Wall or no wall? Nobody in the White House seems to know what it is popular vote loser Donald Trump wants at any given time. Monday night, Trump himself appeared to be folding on his insistence that border wall funding be included in the spending bill that has to be passed by the end of the day Friday. According to multiple people in the room, he said he could wait until September. That's the message one of his advisors was spinning Tuesday morning.
"Not this week," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said of the push for $1.4 billion as a downpayment for the border wall in a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News. "Building that wall and having it funded remains an important priority to him," she added. "We also know that that can happen later this year and into next year."
But then this:
That "White House official" is probably Press Secretary Sean Spicer who told ABC's Jonathon Karl that Trump "has not backed down on getting wall funding now." Does that mean he'd let the government shut down if he doesn't get it? Who knows?
So what in the hell is going on? Are Conway and Spicer liars? (Yes, but maybe not this time.) Did Trump tell Conway one thing and Spicer another? (Entirely likely. Remember, he likes to play staff off of each other.) Did Trump change his mind after seeing reports that he was caving in to Democrats? (Very likely.) Or maybe Trump doesn't remember from conversation to conversation what he's saying about anything. Which seems as likely as any other scenario.