Donald Trump has become the Conor McGregor of American politics. For weeks tensions have been mounting in the capital of the free world as Republicans and Democrats prepared to square off over the debt ceiling and a government shutdown. The climactic showdown was supposed to take place at the White House yesterday. But in the end, Trump never put up much of a real fight. For all the huffing and puffing that preceded the meeting, Trump acceded to the demands of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi for raising the debt ceiling for a mere three months. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse tweeted: ‘The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is bad.’
Is this all part of a fiendish plot by Trump to emulate Bill Clinton and ‘triangulate’, as the American term has it, by playing off Republicans and Democrats against each other? A deliberate spanking administered by Trump to the congressional Republicans to remind them that he can pick up his marbles and play with another group of kids? Or was it simply an impulsive move on Trump’s part?
The truth is that no one really knows.
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