The occupier of the Oval Office met with House Republicans Tuesday, then gave a couple of ... let's say, untethered ... interviews to the Washington Post and Politico. The subject of the meeting with lawmakers was his insistence on getting $5 billion in the next spending bill for his border wall and his threat to partially shut down the government if he doesn't. The orange behemoth seemed, however, to stray from that insistence in the follow-up interviews. So apparently there will be a partial government shutdown or not, depending on how he feels at the exact moment he's presented with the bill.
House Majority Leader (for now) Kevin McCarthy came out of the meeting saying it was "very productive" and that Trump "is very solid with where he wants to go and what he needs to have a secure border." Whip Steve Scalise, true to form, took a hard line, saying Democrats would be to blame if there were a shutdown. Which no one believes, particularly Democrats. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says they won't budge from the $1.6 billion for border security—not the wall—they reached agreement on months ago. With Republicans still in complete control of the government, a "shutdown is on their back."
As for Trump himself, who knows. He told Politico that keeping his border fight going is "a total winner," apparently unaware for a moment what happened to his House majority on Nov. 6. "People look at the border," he says, "they look at the rush to the police, they look at the rock throwers and really hurting three people, three very brave border patrol folks [note: no border patrol agent was really hurt]—I think that it's a tremendous issue, but much more importantly, is really needed."
But, he told the Washington Post, "Now, if we don't get it, will I get it done another way? I might get it done another way. There are other potential ways that I can do it. You saw what we did with the military, just coming in with the barbed wire and the fencing, and various other things." How that gets paid for has apparently not occurred to him. He's not really great when it comes to the “things” getting paid for.
So who knows what's going to happen? The mostly good news is that it's not the whole government that will shut down, but the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, and a few other agencies are still lacking funding.