The reality is that President Trump and the Republicans held the Congress for two years and did jack about a border wall. The reality is also that Republicans in Congress kept telling the President to wait. And on two occasions they got the President to move forward in ways that got him in trouble with his own base. First was the DACA deal in February of last year and second was the end of the year deal.
Congressional Republicans gave the President bad advice and ultimately did nothing to help him in his shutdown fight. They waited and waited and then let him know they were surrendering. It was Bob Dole all over again.
The President did not do a good job himself. The President’s team is quietly willing to acknowledge this. He said live on television that he would shut down the government for a wall. Despite all the PR spin the GOP is doing now to blame Pelosi and Schumer, that clip has been recirculated heavily by the press.
It was an initial screw up that then dragged us into a shutdown without any comprehensive strategy to win it. The President should have hit the campaign trail. Some of his advisors no doubt worried the media would attack him for campaigning, but the White House needs to understand the media is going to attack no matter what.
This President and his supporters are not going to get a fair hearing from most of the press. He should operate with that understanding. Showing up in local media markets of swing district Democrats should have been one tactic heavily used. Calling in to local market talk radio shows would have helped mobilize his constituency for the wall.
But none of that changes the basic fundamentals. The GOP had Congress for two years and kept telling the President to wait. He waited till the clock ran out on the GOP and got nothing.
