What Donald Trump did not spend the weekend doing: making a deal to end the government shutdown. What Donald Trump did spend the weekend doing: tweeting, watching Fox News, tweeting about Fox News, and … what to even call this?
Irritated to have missed his big event in Florida, Mr. Trump spent much of his day watching old TV clips of him berating President Barack Obama for a lack of leadership during the 2013 government shutdown, a White House aide said, seeming content to sit back and watch the show.
Trump watched himself saying Obama didn’t lead, while not even pretending to lead himself despite his party controlling both houses of Congress. His staff, though, was working hard to block any potential deal and keep Trump feeling like the headlines were going in his favor—and his staff isn't on the same page as Trump, or is at a minimum hard-pressed to manipulate him into staying on their page. Luckily for those anti-immigrant hardliners on Trump’s staff, he’s an easy guy to manipulate and he’s definitely not interested in doing more than pretending to put in the hard work.
Though he ultimately kept a low profile, Trump told aides that he was concerned he would be blamed for the shutdown and wondered if he should be working to end it, per the Washington Post. In an attempt to show that he was working hard during the shutdown, the President posed for a photo of him on the phone in the Oval Office on Satueday, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
Weak.