Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:49 pm

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Trump has weakened himself and made soon to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stronger as his government shutdown has badly backfired.

Eli Stokols reported on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House:

What we’ve been hearing from the white house over the last 24 hours, I’ve been hearing conversations with people today is that they are trying to sort of pin a lot of the blame on Nancy Pelosi and say he’s not going to deal until she gets the speaker vote so she’s the obstructionist here, even more so than Senator Schumer. The leader for the Democrats in the Senate. But the reality, as you point out is that Nancy Pelosi was strengthened by that meeting that she and Schumer had in the oval office a couple weeks ago when she took the president’s lunch, ate it right in front of him in front of the TV cameras, walked out and, became an internet meme.

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She’s been elevated and strengthened by that and this president who has been forced to stay in Washington for the most part over the holidays has been consuming a lot of news. He’s sensitive to that. Sensitive to the narrative that the president got played. He got taken. He lost his own leverage in that meeting and they’re trying to get it back. The people telling him that he’s in a strong position are the people who have always remained in the president’s orbit by telling him what he wants to hear. The reality is these are negotiations that they are trying to have. They are blaming the Democrats for not coming to the table over the break but, really, this is somewhere between $1.3 billion in border funding and somewhere in the $2 billion range that ultimately is the reason the government is shut down.

Nancy Pelosi is stronger, and Trump is reeling

Trump shut the government down because he was trying to show his base that he was strong and tough, but what happened was that he got taken to school by Nancy Pelosi. Trump’s attempts to blame Pelosi are only elevating her and making the incoming Speaker stronger. Trump should have accepted the deal that was on the table.[mashtweet tweet=”Trump’s attempts to blame Pelosi are only elevating her and making the incoming Speaker stronger. Trump should have accepted the deal that was on the table.” text=”” username=”@politicususa”]

He will now have to deal with a strong Nancy Pelosi who has Democrats unified behind her. The longer that the Trump shutdown goes, the stronger Nancy Pelosi becomes.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association