President Trump took to Twitter again to slam the Republican party for passing a spending bill that contains no funding for the border wall [Trump blasts 'ridiculous' US spending bill, revives shutdown threat, AFP, September 20, 2018].
I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms? Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2018
There's also $38 billion in foreign aid for Israel (a nationalist state with its own border wall), but no wall for America [House passes new $38 billion aid package for Israel, The Forward, September 13, 2018]
President Trump has great political instincts, as Peter Brimelow has repeatedly pointed out. Chief among them is a willingness to ask the questions that Americans want answered but the political class doesn't want broached. For example, in Bob Woodward's book length hit piece on President Trump, Fear, President Trump asks why the United States is still involved in Afghanistan. The System media treated this is an example of President Trump's supposed ignorance about foreign policy; I take as evidence of the complete ignorance of our military and foreign policy establishment. [Opinion: 'Fear' of challenging the status quo-Woodward's new book unwittingly exposes flawed conventional thinking, by Daniel L. Davis, Daily Caller, September 14, 2018] At this point, whatever America is trying to accomplish in Afghanistan is not worth one American dollar, let alone one American life.
This is another example. Clearly, President Trump's advisors are telling him to avoid a government shutdown at all costs. Yet these advisors, most of whom were political opponents of the president and for some reason were appointed anyway, have led his administration to the brink of disaster. Indeed, it's no stretch to assume that they want to lose, the better to ensure the GOP never becomes a nationalist party and instead sticks to unpopular policies like upper class tax cuts and slashing programs its own supporters use.
For his own sake, if not that of the country, President Trump needs to start listening to his own instincts, not those of the Grima Wormtongues he's surrounded himself with. He needs to veto this bill and demand funding for his signature border wall. If someone brings up the cost, there's a solution to that too. All President Trump needs to do is return to his campaign promise of a remittance tax to ensure Mexico pays for the wall.
His refusal to even mention this is both baffling and infuriating. As Ann Coulter has asked in the past, does Donald Trump know that he's president?
Most importantly of all, these impotent threats against the party he ostensibly leads are making President Trump look weak. He has the power; it's time for him to use it. Besides, he has already promised he wouldn't put up with this again.
As a matter of National Security I've signed the Omnibus Spending Bill. I say to Congress: I will NEVER sign another bill like this again. To prevent this omnibus situation from ever happening again, I'm calling on Congress to give me a line-item veto for all govt spending bills! https://t.co/kYwMk5AE5k
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018
The GOP desperately needs to energize its voters and get them to the polls. It's put up or shut up time for President Trump. Talk is cheap. Tweets are cheaper. But a veto pen is louder than the bully pulpit.