[Hoot Gibson]

All true except for a couple notable distinctions, and BTW, I'm not laying nor have I been laying a smoke barrage for the President. He was a novice, and had no experience in politics. As such I do not believe that he expected the establishment to lay in wait, to teach him not to tread on them as he came into office. That fact is irrefutable. In fact, I just heard Chuck Schumer on air bragging that "maybe now MR Trump has learned his lesson."

His own party was complicit in the resistance, and they have undercut him mercilessly and shamefully. The people spoke and they counted that as nothing. Paul Ryan never took up any bill to fund the wall, only chicken feed to fix existing fencing.

Chapter and verse notwithstanding, I can't cozy up to the business as usual treasons which have become daily fare in DC. The establishment have rejected the people's choice and I don't like it.

I am am also a novice with no experience in politics and Trump has received exactly the treatment that I expected he would receive from the media, Democrats, and the Republican Party establishment.

He took office with very little support from the sources that a traditional Republican president would have typically received. He has been received much as a conservative independent candidate elected president would have faced. When one steps into a den of poisonous snakes, why would one expect the snakes not to strike?

That not withstanding, Trump was not drafted into the position of U.S. President - he volunteered and he won an election. He made illegal immigration his number one priority, threatened to veto spending bills sent to his desk by members of his own party and then repeatedly failed to do so. Now, he has retreated from a battle with Democrats and RINOs that should have been fought in 2017.

Maybe Trump will manage to pull a rabbit from his hat, but at this point it appears to me that he is a lame duck, one term president. He is not solely responsible for not securing border funding, but he is solely responsible for choosing not fight this battle when he had an excellent chance of winning.

I have also not written a book on negotiating, but even I know that you should not make concessions in a negotiation without getting something in return. President Trump chose his battleground and proceeded to negotiate from a very weak position with an adversary who has simply said, "No" to all attempts to reach a compromise.