President Donald Trump just unleashed a barrage of tweets that were somewhat cryptic in their specifics--he suggested GOP leaders could have easily hiked the debt ceiling by attaching it to another unrelated bill, which is fanciful--but the overall upshot is clear: Trump is clearly telegraphing his intention to dump all of the blame for the expected governing chaos this fall on his fellow Republicans.
Taken in isolation, these tweets would mean little. But they need to be viewed in the context of another Trump threat that today is being widely taken very seriously by Republicans and news organizations alike: His threat to force a government shutdown to gain funding for his cherished wall on the Mexican border.
All in all, what Trump is really threatening is to inflict a massive political nightmare on the congressional leaders of his own party. This political nightmare has multiple dimensions, which becomes apparent when you step back and recap all the things that are up in the air right now:
The debt ceiling must be raised by some time in October, or we'll be at risk of default and economic calamity. The government must be funded by October (or a continuing resolution must be passed), or it will shut down, and Trump is insisting that he is prepared to let that happen if Congress does not fund his wall.
Trump must decide by some time in September whether to continue supporting the Obama-era executive action that grants work permits and protection from deportation to some 800,000 people brought here illegally as children, aka the "dreamers."
But here's the problem: Trump has boxed himself in, perhaps to a far greater degree than a few months ago. At his Arizona rally, Trump bashed Congress for failing to help him build the wall, which unleashed a great roar from the crowd: "Build that wall! Build that wall!" The New York Times reports that former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon privately told Trump that getting the wall funding is an absolute must, because Trump's base will not tolerate another loss after the failure to repeal Obamacare.
Editorial on 08/25/2017