Build those steel slats!

At an Oval Office meeting Thursday with Ryan and McCarthy, Trump was calm and did not yell, but was resolute and “dug in on what he wants,” said a Republican official briefed on the discussion.

Trump spent six to seven minutes in the meeting with Ryan and McCarthy talking about “steel slats” and saying that the term was preferable to calling the proposed construction a “wall,” as the president has done for more than three years.
  WaPo

Is he going to suggest that to his rabid rally goers?

Even as aides argued to him that protesting over wall funding could deprive government workers of paychecks over Christmas, Trump warned in private conversations with Republican lawmakers that they all would get “crushed” if they did not get the wall built.

They already got crushed. How's that a threat?

Trump vented to his advisers that signing the short-term spending bill without wall money would make him look weak and make his base voters think he broke a campaign promise. He also complained that he did not have sufficient bargaining leverage with Congress and blamed senior aides for not presenting him with better options.

It's their fault. And yet, he doesn't listen to his advisers anyway.

Trump urged aides to go on TV on Thursday night and defend the administration after a brutal day. Senior adviser Stephen Miller went on CNN, where he engaged in a long shouting match with anchor Wolf Blitzer. And White House press secretary Sarah Sanders appeared with a Trump favorite, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs.

Sanders being the smarter of the two, apparently.

But then she talked to F&F:



This is the problem when caving to TV critics: other TV sources may come at you from another direction.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  He must have just seen that...