REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
President Donald Trump delivers the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's "Days of Remembrance" ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, U.S, April 25, 2017.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday on his show that he's "very, very troubled" to see President Donald Trump appearing to back down from initial demands for funding the proposed wall along the US-Mexico border.Trump and top White House officials were gearing up for a fight for border-wall funding in the new continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded and avoid a shutdown by the end of the week.
But during a meeting with conservative media members at the White House on Monday, Trump said he was willing to budge on his demands to fund the wall in the spending bill, saying he would be open to shifting the timeline for funding of the border wall back to September.
"The Democrats seem to have successfully used this stupid, silly threat of a government shutdown to get their way," Limbaugh said Tuesday, in one of his first major rebukes of the president. "What Trump is saying is if we need to get this done, then I'll delay the spending on the wall until September. And it's just a measly billion dollars."
He continued: "Trump, I'm sure, does not ever think he caves on anything. But outward appearances are what they are. And the bottom line is that if he is willing to withdraw a demand of his for a measly billion dollars for the wall because the Democrats are threatening a shutdown, then the Democrats will have just learned that this threat works on Trump, too, not just all the other Republicans."
It now looks like the government shutdown fight will hinge on Trump's border wall.
Trump admitted last week that the thing his base wants "more than anything" is the border wall.