'All for nothing': Trump's wall retreat bewilders allies
Before the president was done talking on Friday, a group text chain with several former Trump aides lit up with complaints.
By ANITA KUMAR and GABBY ORR 01/25/2019 08:12 PM EST
Before President Donald Trump finished speaking from the Rose Garden, putting a temporary end to the five-week government shutdown, a running group text between several of his former aides lit up with complaints.
“[Speaker Nancy] Pelosi ordered everything off the menu and left Trump hanging with the bill,” one Trump ally texted to the group.
“President Nancy Pelosi, she runs the country now,” said a former White House official. “We went from indefinite shutdown, to down payment, to cave — all within a span of 24 hours.”
That official said that Trump’s core supporters and former aides are “furious” and “melting down.”
Bewildered by his decision to accept a deal without funding for a wall on the southern border — not even the “down payment” the White House had requested a day earlier — some of his most loyal supporters fretted that Trump was in danger of losing his fervent base that has fueled his presidency. It didn’t help that special counsel Robert Mueller had just released more details about the Trump campaign’s alleged attempts to backchannel with WikiLeaks during the election.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/trump-government-shutdown-end-border-wall-1128564
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