Remember when popular vote loser Donald Trump was all ready to shut down the government on October 1 if he didn't get his border wall? A couple of hurricanes later, he backed down on that, making a deal with Democrats to keep government running and postponing the wall fight until December. In all the deal-making, seems like Trump's border wall just gets less and less important to him.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters on Tuesday that President Trump would not demand that border wall funding is tied to a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Short was "adamant" that Trump really does want his wall, saying that Trump is "committed to sticking by the commitment that a physical structure is needed … whether that is part of a DACA package or another package, I won’t prejudge that today, but he's committed to getting that wall built." He has reportedly reached out to Schumer with a possible trade—DACA for his border wall, but that's a non-starter for Democrats.
Remember, it was just last week that the White House was insisting Trump would demand "comprehensive" immigration reform that included DACA and his wall. Said Sarah Huckabee Sander, "we can't take a one-piece fix. We've got to do an overall immigration reform that's responsible, and frankly, that's lawful. […] I don't think the president's been shy about the fact that he wants a wall, and certainly something he feels is an important part of a responsible immigration package."
This was backed up by the House Freedom Caucus maniacs, with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) jumping into the fray after Trump cut his budget deal with Democrats to say no way was DACA happening without a wall.
So, yeah, we went from a total demand of a wall to save the DREAMers to the wall being pretty darned negotiable. There's been speculation that Trump didn't fully understand just what he was allowing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to do last week, when he announced the end of DACA. Maybe he's figured it out.