say truthfully that his experts believe a high-tech “wall” is the way to go. But he likely won’t do that.
An unwise campaign promise is still unwise after you take office. A good leader does not pursue an unwise policy just because he threw it out there in a speech. Trump is certainly no leader and no dealmaker. He is way out of his depth in this job, and lacks the empathy needed by one so powerful.
7
Obama ran on health care reform and recognized when elected that he had a window of opportunity in a Congress controlled by Democrats to pass that legislation. If Trump was truly invested in the importance of a border wall, I’m sure a republican controlled Congress would have worked with him to pass legislation and give him his wall. That ship has sailed. His actions since the midterms further demonstrate this shutdown is about him and demonstrating his perceived powers to his supporters. And all this is happening while the whole country suffers. SMH
11
He has painted himself into a corner -- let us hope the walls will close in on him -- there should be no escape permitted.
8
All of these comments discuss Trump holding the government and the nation hostage - what about the behavior on the part of Democrats and Pelosi? Their behavior is just as damaging, and Trump knows they will never negotiate with him. Why should he concede to the right? Because they're not getting what they want? Democrats complain about Trump, but they are now equal with him.
1
@Jay This is false equivalency. The Democrats are asking for nothing other than for government to reopen. Trump is the one making demands. Trump is the one who turned it into a political tug of war. If he really wanted a wall, he could get the Democrats to sign on if he enticed them enough (Medicare for all, Green New Deal, Pathway to citizenship for dreamers). But no, he wants to get his wall without giving up any real compromise or giving democrats anything they really want. And so the shutdown continues.
3
@Jay Bone Spurs had the majority for two years if the repubs agreed to the "beautiful wall" why didn't they give him the money then? Why wasn't a shutdown called for then? Stop deflecting, stop watching Fox and pay attention. This shutdown has been brought to you by Bone Spurs (on record as saying he'd be proud to take ownership.....don't believe that? Google is your friend look it up.) and MConnell and all republicans. Those are facts.
Democrats have passed several bills to reopen government. Mitch won't allow a vote because Trump won't sign. Argument fails.
Why bother with a state of the union speech when it is clear that highlighting an agenda is just noise? Things are exactly as trump wants them; unfilled positions shield him from exposure to serious issues and all the power feeds to him and the few people he trusts--jared and ivanka. He chooses what he wants to make a crisis and ignores the rest. The presidency has become the trump organization enhanced with bigger planes and saluting minions.
7
His casino venture was driven into the ground when he picked unwinnable battles with the unions and regulators. Rather then compromise or even obey the laws he sank the enterprise costing the backers millions and thousands of workers their jobs. He stiffed the suppliers, the banks, his investors and his employees because he didn't 'win' the fight he started. We are in the same position now. The Dems are in the happy position of having nothing to lose so they can just sit him out. Nancy has no further ambitions, she's nearly 80, so sitting and watching suits her perfectly. The GOP base ages and dies off by the day and there are now 800,000 committed anti-GOP federal employees and probably as many contractors waiting for revenge in 2020. Unfortunately it is not just a casino going down but the whole country - how many red hats in Kentucky and the rust belt are going to remain loyal when the food stamps run out and they are evicted with no HUD support? The only hope is for 10-15 GOP senators to split away and make impeachment a viable option and possibly the only way out.
7
@Warren Walsh
You're wrong about Nancy Pelosi.
Stay tuned.
Trump appears to have made a promise that may not be fulfilled, along with the other promises.
He alone, (I alone can fix it he bleated), and only he, turned the border wall fiasco into the one issue showdown. That issue has energized his red hatted fans, but, one should not make promises that can't be kept.
So, the wall will define his presidency and may end his presidency should it not materialize. Many of us will cheer in delight and saner views will prevail.
So, the prescription drug plan, the better healthcare, the tax plan, too busy to golf, and the other issues are now ignored by Trump and his adoring crowd.
Lastly, I sincerely hope the Speaker does not allow Trump into the house of the people and provide him with a bully pulpit to belittle those who dare oppose him. He can hold his rally elsewhere.
9
Trump’s running an advertising agency masquerading as a Presidency. The primary product is himself and the other products are things that he believes will help sell himself. Right now he is stuck on a product called Border Wall whose values he extols, but real world data does not agree with those claims. Further the cost/benefits don’t work at all so few people are buying. He has invested so much political capital into the Border Wall product, he can not afford not to bring it to market.
If he were President of a company and not the country, the Board of Directors would remove him for this debacle and the myriad other things he has done to diminish the value of its brand.
The Border Wall is not an impeachable offense, but Trump is prepared to irrevocably damage the country over it. This is an example of his utter disdain for his oath of office and of his criminal self interest. The House and Senate need to do their job to remove him. Start the investigations now; we have not much time left.
8
As I read the beginning of this article and see a Washington Post op-ed that says Trump is the only adult in the room on the shutdown, I realize that the media has taken us through the looking glass again. Trump has an agenda? Trump is the adult and Schumer and Pelosi are petulant children? Get real please. Before it is too late--and it may be already. Many Americans simply aren't aware of how serious things are getting with the shutdown situation and dysfunction in all the branches of government. People don't realize that if they don't speak up and act that have only one direction to go as a country and that is down into the abyss created in the last two years by Republicans, Trump and his administration, a complicit media and probably Russian interference. There are a few truth-tellers in the Fourth Estate but not many, and not nearly what we need. Obviously the New York Time and the Washington Post are not among these truth tellers. Hope there's a free press as a reward for those of you in the media who are helping to create Trump's America one flattering article at a time.
2
I do not understand why the American people are taking Trump tantrums lying down like in if you don't give what I want I take my toys away.
First he said, over and over again, more than one hundred times that Mexico was going to pay for the wall. " We are going to build a beautiful wall and you know what folks, Mexico is going to pay for it"
Then he had two years of Republican control of both houses and he did not ask for the money.
So it is evident, A. That he has been lying blatantly and openly all this time and B. That he does not really care about the wall, but about imposing his will on the Congress and on everybody in the country.
That is all there is to it.
5
It would be interesting to know (although we never will) just what arts of the deal will or have been made on contracts for the steel, the concrete and the construction of this gorgeous monument. Since much of the land around the wall will be purchased wit our tax money, it might be interesting to know what was involved in those land sales. One suspects, but would have a hard time proving. Politics as usual.
Asian wars are not the only way to hustle a dishonest buck! I wonder if any of the same contractors will make out on the numerous tunnels now being planned to go under the wall. Sneaking in by sea on fishing boats, or pleasure craft, is easier, but some people get sea sick and prefer tunnels.
2
Trump stated that Mexico is paying for his wall. Baloney.
When Mexico refused, he stated that Mexico is paying via trade deals. More baloney.
What Trump should do now is announce that not only is Mexico paying for the wall, they're building it. On their side of the border.
This should satisfy Trump supporters. After all, they have proven over and over again that they love baloney.
9
The federal government has now been shut down now for a full 5% of all time since Trump became president. Such a statistic is kind of hard to believe and a real indication of what type of presidency we are faced with.
9
I don’t think the furloughed workers will ever get their jobs. The government workers will never be paid. Trump has a long history of stiffing workers.
5
Nancy Pelosi cannot and must not yield to hostage taking tactics. It will set a precedence for future presidents to use the same tactics to get money for whatever they want it for. It would be even worse during their second term when they have nothing to loose. Think for a second what the Trump second term would be like if Nancy Pelosi yields on this one.
15
Trump barely does any work anyway.
We've read he doesn't come to work until 10:30. If
he gets bored in meetings he walks out, wandering into his dining room to watch tv. He reportedly watches 8 - 9 hours daily. He heads upstairs alone at 6 p.m. to get in bed with dinner - and watched more tv & phones friends.
Trump never wanted to be president & didn't run on particular policies. Other than immigration, he didn't have objectives other than tax cuts for the wealthy & repealing Obamacare. The rest of his agenda is imposed on him by staff, GOP & FOX NEWS. His only current concern is The Wall, a manufactured solution to a nonexistent crisis he fabricated to win election.
Now he's stuck trying to 'build the wall.' But only so his base won't abandon him - not because it needs doing.
Trump's other upcoming project is another pointless photo-op w/Kim Jong Un to get media attention but, as before, Kim'll just keep playing Trump, pretending to like him & discussing some nebulous future agreement (experts agree Kim will never give up nuclear weapons).
Meanwhile Trump hasn't bothered to appoint cabinet secretaries, ambassadors & other essential staff. Because he doesn't care.
Trump also doesn't care the government isn't functioning.
The economy may soon go into a recession because of the shutdown & his trade policies.
Trump's essentially a Do Nothing President.
Except for the crises he creates to entertain himself.
While our country crumbles before our eyes.
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donnie the bigot is NOT a do nothing president.
He is a “do-as-much-damage-to-this-country-until-I-get-what-I-want-so-I-don’t-look-like-a-loser-president.”
2
“but it’s just as easy to understand why he’s not.”
Yes it is. It's his willingness to sacrifice the country for his political future.
4
Why, WHY can’t the media tell it like it is?
This administration can NOT be trusted. They are holding 800,000 federal employees financial lives as hostage.
Offering DEALS on issues that they made into problems to begin with.
If the legislative ranches GIVES IN to the administrations hostage taking UNTIL they get what they want , this administration will do this EVERY TIME they don’t get what they want.
WE TRIED TO WARN YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN AMERICA.
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@Manderine
I was warning people in 2016 that if Trump was elected, Roe v. Wade would be overturned.
Keep watching.
1
We should have regular partial shutdowns and when nobody notices abolish.
1
This wall is an obsession with him and anyone who is that obsessed needs medical help.
He talks security but a clear mind would know that having all the government agencies working makes the country safer.
We need a country with a rational president and 45 is not it.
7
trump is the one who drew the line in the sand by refusing to sign the bill approved in December to keep the government open 2 months while both sides talk. trump is the reason why 800 thousand federal workers won't be getting there second pay check on Friday. trump is the reason agencies are unable to do business as usual because of lacking funds to buy supplies etc. I am grateful that Pelosi may not invite trump to the house chambers for the SOTUS, why should he be allowed to have such a platform to speak more lies to the American people about why he needs 5.6 billion dollars for a border wall,(Mexico would pay for?), while federal workers suffer. why would trump think its a normal time, when by his own in-actions its not. trump can find a place to speak his lies to those who except them and don't care.
9
With the deepest tunnel to date being up to 90ft deep, a wall would do nothing about drug smuggling. (Building a wall with footings that deep (or more) would be rather expensive.)
4
The wall is a symbol to Trump. If he wants me to loan him $5.7 billion to build a wall, I want to see the plans. In detail.
37
Perhaps Mexico can lend him the money.
@Tom
I want to see the plans for the Wall along the border in west Texas. It would take a miracle of engineering to build a wall through that terrain.
3
This should have happened when he was pushing through the unpaid for, deficit increasing, middle class increasing, so called "Tax Cuts".
As much damage he has already done with lack of ethics, lack of morals, committing criminal acts, embargoes, tariffs, concentration camp interments, stacking Supreme Court, a revolving door cabinet, alienating allies, embracing enemies, trying to wreck the ACA and shutting down the government; it could have been much worse if the GOP Congress knew how to legislate his whims, or anything else for that matter.
The more time he spends fixated on the wall, the less time he has to cause even more damage.
Again, Congress should defy him and open up the government. Let him take it to the courts to have it shutdown again. It seems this is the new reality of Washington. Let the courts rule the country. because Republicans, Democrats, Congress and the President have no idea how to govern.
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@Nick Metrowsky
"Congress should defy him and open up the government."
Congress has the power to do that, without having to humor any of Trump's crazy whims? If so why haven't they done it already?
I don't see why anybody should have the power to shut down the government. What good does the power do except as an extortion tactic ? Maybe, after all the lunatics are voted out, there should be a Constitutional amendment requiring the government to stay open as long as there is business to be done.
1
I always questioned how a great businessman could bankrupt casinos, but now that he is holding theTSA and Border Patrol workforce hostage to get funding for a border fence-like quasi-wall to improve border security, I understand completely.
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@Phil Dunkle
Trump was never a great businessman. That was all PR and the networks abetted the fraud by giving him a TV show where he pretended to be a business genius.
7
trump has built an insurmountable wall between himself and sanity and rational thinking.
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If a wall is so important to Trump's diehard supporters, I invite them to pay for it.
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@Taz - we have through our taxes and are okay with them going towards a barrier to secure the border.
2
An overwhelming majority of people oppose the wall. If all you supporters want it, double your tax payments to pay the share of people who don’t.
5
@Taz Yes, he could raise the money from the Ann Coulters of America. Let her pay up or shut up.
5
Thank you for presenting the lost itinerary of the White House occupant who is still able to order cheeseburgers and pizza with little trouble.
28
Yesterday I saw, for the hundredth time, the video of Trump saying that Putin was "at least a real leader, unlike what we have in this country." Comparing a man who has his political enemies murdered, to President Obama, who has many times over more brains, class, and empathy than this ignorant man could ever hope to possess. President Obama made fun of Donald Trump publicly a few years ago, and Trump has been attempting to get back at him ever since. Millions of people's actual lives are at stake as this disturbed person, who possesses no qualities of leadership whatsoever, plays out his livid grudge on the world stage. His resentment, his anger, and his desire for personal enrichment and adulation, drive his "policies." Demanding billions of dollars that could do so much good, to pretend to solve a problem that does not exist where he says it does, with a solution that would not work anyway, is just the latest appalling chapter in this horror story.
The Republicans' support of Trump is causing government workers unbearable stress. In some cases, they will lose their homes. Our national parks have been befouled, and the FBI is losing its ability to function. Oh that's right, you'd like that, wouldn't you, Mr President? Unless it resulted in a terrorist attack that caused the loss of your own personal life, or second-worst, a drop in your poll numbers that made your base desert you at last.
90
Putin does have a coordinated philosophical position, much more so than the extreme present hedonist Trump. He represents pan-Slavism across the region where Slavs are the majority ethnic group.
1
@lyricist "unless it resulted in a terrorist act"
That would grant Donald his greatest wish-- declare martial law, suspend civil liberties, and enable him to become "dictator for life". That is exactly how Putin came to power. Just what were those secret talks between them all about? No witnesses. The interpreter's notes were confiscated.
It could happen here.
2
So sad but Trump is now focussed on one issue and that is his prized wall. This is just another example on how unfit this President is. He is not educated on the issues, and chooses not to be. This man is a danger to this country.
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@Lumby You could say that Pelosi and Schumer are also focused on one issue, as well - preventing a campaign promise. The cost of the shutdown to the U.S. Government will exceed the $5.8 billion that is being asked for by the end of this week. Every day it goes past that date hurts the anti-Trump politicians.
3
Talk to the person who personally said he’d take the blame for the shutdown.
9
Not so, Trump said he was glad to shut down the government.
7
Of course, it's not a one-issue White House. Dems like the author of this piece say it is but Trump has done tons of things in the last two years, much more than any other president. We did not elect losers Nancy or Chuck to be president; we elected the Donald.
5
@Labete
"Trump has done tons of things in the last two years"
But they were all useless. And we didn't elect "the Donald"; we elected Hillary Clinton.
Trump is obsessed with uselessness. Long before the election he ridiculed Clinton's work for her church, saying that there was "nothing there"; fact checkers determined that he was lying.
4
Such as what....
You've gotta stop drinking the Kool-aid, Labete. Trump has done nothing but set our country back 300 years. All the good that we, as a Nation, have ever accomplished has been destroyed by this petulant child. How you can support him is beyond understanding.
So, Ann Coulter has managed to hijack the presidency.
23
Reality check does it accure to any one our representives are best money can buy. Our representives could do better job but why should they no one really cares.Remember 50 years ago when Made in USA ment something we all where proud of work we did an world we made for our children ment something. Today we lost abilty to teach are children how to use hands .
1
No help on drug prices
No help with insurance
No help on a" Middle Class" tax cut ?
No infrastructure plan
No ………..sigh sigh sigh
hire a clown and expect a circus
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@Travis `The middle class has already benefited from the tax cuts directly in their paychecks and with a stronger job market.
@Genxer
According to Newsweek the Rich benefited not the middle class voters say by a 2-1 margin in Republican Poll.
You are in a group with just 30% who said the reverse.
Have you done your taxes this year yet?
1
Peter Baker is correct in his label of "One-Issue White House".
This is the only issue where our president has gotten so personally involved in a piece of legislation. There are many laws that Trump has signed--many mislabeled "reforms". Invariably Trump was unaware of specific details , the niceties involved in the laws. Trump's modus operandi has always been--"put something on my desk that I can sign". As our president does not like to read, especially many long dull pages of legalese , he had a vague awareness of what was actually being passed. In life it is the small details that make all the difference, but all Trump wanted was to declare victory--"We won ! We showed those losers !" Why he then is he so insistent on this part of border security. Let him say "We are making the border more secure!" and accept a law where lots of money would be allotted to do just that. How to spend to money can be negotiated by Congress--wall or technology or personnel. Trump would with ease and without any need for a shutdown be able to do this.
So why this insistence on a "Wall". This is pure "saving face." He realizes that telling his robots that Mexico would pay for it was stupid. He wants his repeated and repeated campaign promise to look smart. After all, he considers himself a genius. Whether the wall is effective or is not the question. He must have victory, showing that he is the winner --his opponents losers. The Wall has become the symbol of his potency.
17
@shimr Do any politicians actually read the bills or laws that they sign? If there is anybody guilty of this it is the one who said "We have to pass it in order to know what is in it"
@shimr
Actually Trump's central promise was to appoint anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court, which he did.
This is what happens when you elect an incompetent person to office. Trump does not understand the consequences of his incompetence. But, the American people will suffer.
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@Sherlock
You are absolutely right. But do not use the future tense--"will suffer". Use the past and present tense. We suffer now because of his ridiculous insistence of a Wall. And we have suffered in the last two years.
We suffer because of the new ultra-conservative Judiciary tweaking laws. We suffer because climate change is becoming worse and worse--and Trump throws in more coal--"beautiful coal". We suffer in health and in income and in many ways--since his unfortunate election.
5
....no one's saying let's work this out. No one wants to give in..or give up. Everyone's right, no one's wrong.
The Republicans and the Democrats - fighting like children.
Congress amended rules and majorities on voting, which enabled these types of impasses to occur...it shouldn't be allowed to happen - nothing, no one, should be able to shut our government down.
Many Americans believe it's the President's fault - many Americans believe it isn't....
Mr. Trump doesn't care - don't you get it...why should he - he still has trouble believing he was elected President.
He's going to do what he wants - millions of Americans who elected him support the shutdown.
Mr. Trump will go back to the Apprentice in either 2 years or 6 years......
If he hasn't self destructed by now, he never will - Mueller's investigation is going on 2 years....yawn.......
Get used to more antics inside the Beltway - you have a juvenile in the White House and the other branches of our government seem to be equally as immature.
1
@JMS
I seem to remember the other branches of government were functioning just fine when Obama was president -
except for Mitch McConnell and his gang of obstructionists.
4
He asked for the money, they said no... Now move on and reopen the government. Stop this dictator like hostage taking of government workers and Daca youth. This is a disgusting situation this bafoon has put on America. Shame on McConnell for his failure as Senate leader, bowing to trump like trump is a dictator. McConnell and trump are showing a huge disregard for democracy and America. There should be people marching in the street asking for Trump's head.
41
@Kris That is a hyper-partisan view of things. The other side has the same ability to end the shutdown. There are many people who believe a wall will be effective - including those who voted for it a few years back who now oppose it.
Video and document archives are a very useful tool for the Republicans too.
This isn’t about a wall. Or border security. It’s about marketing the Trump brand, pandering to the base to get re-elected in 2020, and fleecing the office for every dime he can wring out of it.
4
@Genxer yes the other side has the ability but only only by caving to Trump's wall demand... For the sake of any democracy, that won't happen, just watch, its gonna start to get ugly soon. Obama doing a shutdown over gun controls would have made far more sense, at least that would save Americans lives.
3
If you saw the MSNBC report, he hardly spends any time in the WH doing work anyway, since he took office. Seriously, all he does, is watch TV. AND, of course TWEET!
23
My initial thought concerning the shutdown was that the entire nation was being held hostage to a typically cheesy Trumpian publicity stunt. But, it's worse than that. It seems that the nation is being held hostage to an image that Trump's campaign enablers spoon-fed to him to provide him with a concept that he could understand. It's a cliché, but if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
353
Dead on — Trump’s interview with Hannity at the border was simply a regurgitation of lines fed to him by Hannity, plus a strange digression upon walls, like wheels, were a medieval invention proven worthwhile by the success of wheels on border patrol vehicles!!??!!
4
Trump has an agenda? I thought it was the daily meanderings of a deranged mind, enabled by a group of sycophants. Who knew?
54
What is the " Trump Agenda"?
Watch Fox News while tweeting and speaking nicknames and slurs during the week.
Watch Fox News while tweeting and speaking nicknames and slurs and playing golf on weekends.
Watch Fox News while preserving, protecting and defending whatever profitable Trump Organization advantage that he is hiding from the American people in his personal and family income tax returns and business records.
Watch Fox News while hiding his mental and physical health medical care diagnoses, treatments and medications from the American people.
Watch Fox News while doing any and everything possible to distract from Bob Mueller's investigation into cavorting, colluding, collaborating, conspiring and cooperating with Vladimir Putin and Russia.
Watch Fox News while following orders from Benjamim Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman.
65
It is sad to see “if it ends” in this article. Individual 1 is so single minded that the country will default on its obligations over his stupidity. It is SOP for hm with this being another bankruptcy. Who will save him? Putin?
4
don con has limited ability to focus on more than one issue.
keeping people who are not snow white out seems to be his obsession.
narcissistic syndrome disorder syndrome is just the beginning of his problems. He needs daddy fred to guide him.
fred let him try a bunch of businesses with fred's friends as investors. When they all failed, fred limited don con to marketing the trump name and tv trivia.
why do we think don con would be any better as a pol? time to move on from don con.
5
It’s his only priority because fascism is his only policy. Meanwhile, China and Russia march on globally during this absurd ‘crisis’. The Republicans are throwing everything away for a few MAGA hats.
13