I suppose it shouldn't surprise us at this point. Irrational behavior has been demonstrated to be his normal. Lying, for example, just seems to be part of his daily routine. He doesn't need to be under attack by the "fake media" or even to have been caught misrepresenting something. Even in the best of times, he simply can't get his facts straight. And under duress? Well, he just says whatever makes him look good in the moment, right?
Take the Syria thing, for example. One day, he's taking all the troops out, totally freaking out everyone in the Pentagon and all our friends and even some foes in the Middle East. The next day, his top (and last remaining) cabinet general decides he's had enough, says this is crazy (basically) and quits, and the next day or so, Trump's remaining beleaguered supporters (Bolton, etc.) are desperately "walking back" (oh, what a master term of obfuscation) Trump's decision, and then Trump's on TV doing what? Well, what can he do? Opts for the flat-out, bald-faced lie: Tells the press: No, nothing's been walked back. Nothing's changed. Decision's the same as the day I made it. What are you guys talking about?
Of course, in his mind, that's how it is.
That brings us to the Wall. Which is now metal Slats, by the way. Oh, and Mexico isn't actually paying for it, er ... at least, not directly, you see. Because their payment is sort of mixed in (somehow) with the new deal that replaced NAFTA. Of course, no one, not even Trump, can point exactly to where in the agreement it says that, but it's there, by golly. Of course it is. Somehow, someway, Mexico pays for the Wall.
So now, Congress is duty bound to give Trump billions of dollars to build The Wall on his say-so alone. And because they haven't done so (surprise, surprise, they just aren't quite buying the idea that Mexico's payment is hidden somewhere in the new NAFTA), he's shut the government down until he gets what he wants.
Never mind that Mexico's president has flatly denied that any Wall payment is in the NAFTA-replacement deal.
Never mind that Trump declared flat out, when his predecessor, President Barack Obama shut down the government for 16 days over the Affordable Care Act, that shutting the government down was an impeachable offense.
Ms. Sanders, Trump's poor Press Secretary, in a desperate effort to find something with which to support Trump's grandstand play, came up with a startling statistic: More than 4,000 suspected terrorists, she said, had been apprehended at the southern U.S. border in 2018. Wow. Now that would be pretty convincing, were it true.
Sorry, it's not. Turns out those with more subtle abilities at fact checking have determined this week that the figure 4,000 indicated the number of suspected terrorists apprehended at all U.S. border crossings (primarily its airports) over a number of years. The number apprehended on our southern border in 2018? Six. That's right, the U.S. Customs Service reports a grand total of SIX. Not very compelling. Sounds like that Wall money could best be spent elsewhere?
Trump's in a hurry for his Wall, too. Why? Could be because he's out of time. Democrats now own the House. His poll numbers have never been that high, but they're real low now. And the economy suffered its worst performance at the end of 2018 since a decade ago at the low point that signaled the Great Recession. Mueller, who has wisely, and almost singly, kept a low profile, will not long continue to be silent about what he's found in his lengthening investigation into Russian ties to the 2016 Trump campaign. And Trump's big promise, of course, was to protect those frightened white folks who voted for him that he could protect them from the brown hordes that were going to invade from the South. (And truth is, there's not so much to protect them from.) Not to mention, it was his most solemn oath. it's the mission on which it all lives or dies. So far, he's failed miserably on that one.
He's also running out of friends. He's lost his generals. He's driven away a couple of West Wings full of mostly brilliant advisors he was mostly unwilling to listen to and was only too willing to publicly betray and ridicule. If the GOP backrooms were miked right now, you wouldn't hear much love flowing. Just discussions of how to stop the bleeding. Trump's got to have this one, or when the Truth comes out, and The Liar has to pay The Piper, even his electoral base won't be there for him.
When it all comes out, the Democrats won't have to impeach him. He is likely to face something even his most satisfied fans at the top of his poll numbers couldn't rescue him from. When half his family is indicted, the man who did not write The Art of the Deal (it was written for him) will have to make the only deal he'll be able to make: Resign the Presidency to save his family, and maybe even himself, from criminal indictment.
But, hey, if he gets his Wall? Then it was all part of the plan, right? "I never intended to be President for the whole thing? I said I'd get your the Wall, and I did it! America's great again! I'm great! It's all great!!"
He'll tell you with a perfectly straight face that he intended all along to resign midway through his first term. He'll tell you that most Presidents need two terms to accomplish their goals, but he'd done it in two years. He'll insist that's the way it really is. And nobody will be able to tell him different.
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