So the border remains open while the government shuts down. And the Mideast will have to fight its bloody wars without the sacrifice of more American soldiers.
Those two facts summarize the turbulent week that was in Washington. And how President Trump is once again upsetting all the apple carts, damn the consequences.
The only surprise is that so many people are still surprised when Trump acts like Trump. They’d better get used to it.
In fact, my prediction is that the Trump of 2019 is going to be far more feisty and disruptive than the one we have seen in his first two years in the Oval Office.
Not necessarily because he wants to, though he clearly enjoys breaking the china. But because he doesn’t have much choice if he wants to survive and have a chance at re-election.
The president is facing peril on all sides, and this is how he fights back. Part fury, part strategy, his dramatic decisions in recent days illustrate why he engenders so much love from some and so much hate from others.
As for the specifics, the answer to border security is obvious: America needs more of it, and it is common sense that a wall must be part of the solution.
To argue otherwise is a political lie with life-and-death consequences. Especially now that the Supreme Court has foolishly ruled that, temporarily at least, those who cross illegally have the right to asylum hearings.
Imagine that: You enter America illegally, and you instantly get rights. Those who thought America’s laws were designed to protect Americans were wrong, according to the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the four liberal justices to make a majority.
The ruling, which leaves current law intact until further hearings, raises the stakes of the shutdown. If Democrats and some Republicans don’t think a wall is needed, what is their solution to a problem that has festered for three decades?
Trump, of course, is the wall’s champion, but not always a diligent one. Losing the House in the midterm elections sharpened his awareness that two years of GOP control of Congress was ending without the result he promised.
He forced a shutdown to get a wall, or at least to be seen as trying to rescue the promise.
The action is tacit recognition that Trump’s popular support hangs on something more than his policies. It is the reputation he has cultivated for being a man of action who will do what he says he will do.
It is how he separated himself from the GOP herd and Hillary Clinton to win in 2016. And it is how he wants his presidency to be defined.
The “promise keeper” theme is unmistakable at Trump rallies. Giant signs bracket most venues: “Promises Made” reads one, and “Promises Kept” reads the other. Along with “Make America Great Again,” they are his version of Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change.”
Yet that reputation was in trouble, with Rush Limbaugh and others warning the president he was in danger of squandering his strength if he signed spending bills without wall funding, a key plank in his America First agenda.
Others reminded him of another America First promise — to bring the troops home from endless foreign wars.
In a heartbeat, the president pivoted to the shutdown and announced his plans to pull all 2,000 troops from Syria and 7,000 from Afghanistan. The decision led to the resignations of Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Brett McGurk, the American envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State.
As with so many other controversies under Trump, the substance is overshadowed by his from-the-gut style and the media’s hatred of him. Consider that Mattis was fired by Obama in 2013 and the press corps stayed silent or applauded. Now he’s a cause célèbre.
Still, Mattis is not alone in warning against the Syria move, and his departure is a loss. But it is fair to ask if there is any reason to keep troops in Syria, except to maintain an American foothold in a nation shattered by civil war.
Despite our having ties with Kurds and other anti-government forces, no one can claim 2,000 Americans could make the difference when Russia and Iran have poured in massive resources. And, if we are not there to win, why are we there?
The same questions can be asked in spades about Afghanistan. More than 17 years after we went there to rout the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, we are now welcoming the Taliban into peace talks.
At this late date, what is the objective — and how and when do we get out?
In various ways and many times, those are the questions Trump answered as a candidate and as president by vowing to end America’s role as global policeman.
It is a theme he pounds repeatedly by trying to get NATO allies and others to spend more on their own defense and take the burden off American taxpayers.
To be sure, politics — personal politics — also played a major role in the abruptness of last week’s moves. When the calendar turns to the new year, the reality of Dems winning the House will hit the Oval Office like a ton of bricks.
Dem attack dogs will have subpoena power to rummage through Trump’s life, and combined with special counsel Robert Mueller and New York federal prosecutors, will constitute a pincer movement determined to bring him down. Every allegation will be amplified by a media eager to bury him.
Though the left is certainly capable of overplaying its hand, Trump can’t count on that happening. To control his fate, he must show that efforts to impeach him would backfire, as they did against the GOP when it impeached Bill Clinton.
The only way to do that is to remind voters why they elected him in the first place: because he would put America first and keep his promises. Building the wall and bringing home the troops are part of that reminder — and they are just the start of his fight for survival.
‘Moore’ insanity from the left
Activist filmmaker Michael Moore proves that far-lefties are daffy enough to make Trump look like the most reasonable man in the room. On MSNBC — where else? — the portly pot-stirrer said the GOP tax cut was “an act of terror.”
Those who died on 9/11 had no comment.
Blas good for a laugh
Do-it-yourself government is all the rage. Amid movements to raise volunteer funds for a border wall, which I support, entertainers Michael Che, Michelle Wolf and others say they will hold a show to raise money for the city’s Housing Authority.
It’s a worthy cause, given the awful conditions, but I’m not sure comedy is the answer — unless the show skewers Mayor Bill de Blasio from start to finish.
It gets worse?
From Barron’s: “Stocks suffer worst week in a decade, and this is before Democrats officially take over the House of Representatives.” Cue the horror-film music.