Someone in the news media finally asked the White House an uncomfortable question — no, not Jim Acosta, whose only question is, “Are we fake news, Mr. President,” said with a daring stare — and it came from “Fox & Friends” of all places.

On President Trump’s favorite program Wednesday, co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade, and Steve Doocy confronted White House adviser Kellyanne Conway with the depressing truth that Trump, employing his legendary cut-throat negotiating skills, had just embarrassed himself in trying to get what amounted to pennies in border wall funding.

“[P]eople who voted for him and want the wall, went to the polls to vote for that wall, they want to know how he’s going to do this and they want to know why he seems to be softening his stance this morning,” asked Earhardt.

Conway replied with a preposterous claim that Trump “is not softening his stance” and then she did what Democrats have been doing: Insist that a wall isn’t as important as some vague assurance about “border security.”

She might as well have come out in favor of “a woman’s right to choose,” “common sense gun reform” and other Democratic positions, the true intentions of which are forever masked by doublespeak.

The Democrats, are saying loud and clear that they do not want to build a Concrete Wall - but we are not building a Concrete Wall, we are building artistically designed steel slats, so that you can easily see through it.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018



“[T]he border is so porous,” said Conway. “All it’s done is gotten worse since those Democrats voted for border security 12 years ago. It’s only gotten worse. So this president’s not going to back down from that. And he will continue to fight for that funding. It’s not just a wall. He said in a tweet over night.”

Well, the president did address the wall in a set of tweets, and it was essentially yet more backing down on his signature campaign promise. “[W]e are not building a Concrete Wall, we are building artistically designed steel slats, so that you can easily see through it,” he said.

Don’t you feel better now?

The “wall” is now “steel slats.” The White House last month proudly sent out photos of said steel slats, calling it a wall. I guess those awe-inspiring wall prototypes we saw photographed in San Diego back in March were simply placed in some dump, right next to Trump’s regard for his supporters.

Those walls were nearly indestructible. We know now that they were scrapped in favor of steel slats that look like something you might let your children play safely behind. But the southern border isn’t in a Minnesota suburb. It’s up against Mexico, where drugs and immigrants are aggressively pushed into the country, overwhelming what little security we currently have.

Trump said on camera last week that he would be “proud” to partially shut down the federal government if he can’t secure $5 billion from Congress for his border wall. He set himself up for failure and with the Dec. 21 deadline to pass a new spending bill approaching, he’s accepting defeat.

Trump blew it, and now he’s not even pretending that he wants to do what he told his supporters he would. If it’s any consolation, at least they all have a new chant for his rallies: “BUILD THE STEEL SLATS!”