Trump Was Always Going to Fold on the Border Wall
The president almost always caves in a tough negotiation, and he never had a real plan for using the shutdown to get $5.7 billion from Congress.
In mid-December, Donald Trump seemed prepared to cave—yet again—on funding for his border wall. The president had repeatedly failed to secure money for construction. He still wanted to build it, but the Senate had already passed a stopgap funding bill to keep the government running, and the House stood ready to do so as well. Although Trump had said earlier in December
