President Trump just gave one of his conference table press availabilities in which he said a bunch of weird stuff. One example below: he said he thinks part of the problem with the pre-Trump border barriers (a mix of walls, fences, etc.) was that they weren’t beautiful enough. Bizarre. But for all the fireworks, what seemed clear was that President Trump has realized that he’s lost the budget stand off with Nancy Pelosi and will try to create a narrative in which the defeat is actually a victory.

Specifically, this likely will mean declaring a bogus “national emergency”, probably during the State of the Union address next week to allow him to take money from the military to build his border wall. That is an impeachment offense in itself. But it’s highly likely to get at least slowed down and quite possibly stopped in the courts. The issue here is less that it will get him his wall as it will provide an explanation for why he doesn’t try to force another government shutdown in the face of Pelosi’s refusal to give him his wall.