Donald Trump Reportedly Furious Over Bad Television Coverage Of Shutdown, Laments That He’s Getting ‘Crushed’
Donald Trump is reportedly angry at television coverage of the government shutdown, believing he is getting “crushed” as the majority of the blame for the ongoing stalemate has fallen on him.
A report this week from the New York Times shows that while Trump has remained strong in his public stance demanding funding for the border wall, in private, he has lamented the hits he has taken on television over it.
“We are getting crushed!” Trump reportedly said as he watched cable news.
Trump also openly questioned why he couldn’t come to an agreement with Democrats, reportedly asking, “Why can’t we get a deal?”
Critics have said that Trump is offering nothing to Democrats to entice them to the negotiating table, simply demanding more than $5 billion in border wall funding without adding anything that Democrats might want as well, like an extension of the DACA program.
Trump has also been accused of using bullying tactics rather than attempting to find common ground with Democrats. In one meeting, Trump reportedly stormed out when Nancy Pelosi told him that Democrats had no plans to offer him funding for the border wall. He later took to Twitter to mock the Democratic leadership.
Even some of Donald Trump’s traditional allies have turned on him as the government shutdown drags on. This week, Fox News published a column on the front page of its website saying that Democratic leaders have a better beat on what Americans want, and it’s not a border wall. Writer Leslie Marshall noted that most Americans polled say they do not want a border wall and that Nancy Pelosi is now more popular than Trump.
“While most voters believe there is a border crisis, they don’t feel Trump’s border wall will solve the problem, echoing the sentiments of the Democratic leadership,” she wrote. “Add in that Trump’s approval ratings stand at 41 percent, the lowest since September, while his disapproval rating is 54 percent, the highest it’s been since September. Plus the fact that for the first time in his presidency, he is less popular than Nancy Pelosi, his main adversary.”
The effects of the shutdown have reached further into the U.S. economy as well, keeping government employees out of work, hurting companies that contract with the government, and even jeopardizing the SNAP benefit program and tax returns.
"We are getting crushed!" Despite his public bravado, President Trump is said to be frustrated with aides and a shutdown with no end in sight. https://t.co/MLne10rPRv
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 17, 2019
Donald Trump has floated the idea of declaring a national emergency in order to secure the funding needed to start construction on the border wall, but critics said this would likely be challenged in court.
