Thread by @Monaheart1229

‘A tailspin’: Under siege, Trump propels the government and markets into crisis
#FridayFeeling #GovernmentShutdown #Mattis #StockMarket
wapo.st/2EDenHe?tid=ss…

2- Excerpts: "Trump has been isolated in bunker mode in recent weeks as political and personal crises mount, according to interviews with 27 current and former White House officials, Republican lawmakers, and outside advisers to the president, some of whom spoke on the condition

3-"of anonymity to offer candid assessments. “There’s going to be an intervention,” one former senior administration official said speculatively. “Jim Mattis just sent a shot across the bow. He’s the most credible member of the administration by five grades of magnitude.

4-"He’s the steady, safe set of hands. And this letter is brutal. He quit because of the madness.”...Although Trump’s relationship with Mattis has been rocky for months, the president spent the first part of Thursday focused on another fraying relationship: with his conservative

5-"base. On Thursday, as criticism over his capitulation on the wall grew louder by the hour, Trump complained to friends and aides that he felt politically shackled. He had no plan but was spoiling for a fight. By midday, the president picked one.“I’ve made my position very

6-"clear: Any measure that funds the government must include border security. Has to,” Trump said Thursday. He added that he had “no choice” but to act.Trump’s advisers acknowledged that the funding may not be secured in the end but boasted that the spectacle would be remembered

7-" favorably by his base voters as proof of his mettle. A wall funding proposal was approved by the House late Thursday but faced uncertain prospects in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), habitually careful in his approach to Trump, avoided strong-arming

8-"the president in their recent exchanges, knowing that urging him to stand down on the wall funding probably would only embolden him, according to two people familiar with the discussions. At every turn, McConnell confided to Trump that congressional efforts this month —

9-"from the passage of the farm bill to bipartisan criminal justice reform — were a string of victories for him, the people said. Thanks to McConnell’s soothing, there was cautious optimism that the president would eventually sign a funding bill. “McConnell has a lot to do with

10-"it, of course. They talk a lot,” Rep. Harold D. Rogers (R-Ky.) said. “It’s smart to save the fight for another day.”...Both Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Trump last week that they could not pass a spending bill with $5 billion for wall

11-"construction, and McConnell was told by the White House that Trump would sign a short-term bill without it, according to two people familiar with the conversations. But on Fox News Channel and across conservative media, there was a brewing rebellion. Prominent voices urged

12-"Trump to hold firm on his wall money and warned that caving would jeopardize his reelection. Rush Limbaugh dismissed the compromise bill on his radio program as “Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything.” Another firebrand, Ann Coulter, published a column titled

13-"“Gutless President in Wall-less Country.” Trump even found resistance on the couch of his favorite show, “Fox & Friends,” where reliable Trump-boosting host Brian Kilmeade chided him on the air Thursday. The president was paying attention. He promptly unfollowed Coulter on

14-"Twitter. And he pecked out a series of defensive tweets blaming congressional leaders for not funding the wall, while also assuming a defensive posture. He suggested that a massive wall may not be necessary in its entirety because the border already is “tight” thanks to the

15-"work of Border Patrol agents and troops. “One of the things he’s most vulnerable to is mockery and mockery by his own supporters,” said Mark Krikorian, a leading anti-immigration activist. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus joined in the rebellion. During House

16-"votes on Wednesday evening, caucus chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and other members refused to budge and held court with reporters, railing against the Republican leadership and warning Trump that he was being led astray...Meanwhile, Republicans, in their last gasp of unified

17-" government, are divided. A band of hard-line conservative lawmakers voted against Trump’s prison reform legislation, which passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support and is expected to be signed by the president Friday. And many foreign policy hawks, including Sen.

18-"Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump confidant, sharply criticized Trump’s decision Wednesday to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Inside the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump was in what one Republican close to the White House described as “a tailspin,” acting

19-"“totally irrationally” and “flipping out” over criticisms in the media. Even as aides argued to him that protesting over wall funding could deprive government workers of paychecks over Christmas, Trump warned in private conversations with Republican lawmakers that they all

20-"would get “crushed” if they did not get the wall built. Trump vented to his advisers that signing the short-term spending bill without wall money would make him look weak and make his base voters think he broke a campaign promise. He also complained that he did not have

21-"sufficient bargaining leverage with Congress and blamed senior aides for not presenting him with better options...Trump urged aides to go on TV on Thursday night and defend the administration after a brutal day. Senior adviser Stephen Miller went on CNN, where he engaged in a

22-"long shouting match with anchor Wolf Blitzer. And White House press secretary Sarah Sanders appeared with a Trump favorite, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs...Trump’s pinballing conduct — veering from a promise of a shutdown to moving toward a deal, then changing his mind —

23-"has vexed members of his own party. Many Republican lawmakers said they sense that Trump is adjusting uneasily to the dynamics of a soon-to-be divided government and lashing out to reclaim some of his dominance over the congressional agenda.The defense secretary’s resignation

24-"compounded the concern.“Having Mattis there gave all of us a great deal more comfort than we have now,” retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said. “Chaos has kind of been the norm, but it seems to have been heightened.

25-"Sometimes you think it’s got to settle, and then another thing happens.”
~Philip Rucker, Robert Costa, Josh Dawsey, WaPo, 12/20/18