US President Donald Trump announced he would re-open the government for three weeks to begin negotiations on border security. Credit:AP And then – with his poll numbers plummeting and some of the nation's busiest airports in chaos – he did exactly that. Trump may have been wearing an overcoat for his appearance in the Rose Garden. But he revealed himself, for the second time in a week, to be the President with No Clothes. As Trump finished his speech, Americans around the country turned and asked each other the same question: what was the point of all that? After 35 days of the shutdown, Trump has emerged with nothing to show for it. Nothing, that is, except for lower approval numbers, an angry conservative base and his reputation as a master dealmaker in tatters.

Loading Trump's handling of the shutdown has been inept from the very beginning. It all started with his famous December meeting with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, in which he said he would be proud to take ownership of a shutdown. That deprived Republicans of the opportunity to blame Democrats for the impasse. Trump then gave a surprisingly flat nationally-televised address that failed to convince Americans they were in the grip of a border crisis. A supposed peace offer last weekend was so one-sided it was rejected before Trump could even announce it.

While Trump emerges from the shutdown as a reduced figure, Pelosi's reputational stocks are through the roof. It's hard to believe it was only a few weeks ago that she was seen by many in the party as a liability who should move aside for a younger replacement. At every stage of the shutdown, she has outmanoeuvred Trump – including when she called his bluff this week by cancelling his State of the Union address. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi this week blocked President Donald Trump from giving his State of the Union address to Congress. Credit:AP After insisting he would show up next Tuesday, Trump caved and agreed to postpone the speech. With the government now re-open for three weeks, Trump has a chance to start again and salvage something from this self-inflicted mess. His preference is for Congress to deliver him a solution that allows him to claim victory and move on. Otherwise, he is likely to declare a national emergency and build the wall anyway – a controversial move that would instantly be challenged in court.