WASHINGTON—Three years and a government shutdown later, it is still not clear how much U.S. President Donald Trump cares about building a giant wall on the Mexican border. What is clear is that he believes he benefits politically when he acts like he does.

His immigration instincts propelled him to the presidency. They may now be leading him astray.

Trump long ago tossed away his best opportunity to fund the wall he had implausibly promised Mexico would pay for, rejecting Democratic deals that would have given him a hefty pile of wall money. Last month, goaded by his allies in right-wing media, he embarked on a high-risk stunt: shutting down part of the U.S. government to try to coerce Democrats to give him a smaller pile of wall money.

Emboldened by their success in the November midterm election in which Trump also tried to pummel them on immigration, the Democrats are simply saying no. Eighteen days into the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history, Trump has no easy way out of a standoff the numbers suggest he is losing.

Polls have consistently shown that many more Americans blame Trump than Democrats for the shutdown. They have consistently shown that the wall is highly unpopular with everyone other than Republicans. And they have shown his approval rating at its lowest level in three months.

Seeking to shift the public conversation, Trump gave a prime-time televised speech on the wall on Tuesday night. The speech, Trump’s first formal Oval Office address, was intended to ratchet up the pressure on Democratic leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, from whom he is seeking a wall commitment of $5.7 billion (U.S.).

Read more:

Opinion | Rosie Dimanno: Again, Trump pushes his favourite fear buttons

Pence leads effort to fortify faltering GOP support in Congress

Top Democrats say Trump ‘has chosen fear’ in border battle

But Trump mostly stuck to the same rhetoric that hasn’t worked for him to date — except, this time, he did his demonizing of unauthorized immigrants in a sombre tone rather than the shouts of his rally speeches. Graphically describing several murders, he said Democrats had a moral duty to fund a “barrier” he insisted would solve “a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.”

“For those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask: imagine if it was your child, your husband or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken,” he said.

In a joint rebuttal speech, Schumer and Pelosi described the wall as unnecessary and accused Trump of appealing to fear rather than facts. Schumer also suggested Trump was being childish.

“We don’t govern by temper tantrum,” Schumer said.

Trump has been so dishonest about immigration that his mere request for television airtime set off a furious debate about media ethics, with critics arguing that broadcast executives were doing the public a disservice merely by giving this president unfiltered airtime.

The concerns proved justified. Among other things, Trump falsely claimed Democrats had asked him to build a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall (an alternative he came up with himself), falsely claimed a wall would be “indirectly” funded through his revised NAFTA deal (which has not been approved by Congress and could not fund a wall), falsely said Democrats would not pony up for “border security” (they have offered to pay for various security measures, just not a wall), and misleadingly suggested a wall would be a significant obstacle to smuggled heroin (most of which comes through legal ports of entry).

TOP STORIES. IN YOUR INBOX: For the day’s top news from the Star’s award-winning journalists, sign up for our daily headlines newsletter.

He did not take the opportunity to declare a national emergency, as he has mused about doing. An emergency declaration could allow him to tap into potential funding sources for the wall without having to get the usual congressional authorization.

It would also be certain to be challenged in court, likely turning into a long legal battle without an immediate winner. But that, some observers said, may be the best possible outcome for Trump at this point.

“At the moment I think it’s less about getting the wall built and more about getting out of this jam without being seen as capitulating,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist and a lobbyist.

The shutdown has denied pay to about 800,000 federal workers, some on involuntary leave and some working without pay. It has stopped or slowed hundreds of government activities, from inspections of government housing to the financing of home loans to cleanup services in national parks.

And it has produced a growing number of headlines in which Trump voters now struggling to pay their bills have complained that he is harming their lives without a good cause.

Republican members of Congress have slowly begun to indicate that they will not let Trump carry on the battle forever. Shortly before Trump’s address, CNN published an article in which West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito described the shutdown as “useless” and said she could “live” with a solution that funded the government and punted the wall debate to a later date, while Sen. Marco Rubio said he could “potentially” endorse such a solution.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The precariousness of Trump’s shutdown position has been evident in his dizzying rhetoric over the last month. While demanding that Democrats pony up the $5.7 billion he says he needs to get going on the wall, he has also insisted that the wall will pay for itself and that Mexico is paying for the wall. While promising Democrats that he would build the wall out of “steel slats” rather than the concrete he has long described, though Democrats’ objections are not about the material, he has also insisted “an all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED.”

His very premise for the Tuesday speech — an illegal immigration “crisis” — was dubious at best, immigration policy experts say. Government figures do not suggest anything close to a crisis-level influx of unauthorized immigrants; the number of people apprehended crossing the Mexican border, which U.S. officials use as a proxy measure for how many people are trying to cross in total, is a quarter what it was two decades ago.

There may be a crisis in the government’s inability to handle a record high number of families crossing the border and legally claiming asylum. That, however, is not something that can be addressed by a wall.

Read more about: