Trump's own words...A shutdown falls on the President’s lack of leadership. He can’t even control his own party and get people together in a room. A shutdown means the president is weak."
This is the third shutdown in less than a year, all while the president's party controlled both sides of Congress.
Thank you Mr Trump for showing us what a weak leader is.
Putin is pleased with his protégé, Donald Trump.
In Putin's mind, Trump has achieved successes beyond his expectations. It began with Trump's acquiescence to Putin at Helsinki, forsaking his own intelligence agencies and accepting Putin's word that Russia did not interfere in our 2016 election because Putin sounded forceful.
Fired being a euphemism for forcing to retire, Trump has fired key members of his administration recently. They were advisors who contributed much to Trump's administration. Too much, and they often had differing viewpoints. For that, Trump fired them. Just in the last few months, Sessions, Haley, McGahn, Zinke, Kelly, Mattis and Ayers have all been fired.
That is the attorney general, the U.N. ambassador, the White House counsel, the Interior Secretary, Trump's chief of staff, Trump's favored replacement for chief of staff, and the Defense Secretary. Often, as in the case of Heather Nauert, Matt Whitaker, and Patrick Shanahan, they are replaced by people new at the job because Trump does not want someone who will actually voice his/her opinion.
As a consequence, the federal government is seriously weakened thanks to Trump and Putin could not be more pleased.
Trump then surrendered the field to Syrian and Russian forces along with the forces of the terrorist organization known as ISIS. This also gives a free hand to Putin's ally and America's enemy, Iran. Putin was flabbergasted when Trump withdrew all U.S. forces from Syria simply because the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, asked him to
... flabbergasted, but jumping with joy. Putin's much needed warm water naval facility at Tartus and his huge airbase are secure. Russia's proxy war with the U.S. in Syria is won.
Last, but certainly not least, Trump shuts down the entire federal government just before Christmas
. His excuse is an ineffectual wall. In the process, Trump managed to embarrass the Senate Majority Leader and the leadership of his own party in the Republican-held Congress. Combined with Trump's retreat in Syria and the loss of key members of his administration, chaos reigns supreme in Washington.
If Putin had managed to install a former KGB agent in the White House, he could not have done better than Donald Trump. There is little wonder why Putin is jumping with glee.