The Shutdown that Should Have Been Shut Down

Arrogance, incompetence, and pure childishness – all the right words to describe the worst 35-day event in President Donald Trump’s political career.

A campaign promise that was twisted and skewed by President “Ultimate Dealmaker” Trump was left unfulfilled with no progress at the cost of 800,000 public workers. The debate over the border wall divided our government, while highlighting weaknesses in today’s politics.

One reason why this government shutdown was so damning was that the president did not have a solid plan as he lacks solid negotiating skills.

How did Trump justify the use of 800,000 federal workers’ paychecks as his pawns? Something a seven-year-old would say: “Because you won’t give me what I want.” Now, that’s what I call the “art of the deal.”

After four weeks of no concessions, he finally made a “deal”: wall funding in exchange for DACA and TPS protections that he revoked, which means he would give back something he took away in exchange for $5 billion. I guess the U.S. government was the set of Bruce Willis’ Hollywood classic Die Hard.

Surprise! The Democrats were not buying this fraudful hostage situation. Unlike the president, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stuck with the cold hard facts that the President chose to ignore

45% of illegal immigration is done via airplanes, which would “obviously” be taken care of if there was a wall. Illegal border crossings are actually at 40-year lows, or what President Trump would say, “a national crisis of the heart and soul.”

After 35 agonizing days, Trump finally gave up and signed a spending bill that expired on February 15 in order to give extra time for border wall negotiations.

What did our lawmakers come up with? Only $1.375 billion for border security, not the $5.7 billion Donny wanted. Guess what? Trump signed the bill.

But here’s the catch: he pathetically declared a National Emergency on the Southern Border because he didn’t get what he wanted.

This isn’t going to go well because 16 states and the ACLU are suing the Trump Administration for its actions.

His decision will inevitably end up going to his own Supreme Court to see if this really is a “national emergency.”

His decision to declare this “emergency” is not only constitutionally questionable, but it is setting a terrible precedent for future presidents.

If this president wants to declare a national emergency for his wall, Republicans are going to have to face a national emergency from a democratic president that they might find to be ridiculous.

Democrats can just use Trump as an example for getting their executive power grab if things don’t go their way.

This entire situation is one that was manufactured and illogical. Plain and simple. The president failed to convince Congress to build a “wall, or barrier, or whatever you want to call it.”

He failed to convince the country that the wall is as dire as he sees it to be.

President Trump failed to show the American people how great of a dealmaker he is. I don’t know about you, but I am definitely not sick of all this winning. Am I right, Mr. President?