Special to WorldTribune.com
We are heading toward a partial government shutdown. This is the real meaning of President Trump’s shouting match with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Oval Office. Someone is going to blink. And it better not be Trump.
At issue is Trump’s demand that Congress allocate $5 billion to begin constructing a border wall along the porous southern border. Democrats and some RINO Republicans are balking. Pelosi’s and Schumer’s counter offer: $1.3 billion for “border security” — with the key caveat that not a penny can go toward the wall. Instead, the Democrats want to use the funds to buy more drones, install more sensors and hire more border patrol agents. In short, they want to do the very thing that hasn’t worked for decades.
Pelosi and Schumer were blunt in their on-camera confrontation with the president: Under no circumstances will Democrats vote to pay for Trump’s wall. As Trump pressed upon the Democratic leaders the national security necessity of a massive physical barrier on much of the 2,000-mile long U.S.-Mexican border, Pelosi and Schumer then urged that the meeting be conducted in “private” behind closed doors.
Their behavior was not only revealing, but insulting. Pelosi and Schumer repeatedly derided Trump, accusing him of being a liar, ignorant of the facts and determined to bring about a government shutdown. In fact, following the meeting, Pelosi crowed to her Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill, bragging that she and Schumer “had made the president own any government shutdown.” To his credit, Trump publicly — and courageously — told them that, unless he gets the $5 billion for the wall, he will shut the government down. Moreover, Pelosi told her caucus that Trump has “manhood” issues, which is why he’s allegedly obsessed with the wall. Think about it: The incoming house speaker is now taunting the size of the president’s genitals. She also compared him to a “skunk” and claimed anything that comes from Trump’s mouth is akin to skunk spray. This is more than Trump derangement syndrome. It is puerile hatred and partisan vitriol America has not seen since the Civil War. The Democrats will never back any wall funding. Their rabid liberal base will not let them.
Pelosi and Schumer are fifth columnists. Their treason was on full display during their showdown with Trump. He exposed them for the anti-American globalists that they are.
The Democrats oppose open government — real transparency when it comes to negotiating border security in public. But they support open borders that favors illegal aliens, criminals and foreigners over American citizens.
Trump is right: waves of illegal immigrants, MS-13 gang members, drug dealers and human traffickers are flooding into our country. Illegal immigration is now higher than it’s been in over a decade. This is on top of the already 23 million illegal aliens who are currently in the United States, draining our social welfare programs, stealing the jobs of American workers and driving down wages.
The United States is facing an historic invasion from the South. There is only one way to stop it: the wall. Trump campaigned on the wall; he won the 2016 election on the wall; it is the centerpiece of his America First agenda.
“Elections have consequences,” Schumer blurted out to Trump at the Oval Office meeting. The New York leftist is correct. But not in the way he thinks.
Trump has a broad presidential mandate from the voters to secure the border — especially, to erect a massive wall and repel this invasion that threatens to bankrupt and destroy the United States. For nearly two years, the Republican-controlled Congress has failed — and refused — to provide the necessary funding. Next month, the Pelosi Democrats will take over the House of Representatives. Trump will then never get Congress to give him the wall until after the 2020 election (assuming he wins re-election). It is now or never.
The American people want a wall. More importantly, Trump’s supporters — conservative nationalists like me — are demanding it.
If Congress refuses to allocate the $5 billion, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall federal budget, then Trump must make good on his vow: shut the government down. Middle America will stand with you.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at WorldTribune.com and the host of “The Kuhner Report” weekdays 12-3 pm EST on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.