Pelosi v. Trump: Breaking down the shutdown battle
The 360 is a feature designed to show you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories.
Speed Read
Who: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vs. President Trump
What: Their ongoing battle over terms to end the shutdown. In a surprise retreat, Trump bowed to pressure from the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Friday and announced a deal had been reached to temporarily reopen the government on Day 35 of the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The pair has sparred viciously over which party was to blame for the shutdown. The Democratic House leader has consistently pushed a narrative that lands responsibility on the Republican president. The public seems to agree. Polls show a spike in Trump’s disapproval rating, while favorable ratings for Pelosi are on the rise.
In a recent parry in their very public battle of wills, Pelosi denied the president access to hold his annual State of the Union (SOTU) speech in the House chamber, as is traditional, until the government reopened. Congressional historians tell the Washington Post that this is the first time in U.S. history a House speaker has denied use of the chamber to the president for a SOTU speech. Pelosi said Friday afternoon that just because the federal government is open again doesn’t mean the speech will happen.
Some observers say that Pelosi, who has managed to unite factions within her party amid the shutdown, has outsmarted the president in the “Art of the Deal.”
Why: “Nothing matters” is how many of the president’s opponents have summed up his time in office so far. American civil and political traditions, they argue, are being discarded daily. Trump and his supporters, meanwhile, argue that the president’s actions are focused on the safety and protection of the nation.
But elections have consequences. With Democrats controlling the House after the 2018 midterm elections — and Pelosi back as speaker for a historic second turn — the more accurate mantra may be, “Everything matters.”
Perspectives
Trump lost. Pelosi won.
“You cannot get thumped any worse than Trump did on this encounter with Pelosi. Each step along the way, the president stumbled. … We are left with two final questions: Will there be serious primary challengers to Trump, who’s managed to prove his total incompetence? We’ll see. And will Pelosi get tired of winning? I think not.” — Jennifer Rubin,
“The Rose Garden capitulation, besides providing the capstone to Trump’s public disgrace, was an undeniable victory for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and a lesson about the new Washington power dynamic: The Donald has met his match.” – Alex Wagner,
“Trump’s decision to force this fight has both delivered him a loss and reset Washington’s expectations going forward. Pelosi is now the clear leader of the Democratic opposition, and she has shown herself more than Trump’s equal in a legislative showdown. She has enhanced her standing in her caucus, and he has diminished his standing inside his own. You don’t hear many House Democrats these days grumbling about Pelosi’s leadership. But you hear plenty of Republicans lamenting Trump’s.” — Ezra Klein,
A force to be reckoned with
“Many new members of the House were uncertain about voting for Pelosi to be their leader. She quickly quashed the insurgents. But now, in her first official confrontation with Trump, she has proven her chops to all of them. It is no wonder the President has been so reluctant to tweet about her or give her a demeaning nickname. He has seen his top opponent, and the President is scared.” — Julian Zelizer,
“But while Trump has snaked and slithered his way in and out of scandal, corruption and self-dealing his entire life, there’s one force that seems to truly destabilize him: a competent woman. Which is why, in the Trump era, there’s no better speaker of the House than Nancy Pelosi.” — Jill Filipovic,
Trump is not mastering the ‘Art of the Deal’
“Trump has never mastered the art of dealing with his own party in Congress, let alone the opposition. … In Congress, Pelosi’s home turf, the president is out of his league. … She knows how to do her job. Him, not so much. It’s not a fair fight.” — Doyle McManus,
“Trump’s repeated failure to negotiate wall funding for two years largely caused this shutdown. His recent missteps have extended it. Hundreds of thousands of government workers and contractors are now paying the price for his weak negotiation skills and ineffective strategies.” — Marty Latz,
The GOP deserves more blame
“At the very least, the congressional GOP deserves a larger portion of the blame, and its insistence that this is only a crisis now that it is not in charge should be added to the hypocrisy list alongside the Democrats’ sudden moral horror of walls.” — Jonah Goldberg,
The adult in the room … for both parties
“Pelosi deploys what she calls her ‘mother of five’ voice on our tantrum-prone president, perhaps in an effort to reparent him. But how do you discipline the world’s brattiest 72-year-old?” — Maureen Dowd,
“Pelosi will have to remain on the hunt and whip Democratic dissidents into order. … As it turns out, the White House may not be the only place that needs an adult in the room.” — Tiana Lowe,
She’s stealing the spotlight
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is driving President Trump nuts — a very short drive indeed — by doing something he simply cannot abide: She’s stealing the spotlight. … Trump is being knocked around by Pelosi, and, even more hurtful, the attention for now is on her.” — Eugene Robinson,
A new frontier
“Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues have made the calculation that the only way you deal with a president like Trump — and unlike every president who has held the office before him — is to go beyond where you would have thought you would be willing to go. To press to the political extremes and beyond, because you are dealing with a political opponent who has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to not just push the envelope but to act as though he is entirely unaware any sort of envelope exists.” — Chris Cillizza,
It’s all about optics
“Arguably, Trump’s tunnel vision in his quest to secure funding for the wall is alienating voters who aren’t among his core group of supporters and united Democrats in opposition to his plans. Meanwhile, Pelosi has been sending messages of sympathy to government workers impacted by the shutdown, particularly DEA, TSA and immigration officials who are responsible for keeping the country safe.” — Niall McCarthy,
“The chance to play hardball with the Speaker is something his base will embrace and, if he and his closest communications advisers are smart, they’ll recognize this for the opportunity it is. … Pelosi has ceded control of the optics. The Democrats can’t boo, can’t refuse to rise when the GOP offers standing ovations, and they can’t walk out en masse or even in small groups when he says something which strikes them as outrageous if they’re not there.” — Peter Roff,
What happens next
On Friday, as an estimated 800,000 federal workers missed a second paycheck and vital functions of the of the U.S. government increasingly faltered, Trump announced a deal to reopen the government until Feb. 15.
Noticeably absent in the deal, which includes back pay for workers, was money for a border wall. At an afternoon Rose Garden announcement, Trump said that he is still considering taking action if efforts in Congress to find money for his wall are unsuccessful. “I have a very powerful alternative, but I didn’t want to use it at this time,” he said.
Later, at a press conference alongside Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered this message: “No one should ever underestimate the speaker, as Donald Trump has learned.”
