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Here's a euphemistic headline for you: Trump’s Elusive Terms on Border Deal Cloud Path to End Shutdown. That suggests way more nuance than exists: Trump doesn't know what in the hell he wants besides his wall and his big TV speech.
The Bloomberg article goes on to say that his "closest advisers have competing senses of what the president would be willing to accept as part of a deal with Democrats to reopen government, underscoring the difficulty negotiators face in bridging the impasse over border security funding." Or in what's probably actually the case, "many White House advisers fear the political backlash over the lengthening shutdown, but Stephen Miller runs the show."
Any kind of real compromise anyone in the White House might take to Trump—who famously does or says what the last person to talk to him advises—will be shot down by Miller, who makes sure to be the last voice Trump hears. From all appearances, he's even in charge of the Senate.
For example, over the weekend the upcoming Senate vote was presented as a pure McConnavellian "screw the Democrats" bill: reopening government and millions and millions in disaster relief to make Democrats have a hard time voting against it, and the wall funding. What actually ended up dropping was so larded-up with political poison that no Democrat will feel compelled to support it. It's a Stephen Miller special, an anti-immigrant, anti-asylum white supremacist wish list.
Maybe that's part of why McConnell went along with two separate funding bills for Thursday's votes, splitting out the wall and white supremacist shit from reopening government and paying federal workers. The original bill has lost all its pain for Democrats, making this series of two votes extremely easy for them. They vote against the wall and white supremacy and then vote to reopen government, even if it's just for two weeks. No brainer.
Harder for Republicans, though. Maybe that's the effect on Trump McConnell is going for. Who the hell knows? One thing we know for sure: Trump is the puppet for two people—Stephen Miller and Vladimir Putin.
Call your Republican senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to reopen government. Don't stop until this is over.