Read: The president has a consistent pattern: Talk a big game, then back down

“After 36 days of spirited debate and dialogue, I have seen and heard from enough Democrats and Republicans that they are willing to put partisanship aside, I think, and put the security of the American people first,” he said. “I do believe they’re going to do that. They have said they are for complete border security, and they have finally and fully acknowledged that having barriers, fencing, or walls—or whatever you want to call it—will be an important part of the solution.”

In other words, Trump not only folded—sustaining all the political damage that he would have in December—but he did so only after a long, bruising shutdown that hurt his public approval and split off even some of his core supporters. This dubious strategy is in keeping with the president’s modus operandi. As I have written, Trump almost always folds. From tougher gun control to family separations at the border to negotiations with hostile actors (from Pyongyang to the Democratic caucus), the president talks a tough game and then generally gives in.

Trump’s desire for the wall is genuine. Hoping to make good on his central campaign promise, he has pursued the project with remarkable tenacity. Unfortunately for him, he has also pursued it with incompetence. After two years as president, Trump still evinces little understanding of how the government works. His vision of the presidency is entirely romantic and cinematic: The heroic chief executive uses the bully pulpit, and the rest of Washington gets in line. Trump is not the only president to underestimate the difficulty of getting things done, but it is surprising that after nearly two years in office, he still doesn’t recognize that simply demanding things without any plan won’t work.

Read: Trump can’t get what he wants and doesn’t know why

The deal to end the shutdown isn’t the first time Trump has been forced into agreeing to a stopgap funding bill he doesn’t like. In March 2018, he grudgingly signed a spending package that Congress sent him, having previously threatened a veto. The president said he agreed to approve the bill, despite his reservations, because it funded the military, but he was livid that he hadn’t gotten money for the wall.

“I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again,” Trump said. “I’m not going to do it again.”

As it turned out, that was just another one of the president’s many false statements.