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It wasn't the $25 billion in border wall funding Donald Trump could have gotten last year in a Dreamer deal with Democrats. It wasn't the $5.7 billion he began demanding when he torpedoed a deal in December to avert a government shutdown. Nor was it the $1.6 billion that was originally floated as a compromise before the shutdown began.
In fact, it was just $1.375 billion ... for fencing along the border... steel slats... or, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi once quipped, "a beaded curtain." Let's face it— there's just no way to spin the supposed greatest dealmaker on earth rejecting $25 billion and then bargaining himself down to getting just 6 percent of the total funding that was originally on the table.
That doesn't mean they didn't try. The White House contacted several of Trump's Fox News favorites, including Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, to sell them on a fantasy fig leaf—that somehow Trump had gotten real concessions out of the 35-day shutdown he had forced on the nation. Still, even fervent Trump boosters like Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows of North Carolina were calling B.S.
“Only in Washington, D.C., can we start out with needing $25 billion for border security measures and expect applause at 1.37,” he said Tuesday on Fox News. “I mean, only in D.C. is that a winning deal.”
Actually, no, it's not a "winning deal," not even in Washington. No one thought it was a winning deal—not even the West Wing, which was so desperate to change the conversation that it suddenly threw out a "national emergency" headline for reporters to feast on. “President Trump will sign the government funding bill," reassured White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, "and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action - including a national emergency - to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border."
And just as suddenly, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to assure his caucus that Trump would still sign the funding bill if they passed it. And in a clear concession to the White House, McConnell also offered his "support" for Trump declaring a national emergency. Other Republicans aren't too excited about it.
Of course, declaring such an emergency is rife with pitfalls for the White House, and House Democrats already have the upper hand on potential responses, including both legal and legislative ones. Asked Thursday whether Democrats would file a legal challenge to Trump’s declaration, Speaker Pelosi responded, “I may. That’s an option and we will review our options.”
Welcome to Round 2, Trump. Prepare to get destroyed.