While I 100% agree with you guys that Trumpism is absolutely a cult and that his followers are irrationally, unwaveringly loyal, there is the possibility of a non zero % of his base to chip away.

We have to remember that even though Trump spoke to the derplorables and his idiocy and hate resonated with them, it was the likes of Hannity, Coulter, Tucker, etc. that endorsed him as the guy who was going to lead them into the holy land. They legitimized him.

I think that the only possible way for him to lose his base would be if they turned against him. We have seen this happen on a few separate occasions when they disagreed with him on a decision, most recently Coulter being critical of him for the offer he made the Dems during the shutdown.

If he were to take a deal like this, sure he would try to spin it as a win, and even if the vast majority of his followers believe him when he points to an empty space and claims there's a wall there, if there is significant criticism from the old Stalwarts of Scum (Coulter, etc.) then there will be a cognitive dissonance in enough of them, watching mommy and daddy fight that a nonzero number of them will opt to side with the Stalwarts. We saw this happen on boards like Chiefsplanet just recently.

It's a ****ed up notion, that the only way he can lose supporters is if he isn't deplorable enough for their liking. There is no bottom. If a survey were to go out among the deplorables to see what % of them would straight up approve of concentration camps for all illegals, I'd say easily 40%+ would give the thumbs up.

a 20-year smear campaign against hillary hurt her with a like 200 million uninformed people, and russia did a solid job convincing social media users of all types that both sides were the same and everyone's corrupt. and trump STILL lost by 3 million. that's with the full power of his "base"

dems really have to kick themselves in the nuts to lose 2020, but knowing the dems you gotta believe that's still a significant possibility

The Dems get to keep the Government open while Trump gets nothing of substance for the wall(Hannity was screaming he better not take this deal) and if he shuts it down again he'll own it again and get roasted

7 million people are more than 90 days late on their car payment, and I suspect that excludes buy here pay here extortion rackets.

#MAGA

Double Down he’s not losing one person in his base

This is the problem. Setting the precedent that the Democrats will barter away Republican priorities and their "get" is just keeping the government functional is a big, big problem.

Just fund ICE and let him use ICE's discretionary powers to build some fence, which ICE already does.

He will spin that into a win like he spun the NK and NAFTA into deals after getting nothing from China and Mexico/Canada.

More to the point, I don't think this keeps the government open. It's a stone cold lock Trump will threaten to shut down the government at every opportunity to get some concessions and to make himself feel powerful.

Whether those concessions mean anything or hurt anyone is irrelevant to him.

Preventing the terrorist from shooting hostages is a win by any definition.

He's not giving the hostages back or even promising to not get more hostages.

It's just a bad move on Dems' part to allow Trump to get, as Trump put it, a downpayment.

It's a massive win politically for Trump because the baseline expectation is no wall and because Americans are terrible at geography and big numbers and will think 55 miles and 1.x billion are big deals.

Sad thing is he could probably tweet a picture of the great wall of China and convince at least half his followers the wall was secretly built overnight to pwn the libs.

This.

Trump supporters who have been getting ****ed in the ass so hard the last 2+ years and still haven't wavered aren't going to waver now. They'll ***** about how ****ty things are. They might even say a bad word or two about Trump in a moment of weakness. But once news comes about another caravan of Sharia Law Loving Drug Dealing MS-13 ISIS Muslim Hispanic Rapists making its way through Mexico, it's back on the #MAGA train.

Is Trump the new William of Orange?

Not when, in preventing him from shooting hostages, you educate him on how effective it's going to be for him to take and shoot more hostages in the future.

https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1095382455735988225

**** his base. We don't need them. Focusing on maybe turning the 1 or 2 out of 100 Trump voters is a horrible strategy. Focus on turning out the vote of non-voters and new voters is the way forward. If these disaffected Trump voters want to come along, great. But actively recruiting them is a ticket to failure.

( twitter | raw text )

All 55 miles of it...

it's uncanny

starbucks douche getting more cnn headlines running for president as a democrat with republican policies. **** off cnn.

I'm dead. Her and Jr are Beavis and Butthead.

if democrats get the 20% reduction in beds, then maybe it is not so bad.

**** yeah dude it feels good to see this clown lose. He was never getting a wall anyway but it’s fun watching him get it in the ass on this deal. Ole Mitch is like **** you buddy I run Bartertown with my girl Nancy and Chuck now. Congressional Republicans are a little whiny but not one is saying he needs to veto and build an emergency wall. Probably gonna have a veto proof vote anyway. Shutdown is GOP AIDS.

hahaha i also look forward to the next president finding money for public housing from "other places" along with the money congress allocates