Lawmakers are headed out for a week of Thanksgiving celebration with, or avoiding, their families. Some will be licking their wounds, some will be compiling their subpoena lists, and all of them will be dreading the two weeks of work they'll face on their return, not knowing if the orange behemoth in the Oval Office is going to shut down government or not. As of now, he's not saying.
Republican leaders met with Trump Thursday to talk government funding. Much of the appropriations have been completed for the coming year, but not all, so a partial shutdown is still in the offing. Maybe even possible. Senate Appropriations Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) was in the meeting and says Trump was noncommittal when it came to keeping government open or funding for his precious border wall. That might be because they avoided the question. "He didn't say, 'I'm going to keep the government open.' We didn't ask him that question," Shelby told reporters. "We talked about avoiding a shutdown. . . . He seemed to agree with that."
Trump wants $5 billion, Democrats have agreed to $1.6 billion. At least, Senate Democrats, with Chuck Schumer at the helm agreed to that. House Democrats, poised to take over in January and whose votes are going to be necessary in this spending bill, might have an entirely different goal in mind now. Like maybe forcing a vote to protect the Mueller investigation before they fund the government.
While he might not have said one way or the other in that meeting with congressional leaders, Trump told the Daily Caller in that unhinged interview that he's certainly open to shutting down. "I'll have to see how it plays out. But I may very well be willing to shut down the government," Trump said. "I think it's horrible what's happening and, you know, building the wall, it's in smaller stages, we can build it very quickly."
If the Mouth of Sauron Trump has any insight, Trump's ready to take his searing rage out on us all, and is egging him on. Kellyanne Conway went on his favorite show, Fox & Friends, to report to the minions that he's "keeping all options open," and that "I don’t know if there's anything he [Trump] has been more explicit or consistent on in the last three and a half years." And Congress need to do it because "they have failed to meet the president's modest demands," on immigration. Like shutting immigration down.
Buckle up. Trump's ready to take us all hostage.
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