NY Times editorial board slams Trump over shutdown: 'A cruel joke'

late Friday, slamming his handling of the 35-day partial government shutdown as “a toddler’s pageant of foot-stomping and incompetence” and "a cruel joke."

“What a debacle President Trump’s shutdown proved to be — what a toddler’s pageant of foot-stomping and incompetence, of vainglory and self-defeat. Mr. Trump tormented public servants and citizens and wounded the country, and, in conceding on Friday after holding the government hostage for 35 days, could claim to have achieved nothing,” it wrote.

“He succeeded only in exposing the emptiness of his bully’s bravado, of his ‘I alone can fix it’ posturing. Once upon a time, Mr. Trump promised that Mexico would pay for a wall. He instead made all Americans pay for a partisan fantasy.”

-snip-

“Maybe you want a wall. Can you possibly argue that Mr. Trump’s shutdown strategy advanced your cause? He made the right decision on Friday — to sign a bill reopening the government through Feb. 15, giving lawmakers time to reach a permanent deal. But he could have had this same outcome without a shutdown. He ultimately agreed to the sort of bill that Democrats have been pitching for weeks — one that contains not one dollar in wall funding,” The Times editorial board wrote.

“Of course, the new narrative — that Mr. Trump got owned by [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi — isn’t likely to sit well with him, either. And who knows what he’ll do next to try to salve his ego, and salvage some political capital with the minority of Americans who still seem inclined to support him.”

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https://thehill.com/homenews/media/427088-ny-times-slams-trump-over-shutdown