Thread. @johnastoehr has a keen analysis of the power relation between Hill Democrats & Trump over keeping the government open, and over Trump’s stupid wall. Well worth reading the whole thing. You know what’s contributed to the fix Trump is in, though?
2. It’s those damned rallies of his. Trump got himself a little bit addicted during the campaign to giving stream of consciousness standup routines to uncritical, adoring audiences. It didn’t matter if his routines were full of lies. Those audiences cheered anyway.
3. His rally audiences cheered for that stupid wall without Trump even having to mention it. He reveled in this, standing there beaming in all his overfed complacency. I think it affected his perception of reality. As @johnastoehr summarizes very well...
4...Trump thinks he has leverage on “border security” — he used that phrased 30 times in a meeting last just over 10 minutes — because the audiences he’s used to always cheer when he talks about immigration and the wall. He doesn’t.
5. People who didn’t go to Trump’s campaign rallies think the wall concept is stupid, for about 500 different reasons. But Trump doesn’t talk to them. So yesterday he charged ahead with a threat to shut down the government unless Congress lets him do what his rallies cheer for
6. He’ll fold if Democrats stand firm. They could even get away with cutting the $1.6 billion for border security they offered before, as the money is needed elsewhere. But if not for all those rallies reinforcing Trump’s delusions, we might not even be in this situation. [end]
