Quick Thoughts On Trump’s Cave

As I’ve written before, Trump is, at his core, a racketeer and, with that understanding, it should be recognized that he is just replacing the threat he has actually followed through on for the last month with the threat that he will do it again in three weeks if he still does not get what he wants. That is hardly progress.

Of course, Democrats will accept this deal. It is a predictable humiliating defeat for the President, gets the government functioning again, relieves the enormous economic pressure on federal workers, and limits the already extensive damage to federal contractors and the broader economy. But the Democrats should do so with the clear caveats that the President can not be trusted to even follow through on this promise until he actually signs the bill, (Ann Coulter is already calling Trump “biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States”), and, more importantly, that he is still threatening to shut down the government in three weeks.

The fact that Trump actually caved today has little to do with the dissension in the Senate Republican caucus or what is happening at LaGuardia, Philly, Newark, and the IRS. For Trump there are three drivers, all differing in importance. Primarily, caving to reality today deflects for the now overwhelming evidence that Mueller has put forth in the Stone indictment that the Trump campaign was actively coordinating with WikiLeaks, and therefore the Russians, throughout most of the campaign. Second, Trump’s poll numbers were clearly tanking and caving will at least mitigate the bleeding. Finally, re-opening the government now will allow the President to engage in his favorite activity, political showmanship, by giving a State of the Union message. On that point, Democrats should really think long and hard about postponing that opportunity until after the mid-February deadline passes with some long-term deal.

Lastly, this total cave by Trump actually increases the likelihood he will create another constitutional crisis by declaring a national emergency and reallocating Congressionally authorized funds in order to build something that he can call a wall. That plan is already being drafted.

So, despite the good news that the shutdown may be over, Trump may actually be laying the groundwork for the next crisis. That’s how racketeers work.