President Donald Trump’s spectacular cave to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats on Friday caused many former and current White House aides to whine and panic among themselves as they complained that Democrats now have him “by the balls.”
After 35 days of declaring that he refuses to sign a government funding bill to end the government shutdown without $5.7 billion of wall funding, Trump finally agreed to sign the same bill he rejected in December, which funds the government for three weeks until February 15th, when Trump will likely shut the government down again because he isn’t getting his way.
It was a devastating defeat for Trump as even his supporters lashed out at him, including his own staffers, who apparently have a group text message in which to console each other and vent their frustrations.
Well, it turns out Politico got a peek at the group chat thread and found some interesting remarks:
“Pelosi ordered everything off the menu and left Trump hanging with the bill,” one text from a former aide said.
“President Nancy Pelosi, she runs the country now,” another wrote. “We went from indefinite shutdown, to down payment, to cave — all within a span of 24 hours.”
Indeed, Trump had repeatedly claimed he won’t cave, only to do exactly that the next day.
“I’m not sure allies are going along with it, more just letting it happen,” a former campaign aide told Politico. “It’s like watching a house completely engulfed in flames; there’s nothing you can do except watch.”
Yet another complained that Trump hurt 800,000 people and created chaos across the country for nothing.
“He allowed 35 days of chaos and hurt all for nothing,” the official wrote. “I’m so glad people will start being paid, but this could have been done in December.”
And it should have been done in December since Senate Republicans passed the exact same funding bill Trump just agreed to sign. Only Trump rejected it last month when the bill went to the House.
And it appears Trump is set to reject a funding bill in three weeks if he doesn’t get his way yet again. In a Twitter post shortly after capitulating to Pelosi, Trump again threatened to shut the government down, thereby taking away any advantage Republicans in Congress had in getting Democrats to come to the table.
After all, the reason why Democrats refused to pass funding for Trump’s wall is because shutdowns or the threat of a shutdown should not be used as a negotiation tactic. So, giving Trump what he wants now would result in Trump doing it every time he doesn’t get what he wants. And that will force trump to cave again because Americans will blame him and the Republicans again.
“He’s going to cave again in weeks,” the former campaign official said. “Democrats have Trump by the balls.”
And Trump only has himself to blame.
Featured Image: Wikimedia
