Trump juxtaposing the shutdown and impeachment is no accident. True or not, it is likely he thinks that the longer the government isn't functioning properly, the longer it takes Democrat-led House committees to do the Trump-Russia investigative work the Republicans refused to do.
2/ Make no mistake: Trump's ambition is to forestall the impeachment question just long enough to have the Republican and Democratic primary processes start in earnest. At that point, he and his lawyers will say that *voters* should be allowed to decide Trump's fate—not Congress.
3/ Trump will only have to convince 34 Senate Republicans to vote against his conviction, so developing a rhetorical argument that says impeachment must not interfere with the right of voters to choose their leaders is incredibly important for Trump. And this argument could work.
