People poorly served by both sides of aisle

Americans have been poorly served by their president, by the Republicans and by the Democrats over the past month.

Donald Trump’s backdown on the shutdown will hurt his standing with his conservative base. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump was right to back down on his border wall demands in order to end the federal government shutdown but the decision will hurt his standing with conservative Republicans.

The President had little choice but to accept a short-term political defeat to end the 34-day shutdown.

The country’s airports were struggling to operate as unpaid federal workers called in sick while some 800,000 workers had already gone without paychecks for more than a month.

Trump’s popularity was bleeding badly, with two in three Americans blaming him for the fiasco. If it had gone on, Trump would only have inflated more damage on his own standing. Yet his decision to back down has also attracted criticism from his conservative base.

The burning question is what attitude will the newly empowered Democrats under house Speaker Nancy Pelosi take towards the wall between now and 15 February, when a new deal must be negotiated.

If the Democrats are serious about getting a workable solution, then they will suggest a package that includes a modest amount of funding for a wall plus a range of other border security measures.

This would not be inconsistent with their past actions in 2006 when Democrat leaders supported a bill that led to fencing being built across almost a third of the southern border with Mexico.

But there is a very real chance that the Democrats now smell blood over the border wall issue. It was Trump’s central election promise in 2016 and by continually denying any funding for a wall, the Democrats would force the President to seek re-election in 2020 without having achieved his main promise.

This would harm Trump’s support base and his own credibility. His decision at the weekend to back down in order to end the shutdown has already angered many conservative commentators. That’s why Trump is fighting so hard for his wall.

But if the Democrats block him again, the President’s options are limited. He could try to shut down the government again but that would be unpopular and may not even be supported by his own party. Or he could declare a national emergency on border security. This would be an apparent misuse of national emergency protocols because there is not — by any historical measure — a national emergency at the border. The measure would therefore be challenged in court by Democrats and others. But — if approved by the courts — the move would allow Trump to build a wall using Defence Department funds rather that seek approval from congress.

Otherwise, Trump’s options to build his wall look bleak without some form of compromise from the Democrats, who now hold the majority in the house.

The past month has been arguably the worst of the Trump presidency. He misjudged the resolve of the Democrats to oppose the wall and he overreached by insisting that money for the wall be attached to the funding bills required to keep the government open. Even when it was clear that the President was cornered by his own strategy, he tried to bluff his way out for almost five weeks, leaving 800,000 federal workers with no pay cheques.

Americans have been poorly served by their President, by the Republicans and by the Democrats over the past month. Let’s hope the next few weeks lead to an outbreak of common sense.