Ezra Klein:
If Donald Trump wanted the wall, he'd have negotiated away something of value to get it. Or at least tried to do so.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) January 8, 2019
He doesn't want the wall. He wants the fight over the wall. He wants to be seen going to war over the wall. That's what tonight is about.
It's true that he wants the fight, but that doesn't mean he has no interest in the wall. He wants the fight and the wall. What he wants is to win the fight, which means Democrats lose, and lose badly.
In this he's just being a typical Republican: To the GOP, anything that pleases Democrats is an abomination, and must be avoided at all costs. Following this rule, Trump couldn't have "negotiated away something of value to get" the wall. The end result would be intolerable to Republican voters: No liberal tears!
Trump can't act in a way that would bring shame upon himself in the eyes of the people he most wants to please (the GOP base, Sean Hannity, etc.). They expect him not to cede anything to Democrats -- and Trump assumes they expect him, the master of the deal, to cut a deal in which he wins everything and the other side wins nothing. Fortunately, refusing to continue the game and whining about the whole process garners him nearly as much respect from his side as absolute victory would. So that's where we are.
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