Remember that bipartisan immigration get-together he held back in January? When he begged members of Congress to pass “a bill of love” that would take care of those very same Dreamers? It was a swell moment. After which, the alien floated away, Trump retracted everything and made the famous remark about people from “shithole” countries.

During the spending negotiations, maybe the alien entity was taking Trump on a visit to other dimensions. That would explain why the president had absolutely no clue as to what had been going on during the meetings, which had been attended by members of his staff.

When it came time for the threatened veto, Trump transformed again, announcing he had to sign the spending plan because it included desperately needed funds for the military. But to prevent anything this dreadful from ever happening in the future, Trump added that he was “calling on Congress to give me a line-item veto for all government spending bills.” After members of the House and Senate finished rolling around on the floor laughing, the world moved forward.

Except for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who told a Fox interviewer that he thought it would indeed be a good idea to allow the president to wipe out any pieces of the congressional budget that he didn’t like. When informed that line-item veto power had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Mnuchin said, “Well, again, Congress could pass a rule, O.K., that allows them to do it.”

This is an administration that goes through high-ranking officials like Raisinettes at a movie. And yet Steve Mnuchin is still here.

So the spending negotiations were a disaster for the wall warriors. “How about going to Mexico and getting them to pay for it?” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cruelly.

We have listened to several conversations between Trump and the president of Mexico on this subject, all of which can be translated into:

Trump: “Look, all I’m asking is that you just don’t say you won’t pay for it.

President of Mexico: “Hahahaha. …”