GOVERNMENT/NANCY PELOSI/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WALL: “President Trump announced Friday [1-25-19] his willingness to end the shutdown for three weeks. During that time, he will use the State of the Union and other events to build pressure for a wall. In the words of Bill O’Reilly, ‘Political chess game continues. President Trump reopens government — a good thing. Gives Dems three weeks to make a border security deal. Reasonable. Advantage Trump today.’ One is left to ponder how a more than month-long government shutdown that left federal workers unpaid was not enough to get a border security deal from the Democrats, but opening the government for three weeks will suddenly get them to the table. The reality is that Democrats committed to a single idea. They needed to show they could make the president cave so they could make him look weak even to the president’s own base. They succeeded in doing just that. The man who makes the best deals hoisted a white flag, which is an impossible event according to his hagiographers. After all, he fights.”
–Erick Erickson, “Donald Trump caved to Nancy Pelosi on shutdown, now the wall will never be built,” USA Today, January 25, 2019 4:48 pm