Trump saves face with his base after bruising wall fight The president walks away from an epic battle with Democrats bloodied — but not as damaged as Democrats had hoped.
President Donald Trump announced a two-step maneuver that could appease frustrated supporters by keeping
the government open and declaring a national emergency to get more money for a border wall. | Joe Raedle/Getty Image
Two months of feuding with congressional Democrats and the longest government shutdown in history has exacted a heavy political toll from President Donald Trump.
Top conservatives were furious when he appeared to cave to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Congress refused to fund his border wall. At the same time, polls show that his wall crusade has turned off the independent voters he’ll need to win reelection.
Yet Trump allies insist the president isn’t as damaged going into the 2020 campaign as Democrats might hope.
“It’s not been a good couple of months,” said Jonathan Felts, who served as political director for President George W. Bush and is close to Trump White House officials. “That said, when I talk to rank-and-file Trump supporters they are fine. From their perspective, he’s doing the best he can in a bad situation.”
On Thursday afternoon, Trump announced a two-step maneuver that could appease frustrated supporters. He will grudgingly sign a massive congressional spending bill that includes just $1.4 billion for border security, less than a quarter of his last demand, but he will also declare a national emergency to unlock Pentagon funds he can unilaterally steer to a border wall as well as use money from other projects.
Conservatives who blasted the congressional compromise had already been urging Trump to take that approach. In a Wednesday op-ed for Fox News’ website, Sean Hannity urged the president to sign Congress’ “garbage” deal and then declare a national emergency, showing “haters on both sides of the aisle” that he is “tenacious, and he will fight to get that wall built.”
Trump’s choice of that path came as something of a surprise. As of Thursday afternoon he had been widely expected only to redirect federal funds for the wall — without taking the more dramatic step of declaring a national emergency. Senior Republican leaders had urged Trump not to declare an emergency, but he sided — as he has so many times before — with core supporters like Hannity over the Washington GOP establishment.
