Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin told Fox News on Wednesday that President Trump caved on border wall funding to avoid a government shutdown, joining several other conservative media pundits in criticizing the president over negotiations.
“Well, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to spin it. I wish I could but I can’t. This is a cave. This was a blink,” Malkin told “Fox and Friends.”
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“Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy had suggested House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) “won” after the White House on Tuesday said it was taking border wall funding off the negotiating table with Democrats.
“We have to hold the Republicans [accountable], particularly [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell, who has been in office since 1984 and has never been able to get this deal done because he is afraid of a shutdown,” Malkin added.
“But now look at what the White House is forced to do: scrounge around for $600 million in the defense budget in order to fund a puny 100 miles? As if border security is an afterthought?”
Malkin’s perspective was echoed by many prominent voices on the right, including the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro and conservative firebrand Ann Coulter.
“It’s a pretty gutless move for the administration to back down from a fight over the wall after revving up Republicans for precisely that fight,” wrote Shapiro in a Tuesday column.
“Especially since back in January, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was forced to back down from his own shutdown attempt while trying to push President Trump to grant amnesty to so-called DREAMers.”
Separately, Coulter declared she would not vote for Trump in 2020 if no progress is made on the wall by 2020.
In a podcast interview with the Daily Caller, Coulter blasted the Trump presidency, saying it will have been a “joke” without the wall.
“Why would you [vote for him again]?” she said. “To make sure, I don’t know, Ivanka [Trump] and Jared [Kushner] can make money? That seems to be the main point of the presidency at this point.”
“They’re about to have a country where no Republican will ever be elected president again,” added Coulter, author of the 2016 book “In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!”
“Trump will just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populists for a while, but he’ll have no legacy whatsoever.”
Trump originally threatened a government shutdown if a spending bill did not include $5 billion to pay for the border wall, but the White House began talking about other funding options on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated he will move a stopgap measure funding the government until Feb. 8.