President Donald Trump is winning the battle against Democrats over his border wall demand that has caused a budget standoff and closed down the federal government since before Christmas, MSNBC's Donny Deutsch said.
Trump wants $5.7 billion to fund the construction of a wall at the southern U.S. border with Mexico. The president argues this is essential for border security and claims the current situation is a crisis.
Democrats, who have a majority in the House, refuse to pass a budget that allocates any funding to the wall specifically, which they argue is expensive, ineffective, and a political gimmick responding to a border security crisis that does not exist.
Read more: Twitter roasts Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer over their Trump response
Before the shutdown began on December 22, Trump declared at a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, that he would be "proud" to close the government "for border security."
Democrats have offered more resources to improve border security, including new infrastructure, more personnel, and better technology, but Trump and the Republicans will not budge on wall funding. Trump said he would "take the mantle" for the shutdown.
However, patience with the shutdown is wearing thin as 800,000 federal employees are left unpaid, government contractors are losing money, and people who rely on public services are left waiting for everything to reopen when a bipartisan deal is eventually done.
The president said he is considering using his national emergency powers to expropriate the funding he needs for the wall, bypassing Congress altogether. He and other White House officials have repeatedly called the issue a "humanitarian and security crisis."
"We have to recognize something because my head's going to explode," Deutsch said during a discussion on Thursday's edition of Morning Joe. "He's winning here. You have to understand he's gonna open the government. He's gonna declare an emergency. He's gonna say the Democrats closed it. He's gonna put the Democrats into court.
"And what he's done is chipped at our democracy. But that's not gonna matter. I hope Chuck and Nancy today you're figuring it out because he's going to win this. This is absurd.
"He's going to say I opened the government, I took control, I put people back to work, I made us safer. Democrats, go. What do you do as Democrats?"
Deutsch later added: "I am President Trump, I hear you, I feel your pain, and that is why I'm declaring an emergency, and that's why I'm opening the government… And that's why we're all chumps."
As it stands, voters hold the GOP and Trump responsible for the shutdown. According to a Politico/Morning Consult poll, 52% of voters pointed the finger at Trump and Congressional Republicans. Just 33% said Democrats in Congress were mostly to blame.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more
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