Trump’s New Positions On The Wall And Syria Has Some Conservatives In An Uproar

Ken AshfordImmigration and Xenophobia, Republicans, Syria, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Let;s start with the wall and note how sad Trump has become. He used to have so much vision:

Oct. 3, 2015
“We’re going to build a wall, and it’s going to be impenetrable, it will be a real wall.” —

Jan. 16, 2016
“China built a wall that’s 13,000 miles long 2,000 years ago. My ambition is for ours to be much higher.” — Speech in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The height of the Great Wall of China averages 20 to 23 feet. Its tallest point is 46 feet.

Feb. 9, 2016
“I’m talking about precasts going up probably 35 to 40 feet up in the air. That’s high. That’s a real wall.” — Interview on MSNBC

Feb. 12, 2016
“The wall just got 10 feet higher.” — Speech in Tampa, Fla., after the former Mexican president said Mexico would not pay for it.

March 3, 2016
“But — and I used an example. And this isn’t necessarily what was said, but whatever was said, the wall’s 50 feet high. Is it going to be 45 feet or 40 feet? That could very well be. That could very well — he wants it to be higher.” — Republican presidential debate

And who would pay for that wall?

In fairness, he’s been wanting a “see-through” wall for a while, too.

But now, he seems willing to take far less money than his original request of $5 billion and he doesn’t seem like he’s going to shut down the government over it.

And this is not going down well. Here’s the normally Trump-friendly Fox & Friends this morning:

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) — who wanted to replace John Kelly as White House chief of staff — opted for political threats, warning Trump that caving on wall funding will cause his “base will go crazy” and endanger his re-election chances.

Rush Limbaugh reacted to the president “getting ready to cave” on the wall by claiming “Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything.”

Former prominent right-wing talking head Ann Coulter referred to Trump as a “gutless president.”

According the Tweet Alert — an account that tracks the Trumps’ Twitter activity so the rest of us don’t have to — provided an update. @realdonaldtrump stopped following Ann Coulter on Twitter.

At least one GOP lawmaker appears to be open to this tactic. During an appearance on NPR last week, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) suggested the wall could be funded not by Mexico, but a “crowdfunding site” or “blockchain” or “wall coins.”

And sure enough, there is a GoFundMe page for the Trump wall. It seeks $1 billion dollars and as of right now, has raised $4,018,831. That’s 0.4%. Heh.

CNN reported yesterday that the president is “starting to be irritated by criticism he’s abandoning his signature campaign promise to build a border wall.”

But the wall criticism is nothing compared to Trump’s decision, made without advice from his Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State, to pull troops and all personnel from Syria. This REALLY is not going well among his Republican colleagues in D.C.

They slammed the announcement as a victory for the dictatorial regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as for Russia and Iran, who have backed Assad’s forces in the ongoing civil war there.

And, again, Fox & Friends piles on.

It looks like Trump was watching the show:

It’s hard for anyone to guess what is going on in Trump’s head. Perhaps, since he is backing down on the wall campaign promise, he wants to deliver on the Syria promise. But what he ends up doing is pissing off just about every Republican of every stripe.

UPDATE: Uh-oh. President Trump took the wall criticism to heart. He’s fighting again.

The CR that passed the House and Senate is a continuing resolution covering about 25 percent of government operations. Seven appropriations bills covering the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, State, Treasury, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture as well as the General Services Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, NASA and others remain unpassed and funded by a short-term continuing resolution. Those were punted down the road to February 8.

Looks like we might have a government shutdown after all. And just because of Trump’s bruised ego. He must sign the continuing resolution by the end of the day on Dec. 21 to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Meanwhile….

So how does it end?

Politico thinks….

WE EXPECT Republicans to go back into HC-5 — their basement meeting room — at some point today to discuss strategy.

SARAH FERRIS and JOHN BRESNAHAN: “‘I think we’re going to put $5 billion for the wall in,’ Jordan told reporters. ‘I’m talking to [Steve] Scalise and Kevin [McCarthy]… That’s definitely the mood of the conference… I think that’s where it’s headed, toward $5 billion for the wall.’ …

“The issue erupted Thursday during a raucous closed-door meeting. Rank-and-file Republicans pressed leadership to take a harder line against the Senate’s recently passed spending bill by demanding money for the border wall, as well as emergency disaster aid for wildfire and hurricane recoveries.

Let’s remember that Trump is contradicting his position from two days ago:

And now Trump is contradicting himself again about ISIS and Syria. Yesterday, he said we defeated ISIS.

Gee, if only Trump had some advisers in the military — you know, like military advisers. Like a whole department at his disposal. A whole department just centered around defense and stuff.

Back to the wall, Ann Coulter seems to be running Trump right now…

This is amusing….

Republican Sen. Susan Collins almost dropped her handbag Thursday as she gestured disbelief at word, delivered to her by reporters in the Capitol, that President Donald Trump would not sign the budget extension to keep government funded until February unless border wall money was added. “Did he just say that?” she asked as she left a Republican lunch. “Ugh, are you ruining my life?” Collins was already headed to the airport to return home to Maine and wait for the drama to play out, when word came, via House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had met with Trump, that a government shutdown now seemed more likely. “Boy, we can’t have government shut down. It’s never good,” she said. “How many times do we have to learn that?”

This, not so much. I think he’s gone ’round the bend with this insult to farmers.

Megan Mullally (in the video with Trump) reacts:

UPDATE #2: Looks like the House is going to vote tomorrow on a short-term funding bill that includes $5 billion for the wall.

Amendments require a vote from the House, which could make timing tight as current funding ends at Friday midnight.

The chairman of the Rules Committee, Republican Pete Sessions, said the committee would meet later on Thursday to determine how to move forward on adding the $5 billion, and said he did not know if Trump would sign a measure into law that lacked the funding.