Over the last few days, President Donald Trump has attempted to reframe his government shutdown, backtracking on his initial claims of ownership and claiming he has been sitting in the White House waiting for congressional democrats to come to him.
For example, a Tweet from his account his morning reiterates his argument that the border crises he has fabricated is causing more damage than a government shutdown that has left over 800,000 United States government workers on the job without pay, reiterating his desire to see democrats, “come back to Washington.”
This reiterates several of his current talking points, with Trump attempting to paint a picture of democrats ignoring real issues while Government employees are left without pay and crimes occur along the southern border.
This is in stark contrast to the argument Trump has attempted to make since his campaign of a strong dealmaker. We are instead left with a narrative of a powerless President, stuck alone in the White House, waiting on the actions of others before he can do his job.
It also ignores the fact that democrats have pushed through spending bills — without funding earmarked for President Trumps southern border wall, an unworkable campaign promise he has refused to change course on — only to see Trump loyalist, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), refuse to take this up in the Senate.
McConnell was not in Washington on Friday, but on his way home to Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Trump is either lying, or forgot that he visited Texas last week and made a previously-unscheduled visit to Iran the week before. He is far from left waiting in the White House.
In spite of Trump’s claims to the contrary, it would appear that the President has no real plan beyond simply waiting for someone else to save him from himself.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license