While it's commonly known by now that the new spending bill that Congress and the Trump administration agreed to funds mostly Democratic priorities, and doesn't fund President Trump's border wall, what's not widely known is that the new legislation goes even farther than this.  Not only does it not fund the border wall, but it prevents the government from constructing a border wall with any funds.

This is important because the government is already authorized, under a 2006 law, to build the wall.  It was just a question of funding.  Before this bill, the president could conceivably reallocate border security funding from things like "technology" to the border wall because the wall was authorized.  Now, when the president signs this bill, he will no longer have the option to build the wall by reallocating funds.  Even if Donald Trump somehow got the Mexicans to pay for it, this legislation would still prohibit him from building the wall.  Trump has incredibly agreed to give up the authorization already on the books to allow him to build a wall.

And what is Trump's reaction to this?  The president says he's "very happy" with the pending legislation and plans to sign it.

This legislation funded all the Democrats' priorities – Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, and a big bailout to Puerto Rico. Furthermore, the president, who wanted to cut the EPA by a third, has to settle for a tiny 1% cut.  He got less than half of what he wanted for the military, and all of the environmental regulations he wanted to cut were rejected by Democrats.  Democrats were incredulous that they, out of power in all branches of the government, got everything they wanted and Trump got nearly nothing.  They are now emboldened to demand even more when the next spending bill comes up in September.  

Just look at this WaPo headline: "Democrats confident they can block Trump’s agenda after spending-bill win."

President Trump could have threatened a veto unless he got at least some of what he wanted.  He didn't.
 So it raises the question: is he simply a terrible negotiator, or does he have no real interest in building a border wall?

I get the feeling he'd like to build a border wall if it would be easy.  But he is afraid to take on the Democrats to get it done.  If Ronald Reagan were president, he would have shut down the government before signing such a bill.  He would have gone over the heads of Congress to the American people and given speech after speech staking out his positions.

That's how Reagan got a Democrat Congress to pass sweeping tax cuts.  But Trump can't even get a Republican Congress to spend $1.4 billion on a border wall.  Trump simply isn't willing to fight.  His idea of fighting is to post an angry note on Twitter.  That's not how one fights to win in the court of public opinion.

So now we will soon have legislation on the books, with Trump's signature, that will prevent the government from building a border wall.  If Hillary Clinton were president, she would have done exactly the same.

Exit question:

1) How do Trump supporters feel when they hear the president say he is "very happy" with a bill that outlaws border wall construction?  Do you still think this is all part of a master plan to improve border security?  If constructing a wall takes time and needs to be funded in advance, at what point shall we begin judging Trump on his words and actions?

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.