Fresh from putting a truckload of icepacks on the burn he’s surely suffering after being the first to blink during the Great Government Showdown Shutdown of 2018, Sen. Chuck Schumer is reportedly withdrawing his offer to support funding for Trump’s border wall – the latest in a series of back-and-forths by the Democratic minority leader on immigration and border security.
Chuck Schumer is taking his big spending boost for Donald Trump’s border wall off the table.
The Senate minority leader, through an aide, informed the White House on Monday that he was retracting the offer he made last week to give Trump well north of the $1.6 billion in wall funding Trump had asked for this year, according to two Democrats. And now they say Trump will simply not get a better deal than that on his signature campaign promise.
Schumer “took it off,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “He called the White House yesterday and said it’s over.”
In the now-famous cheeseburger summit last Friday with Trump, Schumer offered a large increase in border wall spending as a condition for a broader deal to help Dreamers. But after that offer was rebuffed — prompting the three-day government shutdown — the president has now “missed an opportunity to get the wall,” one Democratic aide said.
It’s not clear whether Schumer changed his mind after being relentlessly railroaded by his base for caving on last weekend's three-day government shutdown, or if he ever planned to support funding for the wall in the first place. Or, as a viable Option #3, whether this is simply the most recent 180 in the everlasting saga that is Schumer’s stance on immigration (must be Tuesday).
Either way, one thing’s for sure: without funding for a border wall and increased border security, Republicans – and Trump – are unlikely to agree to an immigration deal that includes amnesty for DACA recipients, meaning the “Currently Closed” sign may soon reappear on the government’s taxpayer-funded doors.