Talk radio host and conservative tastemaker Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday lamented what he described as President Donald Trump “caving” on his demands for funding for a border wall.
“I’m not happy to have to pass this on,” Limbaugh said, according to the show’s transcript. “I’m very, very troubled to have to pass this on. And I want to say at the outset that I hope my interpretation is wrong, and I hope this is not the case. But it looks like, from here, right here, right now, it looks like President Trump is caving on his demand for a measly $1 billion in the budget for his wall on the border with Mexico.”
He added: “The Democrats seem to have successfully used this stupid, silly threat of a government shutdown to get their way.”
Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has repeatedly said that Democrats would refuse to fund the government before the deadline Friday if the funding bill includes money for a wall.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not explicitly say Tuesday that the President had dropped his demand for wall funding in the stopgap bill, but he repeatedly referred to the next fiscal year, beginning in October.
“The President’s priorities are clear for FY17,” he said during his daily briefing. “There’s a lot of things that we can do in the remaining months up until the end of September for planning and making sure that we get everything that we need — funding that we need for that aspect of things — and then as we go into FY18, we’ll continue to ask for more.”
Fox News reported Tuesday, according to two unnamed sources who attended a meeting of conservative journalists with the President Monday afternoon, that Trump told the group he would be willing to delay funding for the wall until September.
Trey Yingst of the conservative One America News Network tweeted Monday that Trump had said as much during the meeting, and an unnamed White House official confirmed the comment to Bloomberg.
Publicly, Trump has put on a brave face during the turmoil:
Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017
“I use the word ‘cave’ guardedly,” Limbaugh added later in the show. “Trump, I’m sure, does not ever think he caves on anything. But outward appearances are what they are. And the bottom line is that if he is willing to withdraw a demand of his for a measly billion dollars for the wall because the Democrats are threatening a shutdown then the Democrats will have just learned that this threat works on Trump, too, not just all the other Republicans.”
H/t Political Wire
Rush isn’t exactly Walter Cronkite, but it is reasonable to say that if you have lost Rush…
Ah, hell, one has lost nothing. Rush is a loser.
Sorry Rush, but nobody cares about you, Alex Jones is the new conservative star-child.
Rush is still alive?
Trump: I am building a wall underground fully funded by Mexico and under Putin’s oversight. In 2020, just after my POTUS victory, I will pop the entire 2 Million miles of the wall in one day. Its all automated. The wall goes up and down based on who wants to go in/out. Just Amazing!
Still, it is very helpful that Rush, of all people, is furthering this narrative - caving is not a good look for the Orange Occupant.