Trump facing right-wing backlash for caving in on the shut down
Suddenly Trump finds himself under attack from those his loudest backers. Coulter blasts Trump over shutdown deal: 'Biggest wimp ever to serve as president' | TheHill https://t.co/TPOXnHh9tA
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 26, 2019
Yesterday has raised doubts over his WH2020 bid
My biggest long-term bet for a long time has been that Trump will will not be his party’s nominee at WH2020.
This has been my Mueller collusion probe bet on the basis that at some stage there’d be bad news for the President which would send the odds out. My thinking has always been that I could then decide whether to take a profit or stay in.
Well the events of yesterday, the indictment of close advisor Roger Stone and his caving in on funding the wall, are hardly going to help his re-election plans if that is what he wants to do.
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Until the shutdown his great strength within the party was that he appeared an election winner and however outrageous some of his actions might appear few Republicans were going to rock the boat for fear of what could happen to was perceived to be their greatest asset.
For me the most significant development this week has been the sizeable rebellion on funding the wall by Republican party senators. On Thursday six of them supported the Democratic party Senate motion on the issue. Given that there are only 53 Republican Senators that is quite a high proportion.
The shutdown was always going to be a big gamble and I doubt if Trump realised that he was up against such a formidable opponent as the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. She is just about the most hardened political operator in Washington and it was she who played a critical part in getting it described in December as the Trump shutdown.
What we don’t know is how Trump is going to respond to the right wing criticism of his decisions yesterday.