Dana Milbank: Trump becomes king of the cave
Source: Washington Post
Trump becomes king of the cave
By Dana Milbank
Columnist
July 22 at 6:22 PM
Back in the 1980s, Donald Trump published his seminal business treatise, “The Art of the Deal.” Should he write a sequel about his presidency, he might accurately title it “The Art of the Cave.”
In recent weeks, President Trump’s record has been a cornucopia of climbdowns. Not since the Paleolithic Period, perhaps, has a man had quite so much day-to-day caving experience.
The White House had demanded $150 billion in cuts as part of current budget talks. But on Monday evening, Trump agreed to a deal that raised spending by $320 billion. The Post’s Damian Paletta and Erica Werner labeled it a “significant retreat” for Trump, who got some accounting changes “that likely won’t constrain any future spending.”
A few weeks ago, Trump declared that he was “moving forward” with efforts to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census questionnaire despite a contrary Supreme Court ruling. But he then announced with fanfare that he would not, in fact, move forward. Was he backing down? “No, no,” he said. “Not only didn’t I back down, I backed up.”
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-sequel-the-art-of-the-cave/2019/07/22/d94a58bc-acb6-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html