It's Another Win For Pelosi And Another Loss For Trump

(Chart on border walls is from The New York Times.)

The negotiations on funding the rest of the government has reached a deal. It is being touted as a compromise solution by both Republicans and Democrats, but the Democrats are just being nice. This is another huge win for Democrats, and another huge win for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Trump lost the first showdown (the government shutdown) because he claimed credit for it. In doing that, he transferred all the power to Speaker Pelosi, and she used it to beat him badly. In the end, he had to agree to a continuing resolution that gave him nothing while a budget for the rest of the year was "negotiated".

He continued to threaten a government shutdown or declaring a national emergency, but those were baseless threats and both parties in Congress knew it. Trump again blew it -- this time by not participating in the negotiations. That put the power back with Speaker Pelosi. McConnell and Senate Republicans could not refuse to go along with Pelosi, because they would again be blamed (along with Trump) for shutting down the government.

The result was another Pelosi win. She threw Trump and the Republicans a bone by including $1.3 billion into the package for new wall. Trump had wanted $5.7 billion to start building the 1,000 miles of new wall that he wants. Pelosi gave him $1.3 billion, which will fund about 55 miles of wall (at a site in Texas to be determined by Border Patrol authorities). And the chance of getting any more wall money next year is nonexistent.

Trump is now expected to sign the new bill, without shutting down the government or declaring a national emergency. Instead, he is currently talking about using an executive order to shift funds from other areas of the government (like military construction spending) to build his wall. Will Pelosi push back, going to court to stop Trump from taking funds Congress passed for one function to do another? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

Through his own stupidity and incompetence, Trump has abdicated any power he had in dealing with Congress. That power now rests in the gavel of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That's a good thing for this country.