During a meeting on immigration and law enforcement Tuesday at the White House, Donald Trump couldn't say the word "shutdown" enough times to emphasize how badly he wants one over immigration. Here's text from just a single clip aired on MSNBC:
“If we don't change the legislation, if we don't get rid of these loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to kill," he said, referencing his gang of choice, MS-13, "if we don't change it, let's have a shut down, we'll do a shutdown, and it's worth it for our country. I'd love to see a shutdown if we don't get this stuff taken care of.”
Really, Don—you want to shut down the government over immigration so you can get your precious border wall funding that you promised would come from Mexico?
“Would I shut it down over this issue? Yes.”
Well, there you have it: Trump just singlehandedly trampled over every GOP talking point for not shutting down the government. Just to be clear, Trump is suggesting that he would opt out of signing a government funding bill—passed by two GOP-led chambers of Congress—that doesn't include every single immigration goody he wants.
As a bonus, he may have just moved VA-10 further into Democratic-leaning territory. That seat is held by endangered GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock, who represents a district chock-full of government workers. She tried to walk Trump back on his shutdown threat, suggesting he didn't really want to do that over immigration when there was bipartisan support for certain measures. Naturally, Trump interrupted her from saying anything reasonable and responded, "You can say what you want, we're not getting any support from Democrats.”
Never mind the fact that his proposal likely wouldn't even get enough GOP support in the Senate to pass with a bare majority.
Watch the video below.