"THE STATE OF THE UNION IS NOT FOR LIBERAL OBSTRUCTIONISTS," the letter from the president blares in characteristic bolded all-caps. "IT IS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!"

President Trump's joint fundraising committee blasted out an email blasting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for “illegitimately ‘disinviting’” the president from making his State of the Union address. Then Trump asked his supporters for some money.

“Americans DEMAND the truth, so we need to make a CLEAR STATEMENT and raise $1,OOO,OOO by Midnight TONIGHT to show your support for Border Security (the REAL security concern),” reads the kicker. Small donors are obviously the target because the note then includes options to contribute anywhere from $5 to $20 dollars.

Direct deposits into the war chest of the president will not budge Pelosi, of course. They will bolster the Trump re-election effort. More than that, they give a good insight into his shutdown thinking.

Trump is making the most of the current crisis. He sees it as beneficial. His primary goal isn’t the wall — he knows as well as anyone that the requested $5 billion won’t pay for nearly enough steel slats to wall off the southern border anyway. Instead, Trump is fighting with 2020 in mind.

The wall was a core promise second only to that more fundamental pledge that Trump would be different. He would fight. By keeping the government dark, he is doing as much now. And Republicans like it. Polling shows that while the rest of the country thinks Trump is to blame for the shutdown, GOP voters are becoming ever more supportive of the wall.

Hence the return of that “chaos candidate” of 2016 yore. Trump is tearing up D.C., and to the delight of his supporters he is fulfilling a brand promise. He might as well fundraise off the chaos.