Republican lawmakers had already gone home, confident that there would be no government shutdown before Christmas, and the standoff over funding for Trump’s wall appeared to be over. But that was before Rush Limbaugh went on the air and mocked Trump for getting “less than nothing.”
The same day, Trump’s buddies on Fox & Friends blasted the President and House Republicans for handing a “win” to Democrats.
Twenty-four hours later, Limbaugh announced that Trump had told him he would shut down the government if he didn’t get his wall fully funded.
Blindsided, Republican lawmakers came scrambling back to town.
The House added $5.7 billion in funding for Trump’s border wall in a last-minute package of legislation that was meant to keep government agencies funded through the end of the year. Senators, who had been clear they won’t support the massive layout for a wall, also returned to Washington, and hopes for averting a shutdown faded.
“Essential” staff will go unpaid over the holidays, including 54,000 Border Patrol agents, and the U.S. economy will lose millions of dollars as federal agencies are paralyzed.
“Will someone just buy the petulant man-child a friggin LEGO set for Christmas before he destroys the US economy?” Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, tweeted.
Trump’s government-shutdown crisis, which he is blaming on the Democrats despite an earlier boast that he was “proud” to take responsibility for the shut-down, along with his party, which currently controls all three branches of government, is tied to his phony border crisis. The President has already wasted $72 million this year deploying 5,000 troops to the U.S./Mexico border to face off against a few thousand desperate mothers and children fleeing gangs in Central America.
Trump’s unilateral decision this week to withdraw troops from Syria, where there are fewer than half as many soldiers as the 5,000 he sent to the U.S./Mexico border, causing his Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to abruptly resign.
Mattis joins a crowd of Trump Administration officials rushing for the exits as the year draws to a close.
Stay tuned for Season Two of Trump’s chaotic reign. Democrats are already working on legislation to reopen the government on January 3, when they take control of the House.