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Raging, weakened Trump is running out of options
The Plum Line • Opinion
Raging, weakened Trump is running out of options
By Greg Sargent
Opinion writer
January 10 at 10:28 AM
President Trump departed this morning to visit the southern border as part of his floundering effort to sell his wall, but he doubts it will do any good. In private, he reportedly groused that “it’s not going to change a damn thing,” but added that he’d been talked into it by his communications advisers, including Bill Shine, who just happens to also be a former executive at Fox News.
It’s telling that Shine in particular advised this trip, and in that context, Trump’s gripe contains a real insight: The trip is clearly less about rallying public support that might pressure Democrats to relent on the wall — since that won’t work — and more about projecting what might be called optics of manly action. A former Fox executive surely understands that what Trump’s supporters need to see right now is Trump appearing to act decisively, that is, appearing to take control of events.
Yet it’s increasingly obvious that Trump’s gestures of action are largely empty ones — and not just on the wall. This is evident on two of the biggest running stories right now — Trump’s flirtation with declaring a national emergency to build the border barrier without congressional authorization, and his legal team’s noisy public threats to try to quash public release of the special counsel’s findings.
Trump just raged on Twitter against Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), describing him as “Cryin Chuck,” while denying reports that he slammed the table before storming out of a meeting with Democrats. At that meeting, Trump made no headway, but now he’s compensating for it by publicly lashing out with juvenile name-calling, which is supposed to show his supporters that he’s “fighting.”
Trump may very well declare a national emergency to build the wall. But new reporting indicates that even if he does, it’s not even remotely clear how much of his wall he’d get from it. As Charlie Savage details in a must-read piece, there are multiple legal obstacles standing in his way. It isn’t just that the presidential declaration itself would face a legal challenge that would go all the way to the Supreme Court; it would also face multiple lawsuits from landowners along the border.
....
Greg Sargent writes The Plum Line blog. He joined The Post in 2010, after stints at Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and the New York Observer. Follow https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs
1.9k Comments
Raging, weakened Trump is running out of options
By Greg Sargent
Opinion writer
January 10 at 10:28 AM
President Trump departed this morning to visit the southern border as part of his floundering effort to sell his wall, but he doubts it will do any good. In private, he reportedly groused that “it’s not going to change a damn thing,” but added that he’d been talked into it by his communications advisers, including Bill Shine, who just happens to also be a former executive at Fox News.
It’s telling that Shine in particular advised this trip, and in that context, Trump’s gripe contains a real insight: The trip is clearly less about rallying public support that might pressure Democrats to relent on the wall — since that won’t work — and more about projecting what might be called optics of manly action. A former Fox executive surely understands that what Trump’s supporters need to see right now is Trump appearing to act decisively, that is, appearing to take control of events.
Yet it’s increasingly obvious that Trump’s gestures of action are largely empty ones — and not just on the wall. This is evident on two of the biggest running stories right now — Trump’s flirtation with declaring a national emergency to build the border barrier without congressional authorization, and his legal team’s noisy public threats to try to quash public release of the special counsel’s findings.
Trump just raged on Twitter against Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), describing him as “Cryin Chuck,” while denying reports that he slammed the table before storming out of a meeting with Democrats. At that meeting, Trump made no headway, but now he’s compensating for it by publicly lashing out with juvenile name-calling, which is supposed to show his supporters that he’s “fighting.”
Trump may very well declare a national emergency to build the wall. But new reporting indicates that even if he does, it’s not even remotely clear how much of his wall he’d get from it. As Charlie Savage details in a must-read piece, there are multiple legal obstacles standing in his way. It isn’t just that the presidential declaration itself would face a legal challenge that would go all the way to the Supreme Court; it would also face multiple lawsuits from landowners along the border.
....
Greg Sargent writes The Plum Line blog. He joined The Post in 2010, after stints at Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and the New York Observer. Follow https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs
1.9k Comments
3 replies
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