Marc Thiessen: Yes, Trump lost the shutdown. Here's the one way he can get his leverage backDemocrats are standing firm in opposition to a border wall, but they have also been at pains to argue that they are not weak on border security. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., say Democrats support “smart, effective border security solutions — just not the president’s wasteful and ineffective wall.â€
Trump should call their bluff. He should go back to the experts at the Department of Homeland Security and ask them:
If Democrats refuse to give you the additional physical barriers you have said are essential to secure the border, what other funding would you need to make up for it?..........
..............The total, he should tell the border professionals, can be far more than $5.7 billion. Just tell me what you need — the sky’s the limit.
Then, the president should then use his State of the Union address to demand that congressional Democrats fund every single penny. He should announce that if Democrats won’t pay for a wall, this is what border agents and homeland security professionals say they need immediately to secure the border without one. Unfortunately, it is more expensive to secure the border with people and technology than it is with steel slats.
Trump should make clear these demands are non-negotiable. He will not make any concessions for them. No protections for “dreamers†or extension of the Temporary Protected Status program. Those things are still on the table, but only in exchange for a physical barrier..........
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/marc-thiessen-yes-trump-lost-the-shutdown-heres-the-one-way-he-can-get-his-leverage-back
