Trump blinks, backs down...

Trump has backed down on his tactic of closing the government...the longest shutdown in history.  Late yesterday he gave his mia culpa's.  The government shutdown, he admitted before the fact, was his doing.  After the House and Senate had passed funding bills, Trump allowed conservative media to get to him, and declined to sign the funding measure.  Hence, the shutdown.

This is how a selfish person plays politics.  It's a child's game: he holds the entire operation hostage until he gets his way.  Then, if you let him get away with it, he learns that hostage-taking is a successful stratagem and legitimizes it.  Take heed, those who wonder at the loss of civility in politics: this ploy takes cooperation and turns it into a weakness.  Eventually, no one is willing to partner with others.

Now, of course, the peace is only for a couple of weeks, as the funding lapses on February 15th.  Trump is already threatening to shut down government at that time.  Or, he threatens to by-pass Congress altogether, and declare a national emergency.  (If he creates this precedent, normalizing this tactic, other policy measures can be expected to follow...think, national healthcare, or tax cuts.)  The fun isn't over.