After first telling Democrats he would be "proud" to shut down the government, and then telling them his shutdown could last "months or even years," Donald Trump wound down his winning round of negotiations with Democrats on Wednesday by abruptly getting up and saying "Bye bye" as he abandoned the talks. That's one hell of a record—a hat trick of hole-digging, if you will, leaving every meeting in worse shape than the last.
Trump's total negotiating ineptitude has left him and his aides with little choice but to find a way out that doesn't require any skill or rationality on Trump's part. That's why they think the border "crisis" that never actually was is ripe for a "national emergency" declaration.
According to the Wall Street Journal, White House aides think it's "increasingly likely" Trump will declare a national emergency over border security, try to seize Pentagon funds for his will, and then draw a legal challenge from House Democrats that will grind the entire political drama to a halt when the courts stay the order.
That could give Trump just enough cover to tell his rabid base he's fighting for his precious wall while acquiescing on reopening the government.
“It will come to this,” one official told the Journal. “The question is when.”
While some congressional Republicans have been critical of any effort to raid Pentagon coffers in order to fund the wall, others are secretly embracing the national emergency route because it would get them off the hook for having to face down Trump. It's an extension of the past two years, when no Republican lawmakers have had the guts to lead when our country needed it, so they're passing off that responsibility to Democrats and the courts.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Little statesmen indeed.