From ThinkProgress, because the Internet never forgets.
In a 2013 interview with Fox & Friends, Trump said the president should be fired if there’s to be a government shutdown, as the responsibility for such a failure “always has to be the top.” In Sept. 2013, for the first time in nearly two decades, a shutdown happened, and it was because the GOP-controlled House wanted to defund the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
There’s really not much difference in terms of pure petulant whining between the 2013 Republican Congress forcing a government shutdown over providing Americans with healthcare under the Affordable Care Act, and Trump forcing a shutdown over his inability to create a giant, imaginary “wall.”
Fox reporter: Who’s getting fired? Who’s going to bear the brunt of the responsibility if indeed there is a shutdown of our government?
Trump: Well if you say ‘who gets fired’, it always has to be the top. I mean, problems start from the top and have to get solved from the top. And the president’s the leader and he has to get everyone in a room and lead and he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t like doing that — that is not his strength. And that’s why you have this horrible situation going on in Washington too. It’s a very, very bad thing and it’s also embarrassing worldwide.
Video and audio here:
There is one difference, though. Even the 2013 Republican Congress wasn’t crass and stupid enough to do it over the Christmas holiday.