Trump Doesn’t See That Democrats Can’t Give Him What He Wants

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Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:50 pm

As Donald Trump continues his unhinged Twitter rants, and continues to blame Democrats for the shutdown he caused, one simple fact seems to have escaped him: Democrats can’t give him what he wants.

Because the shutdown is extremely unpopular with the general public, and even more unpopular with Democratic voters, it would be almost impossible for Nancy Pelosi to convince her Democratic House colleagues to approve a bill giving Trump what he wants, i.e., $5 billion in funding for a border wall.

Many people in Washington are frustrated about this. As the government shutdown fight continues, and as Trump threatens to make it last for months or years, it’s not clear that the president even knows what’s going on.

From a political perspective, Democrats voting to help Trump get out of his shutdown mess is a total nonstarter. It simply won’t happen. Any Democrat in the House who votes to approve Trump’s demands for border wall funding would be severely castigated by his or her constituents. Their political futures would be threatened. There is no upside — and no reason — for any Democrat to help Trump.

Despite the claims of the president and others, Nancy Pelosi cannot simply give Trump his $5 billion to fund the wall. Which means Trump has to end it himself.

As the Washington Post said, “It’s not at all clear that there are any circumstances under which wall funding could pass the House at this point.”

The Post goes on to explain why this can’t happen. The biggest reason is that among Democratic voters support for the wall and the shutdown is almost nonexistent.

A new Quinnipiac poll found that among Democrats, 92 percent oppose the wall while just 6 percent support it.

And on top of that, 95 percent of Democrats oppose shutting down the government to make sure the wall gets funded, while only 3 percent support it.

In addition, 24 percent of Republicans also oppose the shutdown over the wall.

And among the broader public, the Quinnipiac poll found that about 60% of all Americans don’t want to spend money on the wall and don’t believe it will help with the immigration problem or make American safer.

Also among the general population, 73 percent believe that immigration is good for the country. And 63 percent of Americans support the Democrats’ approach of funding the rest of the government while continuing to negotiate over the wall.

Most of the 36 percent of Americans who blame Democrats for the shutdown are Republicans.

Given public opinion about the wall, the shutdown, and immigration, there is no way that House Democrats can or will ever support giving Donald Trump over $5 billion for his wall.

It is sad that so many millions of hard-working Americans are being hurt by Trump’s shutdown. As a sociopath, he clearly doesn’t care about other people and their problems. And, as a person totally ignorant about the operations of American government, he doesn’t have any idea what he is doing.

The only way out of the shutdown mess is for Donald Trump to be made to realize that he alone can re-open the government. Tragically, it looks like that will not be happening any time soon.

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.