BORDER/CHUCK SCHUMER/GOVERNMENT/NANCY PELOSI/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “Donald Trump’s meeting Tuesday [12-11-18] with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer may go a long way toward determining whether the government enters a partial shutdown before Christmas. But as Democrats seriously re-engage with Trump for the first time in nearly a year, their broad distrust of the president has expectations for a deal at rock bottom…The House and Senate Democratic leaders have been here before. Multiple times over the past two years they thought they’d cut a deal with Trump only to see him swiftly trash ‘Chuck and Nancy’ and demand hefty conservative concessions. Now Trump is threatening to shut down a large swath of the federal government if he doesn’t get billions in funding for his border wall. ocrats say they have no reason to think talks this week will end differently than they have in the past, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen House and Senate Democrats. And the Democratic leaders — constrained by an aggressive left flank in the party — are in no mood to even try to strike a sweeping immigration deal like in past negotiations.”
–Burgess Everett and Heather Caygle, “‘His word isn’t good’: Dems don’t trust Trump to make shutdown deal,” Politico, December 10, 2018 5:08 am