Trump: 'There will be a shutdown' if I don't get $5 billion today

On Friday, Trump woke up and resumed furiously and hysterically tweeting his demand for $5 billion to build a wall most Americans don’t want.

“If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time,” Trump tweeted early Friday morning, one of 14 tweets he sent in the span of just 24 hours on the subject. It doesn’t matter to him that the majority of Americans don’t consider Trump’s vanity project on the border a priority.

It doesn’t matter to him that his own party would rather pass a bill to keep the government funded and functioning without giving him $5 billion — and that members of his own party say he is making a catastrophic mess by threatening to shut down the government over his pet issue.

And it doesn’t matter to him that the bill can’t get through the Senate. He has an idea for that too.

“Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done! Our Country is counting on you!” he tweeted Friday, demanding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell deploy the “nuclear option” — ending the filibuster entirely — just to give Trump $5 billion.

The government is on the verge of a shutdown, despite both the House and Senate willing to pass a funding bill to avoid such a disaster. The only thing standing in the way is Trump and his dangerously fragile ego.

Last week, Trump thought he would outsmart Democratic leaders by bullying them — on camera — into giving him $5 billion. It didn’t work. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fact-checked his ridiculous lies to his face, flatly refused to give in to his petulant demands, and even got him to accept full responsibility if the government does shut down.

“If we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through a military, anything you want to call — I will shut down the government,” Trump declared. “And I am proud — and I’ll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.”

Trump isn’t getting what he wants. And if he doesn’t agree to sign the short-term funding bill that both parties have already agreed to, he will shut down the government just days before Christmas.

It will be his fault and his responsibility. He’s already admitted that himself. And ultimately, it will be up to him to give in because Democrats certainly are not going to betray the voters — who, again, do not support shutting down the government just to give Trump $5 billion.

Trump thinks he is the world’s greatest negotiator and deal-maker. But he’s not. So now he’s taking the government hostage in yet another sign of just how weak he actually is.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.