BORDER/BUDGET/GOVERNMENT/MITCH MCCONNELL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “Mitch McConnell thinks he’s gotten President Donald Trump to back off his shutdown threat. And it’s looking increasingly likely to come with a short-term punt. The Senate majority leader emerged from a lengthy party lunch after a flurry of mixed signals from the White House to declare there will be no partial shutdown on Friday evening, when a quarter of government funding expires. The GOP majority may have to settle for a short-term delay, but McConnell said the White House is now ‘flexible’ on border wall funding, just one week after Trump said he’d be ‘proud’ to shut down the government in a fight over border security…McConnell’s efforts to soothe an inflamed debate between the president and Democratic leaders capped a day of unsuccessful negotiations between McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and a softening public position from the White House. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated the president could accept less than the $5 billion from Congress that he had previously demanded, and Schumer did not rule out a short-term spending bill that would punt the border fight to next year. Trump, of course, revels in the daily drama and, on Tuesday, refused to admit defeat or pledge that he would win the standoff.”
–Sarah Ferris, Burgess Everett and Eliana Johnson, “GOP talks Trump off the shutdown ledge,” Politico, December 18, 2018 8:48 pm