Former “Never Trump” conservative commentator Kurt Schlichter, who since the 2016 election has transformed into one of the President Donald Trump’s fiercest supporters, is confident the president will win the ongoing border security/government shutdown battle so long as he sticks it out til the end.

“The longer the shutdown goes, the better. At the end, I think Donald Trump’s going to win,” he confidently asserted during a debate Saturday on Fox News, later adding, “This is a bet I want to take.”

Schlichter’s debate opponent, California Democrat Party activist Ryan Skolnick, disagreed. When asked by Fox host Leland Vitter whether refusing to budge might hurt Democrats, he said no.

Listen to part one of the debate below:

“[E]verything is showing right now that Donald Trump is losing right now, not the Democrats,” he claimed. “The reason that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are so emboldened … they are emboldened because they see that the majority of Americans don’t want a wall. They don’t consider this a crisis.”

That’s not necessarily true. Internal polling data by the president’s 2020 campaign team reportedly shows him enjoying the best approval and favorability numbers of his political career. Older mainstream polls likewise showed “broad support” for the president’s overall immigration policies.

Moreover, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll published Sunday morning found that support for the president’s desired southern U.S. border wall has reached an all-time high of 42 percent.

“With 54 percent, the majority poll still oppose building a border wall. However, that opposition is shrinking, as 63 percent opposed the wall a year ago and the previous low was 60 percent two years ago,” the Washington Examiner noted.

It seems — as Schlichter suggested earlier — that the longer the shutdown continues, and the more time Trump has to explain the need for a border wall to the public, the more in-line with his tough but fair immigration policies the public inevitably becomes.

Listen to part two of the debate below:

Despite these facts, Skolnick claimed “nobody” wants a border wall “because … most people realize this, or are starting to, immigration across the southern border illegally has been at a net negative for a few years now so the entire idea that this is a crisis is kind of a miss.”

Except in recent years, the U.S. has seen a record uptick in illegal immigrant families — versus just single adult males — trying to cross the border. These families require far more resources by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to apprehend and deal with.

“I don’t think there’s any rush to compromise right now,” the far-left activist added.

Schlichter certainly agreed with that sentiment.

“This is a bet I want to take. I want to see who’s going to win this. I want to see if border security is a winning argument as opposed to surrender,” he retorted.

But Vitter then interjected to note that this strategy allegedly failed last year.

“In 2018 at the end of the midterms, they tried to turn it to an argument of border security and Republicans lost 40 seats in the house,” he argued.

“President Trump came in with a specific promise. I’m going to secure the border,” Schlichter replied.

And congressional Republicans repeatedly failed to meet that promise, choosing to capitulate to Democrat demands over and over again instead of fighting for the president’s wall.

In fact, some congressional Republicans are continuing to cave:

Waste of breath – if Dems won’t listen when gov is shutdown, wasted effort to try after you open it. But you knew that & don’t care about Americans. No surprise, ‘Republican’ Susan Collins wants Senate to take up Democrats’ funding bill, caves on border https://t.co/9FglsADw5U — ??NotUnderdog⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@NotUnderdog) January 8, 2019

Meanwhile, far-leftists like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and even Skolnick refuse to budge even an iota or agree to any grand compromises.

One such compromise would reportedly entail the Republicans offering protections for DACA recipients in exchange for the funding the president seeks to build a border wall.

Regarding this potential compromise, the far-left activist again said no.

“What we see you [Republicans] doing by pushing this is weaponizing refugees and people seeking asylum against DACA recipients, which is simply immoral,” he whined.

The debate concluded with Schlicter maintaining that, one, he too is against a DACA compromise, and two, urging furloughed federal workers to contact their Democrat representatives.

“Look, I think government workers who are largely Democrats ought to consult with their Democrat representatives and tell them, agree to what the president promised,” he said. “Agree to border security. Agree to defending the country.”

“And no DACA amnesty. If you are an illegal alien, go home. There’s my compromise. Obey the law.”

Fair enough.