Earlier this month, Congress avoided a shutdown of the federal government by passing a $1 trillion spending bill, keeping the lights on through September. For a few weeks prior, Donald Trump had been threatening to veto any bill that didn’t include money for his extremely expensive, wildly unpopular wall on the border of Mexico, among other boondoggles. A “good shutdown” was just what the country needed Trump tweeted, menacingly, from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, as the deliberations went on. Yet when the final bill hit his desk, he did indeed put his signature on the bottom, which most people would agree was a wise move. With a first 100 days that could generally be summed up as a failure, allowing the federal government to shut down wouldn’t have been a great look. Amazingly, though, Trump reportedly had to be convinced of that point, and it took former speaker of the House John Boehner temporarily stepping out of retirement to do so. Per Axios:

When the spending bill had been negotiated and finalized, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus phoned the former House Speaker John Boehner and told him the president doesn't like how the negotiation came out and is thinking about vetoing the bill. Boehner has told associates that Priebus asked him if he could talk Trump into signing the spending bill. Boehner said he would. Ten minutes later, Boehner's phone rang. It was the President. Boehner made a couple different arguments to Trump about why he should sign the spending bill: 1. He told Trump he should be happy about the fact that he doesn't have to give a dollar of domestic spending in exchange for increases in military spending. And he got a substantial boost in military spending. 2. The most important argument Boehner made: the last thing you need right now is a government shutdown.

That Trump needed the latter pointed out to him might be stunning, but let’s remember this is the same guy who, about two weeks later, thought the Democrats would be thrilled when he fired the man investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia.