Today marks the last day of the Trump-Ryan-McConnell era of unified Republican government in Washington, which, despite the immense political power wielded by three men between whom there exists near-perfect ideological alignment, will still conclude in the midst of a two-week government shutdown of their own creation. From this point forward, whenever the president makes a mess that requires legislative attention, he'll have to place a call to the Speaker of the House's office, and then plead with Nancy Pelosi for helping cleaning it up.

The last real shutdown, which occurred in January of last year, came to a quiet end after only three days, when Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer frittered away what little power he had during the still-unresolved debate over the future of DACA recipients. This iteration, however, has no end in sight, because Donald Trump spent two years crowing about the inevitability of the border wall without making a contingency plan for the point at which one of the legislature's two chambers could meaningfully oppose its construction. "Build that wall" is a great slogan with which to celebrate a victory. As a policy argument, it is less effective.

Thus, before the holidays, as he prepared to sign a wall-free continuing resolution that would have kept the lights on through February 8, Trump realized for the first time that doing so would mean he'd have to hammer out the next funding package with Pelosi on the other side of the negotiating table. And as incompetent as Paul Ryan had proven himself to be at the task of delivering a bill that Trump found palatable, Pelosi would be even less likely to deliver anything that meets his exacting, xenophobic standards. And so he hunkered down in the White House over Christmas, and spent New Year's Eve tweeting through it.

There is no obvious solution to the pickle in which Trump finds himself here. (Unless someone like Schumer gifts him one, which is always a distinct possibility.) But barring that, the only way for him to avoid the unpleasant consequences of his actions is to put them off, one day at a time. As long as this shutdown continues, he can keep selling the dream of a glorified fence on every Fox News program that will give him free airtime.

The president's obstinance has also put his fellow Republicans in a tough spot, because they have also spent the last two years appeasing the base by stumping for this element of his agenda. As a result, the GOP is splintered into two camps: One is populated by Washington stalwarts like Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley, who find themselves in the absurd position of holding the government hostage over a multibillion-dollar debacle that they know is bad for the country and their party's future. Graham, whose every action should be viewed through the lens of the 2020 primary challenge of which he lives in terror, recently justified his stubbornness by explaining that the wall has become a "metaphor" for "border security," which is (1) not what "metaphor" means and (2) as transparent as a disclosure of one's own terminal vacuousness can get.

The other, which is comprised of opportunists like Jeff "Old Jeff Flake" Flake and Mitt "New Jeff Flake" Romney, is trying to fill the looming leadership crisis by making highfalutin appeals to reason—except that within the party of Trump, their stars have fallen too far for their words to have any effect. (Also, they have their own histories of selective anti-Trump rhetoric to deal with.) Republicans who still have political capital have prevented themselves from doing the sensible thing and finding a compromise; those without it can't even get their own family members to take them seriously.

None of this bodes well for the task at hand, which is facilitating the expedient conclusion of a shutdown that is having increasingly dire consequences, especially among the most vulnerable Americans. But with the 115th Congress coming to a close, Trump has squandered his last, best opportunity to secure anything in the eventual deal that will resemble the border security package he wants. It is a dilemma for which he has no one but himself to blame, and Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic caucus have earned the right to resolve it however they see fit.