TRUMP CAN SURVIVE MULTIPLE INVESTIGATIONS MORE EASILY THAN HE CAN SURVIVE NO WALL

This was the headline at Breitbart an hour ago:



I can't imagine worse optics for a president whose support derives overwhelmingly from white nationalism and xenophobia, although it seems as if he has no choice:

President Trump on Tuesday retreated from his demand for $5 billion to build a border wall, as congressional Republicans maneuvered to avoid a partial government shutdown before funding expires at the end of Friday....

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday said Trump did not want a government shutdown and that the administration had identified “other ways” to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border....

With Democrats near-unanimously opposing Trump’s demand for $5 billion for the wall, Republicans lacked a path to pass it because they could not assemble the 60 Senate votes needed to advance a Homeland Security spending bill.

I don't know what "other ways" there are to fund the wall -- wall bonds? crowdfunding? cryptocurrency? -- but Trump's unshakable base might finally begin to abandon him if he can't persuade them that he'll get it built eventually. Investigations and associates' guilty pleas seem to be the biggest threats to Trump, but his approval numbers are likely to be unbudgeable as long as the deplorables think he'll deliver on his promises, with the wall being Promise #1. If they lose faith in him on this subject, his support within his party may drop so fast that even GOP lawmakers will be willing to defy him.

And on the same day Trump is caving on the wall, there's also this:

The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a final rule that bans so-called bump stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire more rapidly, saying tens of thousands of them around the country must be destroyed or surrendered to federal law enforcement....

The rule will take effect after 90 days, a senior Justice Department officials told reporters, explaining, “At that point, it will be illegal to have a bump stock–type device. They will be considered a machine gun.”

“We expect most owners will comply with the law and follow instructions or hand them in to ATF," the official added.

Many gun owners don't even like bump stocks, but when it comes to guns and shooting accessories, they despise being told what to do, especially when the law seems to require confiscation. Here's some of the reaction at Free Republic:

Practically no one will turn them in.

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Ultra-socialist Massachusetts did the same thing — letter in the mail (to every license-holder since they didn’t know who even had bumpstocks) ordering you to turn it in at the local PD. No option for reimbursement.

Admirable move, Donald. Following in the footsteps of Mass.

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Is he King now?

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Shame on Trump for doing anything to appease the gun takers. What is needed is for licensed holders to be able to travel interstate without committing a crime.

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He is officially a one term president.

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He's doing something so illegal even the Obama Administration refrained from doing it.

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We have gone from “Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings” to “Every time a nut commits Murder using a Gun we lose our God Given Rights”.

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The couple of times I used a friend’s, I was very unimpressed, so I don’t know why serious owners were buying them.

With that said, I expect more than a few owners will claim they were stolen from their trucks or were accidentally dropped into a lake or pond.

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This will cause many otherwise law abiding American citizens to become felons by default. Next thing likely to harm Americans is the new bill to allow violent and career thugs to be released from prison early and many newly minted criminals to not be sent to prison when Trump signs the pending Prison Sentencing guideline reform legislation and reportedly costing tax payers an additional $850,000,000 yearly.

Is Trump trying to knock himself out of the next election? I for one am having to reevaluate just how much I can continue to support this President with his growing penchant for supporting liberal positions and causes.

Donald Trump isn't a smart man, but I thought he was better that this at keeping his base satisfied. He's really slipping.