As you’ve probably heard, Donald Trump wants to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to build a wall on the border of Mexico that security experts say will do nothing to stop illegal immigration “unless [it] is 35,000 feet high.” That the wall will be a colossal waste of money is, of course, of little import to Trump, who simply wants to be able to say he made good on his campaign promise to erect such an edifice to keep “criminals” out of the country, even if it does no such thing. And with the clock running down on his ability to tick that box before Democrats take control of the House, he’s evidently decided that there’s no time like Christmas to shut down the federal government unless Congress produces $5 billion to construct his little fence A.S.A.P.

On Thursday, after the Senate unanimously passed a spending bill the night prior to keep the government funded through February 8, President Temper Tantrum told outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan that he would not sign any legislation that didn’t include funding for his wall. “We just had a very long, productive meeting with the president,” Ryan told reporters outside the White House after holing up with Trump for more than an hour. “The president informed us that he will not sign the bill that came up from the Senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security.” In a statement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed faux concern for the country, saying, “We protect nations all over the world, but Democrats are unwilling to protect our nation. We urgently need funding for border security, and that includes a wall.”

Interestingly, Trump’s new position represents a complete reversal from his stance just two days prior, when the White House indicated that, after months of bloviating, the president “[didn’t] want to shut down the government,” and that “there are certainly a number of different funding sources that we’ve identified that we can use, that we can couple with money that would be given through congressional appropriations that would help us get to that $5 billion that the president needs.” With that semi-reasonable approach relegated to the trash heap, Ryan has said he will “go back to the House and work with our members” to find a solution that includes wall funding—despite the fact that Representative Nancy Pelosi has said such a bill would be a “non-starter,” and would also very likely be shot down in the Senate, where, according to reports, at least half of G.O.P. lawmakers have already gone home!

Meanwhile, as the likes of Steve Scalise scold reporters for factually stating that the House is unlikely to have the votes to pass a bill that includes Trump’s $5 billion ransom, other Republicans are in the laughing-to-avoid-crying stage of the whiplash-inducing s--t-show Trump has put them in:

Also on Thursday, Trump basically made the argument that the wall is . . . unnecessary?

While it’s still unclear whether the president’s tantrum will, in fact, result in a government shutdown, rest assured that noted policy expert Rush Limbaugh will be the first to know:

If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.