‘She Crushed Him Like a Bug’

A defeated President Donald Trump has finally agreed to end his 35-day shutdown of the federal government, saying he will sign funding bills that will re-open the government. Those bills have no money for his border wall. In fact, he has caved to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, getting only what he would have gotten had he allowed the Senate to pass the bills the House passed over a month ago.

This is his second defeat since Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House just three weeks ago. President Trump went down in huge defeat over his demand to deliver the State of the Union address during the government shutdown.

Losing the shutdown war he waged for over a month, at the behest of far right wing pundits including Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, is a massive defeat for the President who promised for years he would “build the wall and Mexico will pay for it,” and later, promising to “own” the shutdown, and allow the government to stay closed for months or possibly years.

On social media, relief the shutdown will be over and federal employees will (hopefully) soon receive their paychecks was palpable, but so was the utter and sheer disdain for Trump. The mockery was intensely evident.

Take a look:

The worst deal maker in the history of Earth. — Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) January 25, 2019

So Trump is agreeing to the EXACT SAME DEAL he rejected 35 days ago. What a debacle. I’m so so sorry, America. — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 25, 2019

Live video of Nancy Pelosi arriving at the Captiol to reopen the government. pic.twitter.com/199R6dshNH — Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) January 25, 2019

When you have to argue that your signature proposal is not “medieval” you are definitely losing the political debate. pic.twitter.com/79OhTAatqa — Adam Best (@adamcbest) January 25, 2019

The Art of the Cave — Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) January 25, 2019

The Art of the Deal 1. Trump agrees to Pelosi’s demand to reopen government temporarily. 2. He gets no border wall funding. 3. He accepts Democrats’ argument that we don’t need a full border wall. 4. He accepts Democrats’ argument for modern border technology instead. pic.twitter.com/BaWcuOttrn — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 25, 2019

Trump: “I demand that you fund my wall!” Dems: “no.” Rose Garden press conference: Trump: “okay.” ART OF THE DEAL — Matthew Kick (@MatthewKick) January 25, 2019

Prediction: There will not be another shutdown during the Trump presidency. This one was too catastrophic and too big a defeat…and by defeat I mean a complete, 100%, total, utter and absolute defeat. It is petty to say @SpeakerPelosi won. But she crushed him like a bug. — David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) January 25, 2019

So much for Art of the Deal. Nancy Pelosi wins against Donald Trump twice in one week. #TrumpCaves pic.twitter.com/oOYTjgWDnt — Janet Shan (@hinterlandg) January 25, 2019

“He’s not going to sign a bill that doesn’t have money for the wall… if he gives in now, that’s the end of 2019 in terms of him being an effective president. That’s probably the end of his presidency.” – Lindsey Graham, January 2 — Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 25, 2019

“Deals are my art form.” Am reminded right now of the opening paragraph of TRUMP: THE ART OF THE DEAL: pic.twitter.com/iCvSjJEbhH — Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) January 25, 2019