Opinions
President Trump lost. Period.

By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
January 25 at 3:04 PM

Things continue until they don’t. The senseless, cruel government shutdown ended on Friday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had vowed she would not give anything until the government reopened. President Trump had promised he wouldn’t reopen the government without funding for his border wall. Now, Pelosi is getting what she wants. Trump has lost. The deal would reopen the government for three weeks to allow a conference committee to discuss border security measures — but not a wall.

Trump announced in the Rose Garden that he was “proud” to announce a real had been reached, although the deal was nothing more than a capitulation. Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks, making a vague (and now, more than ever, empty) threat to declare an emergency if money for the wall was not reached. He then launched into an harangue of the type that has not in many speeches shifted public opinion. "We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier,” Mr. Trump insisted. He rambled on, reciting yet again some story about women smuggled in cars with their mouths taped shuts. (His own advisers and border agents have not idea what he is referring to.) His mini-tirade about the wall reminded anyone who cared that he is not getting it.

You cannot get thumped any worse than Trump did on this encounter with Pelosi. Each step along the way, the president stumbled. He told Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) “I will be the one to shut it down.” He’d be proud to do it! He wouldn’t blame them! He was then ready to sign a clean continuing resolution — until he listed to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and provoked a shutdown anyway. ... In the iconic video from December, Schumer can barely contain his laughter. Inside, surely he was jumping up and down, delighting in Trump’s political malpractice.

Since then, Team Trump has shown a total lack of compassion for the 800,000 government workers going unpaid. (Perhaps contributing to the president’s collapse, 14,000 IRS workers did not show up for work, and New York’s LaGuardia Airport was forced to temporarily suspend flights because of staffing issues.) Why would they need to go to a food bank? Can’t they suffer a little for all of us? The remarkable Marie Antoinette moments won’t easily be forgotten.
....

We will see whether Trump’s collapse costs him with his base. If so, the bottom will fall out of his ratings. We are left with two final questions: Will there be serious primary challengers to Trump, who’s managed to prove his total incompetence? We’ll see. And will Pelosi get tired of winning? I think not.

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. Follow https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger