Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of their fellow Democrats were thunderstruck.
They marched into the White House expecting Donald Trump to fold on his promise to secure the border.
But Schumer and Pelosi walked head first into a massive defeat they never saw coming.
Rather than provide any votes for the five billion dollars Trump requested to build the border wall, Democrats decided to shut down the government.
Schumer and Pelosi figured the GOP would not be able to endure weeks of fabricated stories in the fake news media blaming them for the shutdown.
However, Donald Trump sent another message.
The President told the Democrats he was willing to keep their shutdown going for months or even years if that was what it took to secure funding for the border wall.
Schumer met with reporters after the meeting with the President and informed them that, “he said he’d keep the government closed for a very long period of time, months or even years.”
Trump later held a press conference in the Rose Garden where he confirmed Schumer’s account.
“I did say that. Absolutely I said that,” the President said. “I don’t think it will, but I am prepared.”
Trump also stunned the Democrats by stating he could declare a state of emergency on the Southern border and use the military to build the wall.
“But we can call a national emergency and build it very quickly. And it’s another way of doing it. But if we can do it through a negotiated process, we’re giving that a shot,” the President declared.
President Trump met with reporters over the weekend before leaving for Camp David and said he was seriously considering declaring a national emergency if talks to resolve the shutdown and fund the border wall broke down.
“I may declare a national emergency dependent on what’s going to happen on the next few days,” Trump told a group of assembled reporters.
President Trump continued, “We have a meeting. Vice President Pence and a group…will be having another meeting. I don’t expect to have anything happen at that meeting, but I think we’re going to have some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.”
“We have to have border security. If we don’t have border security we will be crime ridden and it’s just going to get worse and worse,” Trump concluded.
This was not what Democrats were expecting.
They thought Trump would try and hunt around for a face-saving way to retreat from the fight.
Instead, the President threw down the gauntlet.
Democrats left the meeting dazed and confused not knowing what hit them.
They thought Trump would fold quickly as Republicans broke ranks.
That did not happen.
In fact, the President only made it even clearer that he was in this for the long haul and was prepared to use every tool at his disposal to build the wall and finally secure the Southern border.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
