After weeks of productive bipartisan negotiations on a spending bill to keep the government funded, the White House fired a warning shot last Wednesday: budget director Mick Mulvaney was pressing congressional Republicans to fold billions into the bill for Donald Trump's precious border wall.
"The CR is our biggest focus right now," one senior administration official said, referring to the continuing resolution on spending.
Nothing could have been more ominous for beating the April 28 deadline. On Thursday, Mulvaney pounded home the point: "Elections have consequences," he said. (P.S. Not for a popular vote loser turned least popular president in Gallup's history.)
By Friday, the White House had devised a foolproof plan to reach Trump's goal: Taking health care hostage. For every $1 of wall funding, they'd give Democrats $1 of Obamacare subsidies. Genius! (Give us our damn wall or we'll strangle health care so fast, Americans will start dropping off before they even know what hit 'em!)
It was so preposterous, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer laughed at them.
Steely eyed, White House aides doubled down on Friday: "This is going to be high-stakes poker,” a White House official said Friday. [...] “I just want my wall and my ice agents.”
Trump got in the game too with some fierce tweeting. "ObamaCare is in serious trouble,” he wrote Sunday, “The Dems need big money to keep it going—otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought."
Damn that guy's good. A full court press—they were going for it all!
Clearly, they had gamed out all the angles. What could go wrong? A government shutdown with full GOP control of Congress at the very moment the clock rings in Trump's 100th day in office?? Kid stuff.
Hmm, Dems still not giving in. Back to twitter Monday morning!
The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)! If the wall is not built, which it will be, the drug situation will NEVER be fixed the way it should be! #BuildTheWall
That oughta do it. Okay, not so much.
Trump showed even more flexibility Monday afternoon, telling conservative journalists in a private meeting that he was open to delaying funding for wall construction until September, a White House official confirmed.
So much "flexibility," in fact, that Trump was already cracking in an AP interview conducted Friday but published early Monday.
My base understands the wall is going to get built, whether I have it funded here or if I get it funded shortly thereafter, that wall's getting built, OK? One hundred percent. One hundred percent it's getting built. And it's also getting built for much less money — I hope you get this — than these people are estimating. The opponents are talking $25 billion for the wall. It's not going to cost anywhere near that.
Oh yeah, we're getting it alright. His base "understands," because whenever Trump says "or shortly thereafter," it's Trump code for a "100 percent" chance he feels "the fierce urgency of whenever."
But just to clarify on Tuesday:
Wherein, Sen. John McCain sums up the art of Trump's failed wall deal:
Duh.