RUSH: Looky here. Even at Fox News, “Rush Limbaugh Gives Blessing to Possible Border Wall Deal.” Fox News! It was a media theme. It was a media meme all day today! We have the audio sound bites: Drive-Bys decide Rush Limbaugh gave Trump the okay to sign the bill!

Is that what I did yesterday? Is that how you interpreted what I did yesterday? I thought what I was doing was trying to explain what I thought the White House thinking on all  this might be. No, I am not gonna put the kibosh. I think I have an idea what’s going on here now, and because of a simple news story here that I detected and found, I think I have an idea what’s going on. I’ll run it by you here in just a second.

Greetings. Great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh, 800-282-2882.

So the Drive-Bys are out there, CNN is saying, “Sources Say Trump to Sign Spending Bill.” The Drive-By Media is saying that I have given Trump my blessing to sign, and even at Fox News, “Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on his show Tuesday told his listeners not to underestimate President Trump’s desire to address illegal immigration and secure the southern border with Mexico, even if he does sign a compromise to avoid another shutdown.”

Now, that’s true. I did tell everybody whatever happens here, do not think it means Trump’s not gonna build this wall or has given up on building. Whatever he does, it doesn’t mean that the wall is kaput. It probably means that he’s more committed to it than ever. I think this is ticking him off.

If we can sit here and realize that this thing started out at $20 billion and the Democrats pared it down to $1.6 billion, then took that out so that Trump had less than nothing, and now this deal puts back $1.375 billion, that’s got to tick him off like crazy! So we’ll go through this, and I’ll tell you what I think is gonna happen here in just a second.

But I saw a story.

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RUSH: The border deal. Here’s the story — and it is also from Fox News, but it’s all over the place. “President Trump appeared to be moving Tuesday toward approving a border security compromise after speaking with the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.” That’d be Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. “The president tweeted that he had been ‘presented the concept and parameters’ of the agreement by … Sen. Richard Shelby.

“‘Looking over all aspects knowing that this will be hooked up with lots of money from other sources. … Will be getting almost $23 BILLION for Border Security. Regardless of'” money allocated for the wall, this bill has in it $23 billion for border security. This has more money for border security than the original $20 billion, but there’s a limit in it on how much could be spent on the wall, which is a key here. And then Trump reminds everybody that the wall “is being built as we speak!”

So I think what’s gonna happen here, clearly he… I mean, you look at the government shutdown, and Gallup is out today with a story on Trump’s skyrocketing poll numbers. In Gallup, he’s gone from 38% to 45%. He’s at 52% over at Rasmussen. Gallup is saying that his numbers skyrocketed after the shutdown ended. I could argue that I think, you know, the shutdown doesn’t hurt Republicans, contrary to what everybody thinks.

And I think this demonstrates it. But I think that nobody wants another shutdown ’cause it doesn’t have any leverage in it. If there were leverage in a shutdown to get more for the wall, Trump would do it. There isn’t any leverage in it. It doesn’t leverage anything. What it does is put federal workers out of work and gets the media all worked up about their suffering and so forth, but it doesn’t leverage the Democrats ’cause it’s a 2020 election year.

And any pain that happens to people in America, Democrats are gonna relish and blame it all on Trump. So he doesn’t do another shutdown because there’s no leverage in it. I also know — this is just common sense — that $1.375 billion allocated as a number for the wall is insulting, particularly when the ask is $5.7 billion, and in the Senate bill back in December, $1.6 billion was in it before it was pulled out. It’s now at $1.375 billion. He’s ticked, ’cause I don’t think this is political for Trump.

Now, the media and everybody else can’t avoid looking at it politically, the horse race politics. But for Trump it is a legitimate national security issue. Yeah, he made the promise. Yeah, he made the commitment. But why? He wasn’t trying to get votes with it. This is the thing people don’t understand about Trump. He’s not a politician first. He’s a patriot first. He’s a citizen first. He believes in America as founded — and when I say he’s not a politician first, meaning he’s not an insider.

He did not propose a wall and the idea of shoring up the southern border and stopping illegal immigrants because it was a political position he thought he could leverage and win the presidency. It’s ’cause he really believes it! He means it! And anybody with any common sense knows this is gonna have to stop. We’re still not going in the right direction. Because of these loopholes with asylum, look at the numbers of people still trying to get into this country.

We still haven’t reversed the flow. It goes up and down, but we’re in a period of time now where more people than ever are trying to get here, and it’s got to stop, and $1.375 billion isn’t enough to accomplish what Trump wants. But when you read this story and you find out here that there’s $23 billion in it that specifically isn’t targeted for wall usage or building but it is allocated for border security…

“Shelby told reporters that he had explained to Trump that the $1.4 billion represented a down payment on the wall, and reserved discretionary funds for detention facilities. Shelby described the president’s tone as ‘very, very good’ and said that while Trump was concerned that he wasn’t getting all that he wanted in the agreement, ‘if he’ll evaluate it himself, he’s getting a good down payment.’ … When asked about a possible shutdown, Trump told reporters Tuesday: ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen.'”

Well, I think it’s probably common-sensical he’s gonna take the deal. But that’s not gonna be the end of it. He’s gonna sign this bill. Now, the House doesn’t vote on this ’til tomorrow night so anything can change here. But this is an election year. I went through this yesterday. We’re into the 2020 campaign year, and there’s a lot of things involved in this. Trump wants to be reelected. The Democrats want to defeat him and so forth. They’re drawing the line here on the wall.

The Democrats think if they can thwart Trump from succeeding on this No. 1 campaign promise, that they’re gonna have a better opportunity of defeating him in 2020. Well, Trump knows this too. I think… I’m just gonna make a wild-hair prediction here. I think Trump is so serious about this, about this wall… He hasn’t wavered on it once. He hasn’t wavered on it at all during his presidency or even during the campaign. He’s the one guy that’s continued to fight for it. We had a caller yesterday who said, “Why not do both, Rush?

“Why not sign this thing and take that negative off the table — go ahead and sign the thing — and then do the declaration of a national emergency at the same time?” Because Mick Mulvaney has said they’ve got the money. They’ve got the money they need to build the amount of wall that Trump wants. They’ve already found it, and then Shelby is talking about this $23 billion that’s gonna be in this legislation above and beyond whatever is allocated for the wall.

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that’s what they’re thinking, to declare a national emergency (or at least threaten to) as part of signing this thing, because the point is gonna be made that this isn’t enough. Trump is not gonna sign this and think, “Deal over.” He’s not gonna sign this and take it and think, “We’ve fixed it, solved it,” and move forward. This is not the end of this. It can’t be. It can’t be. Building the wall is fundamental. What could be…? As we enter the 2020 campaign… I just want to present a variable out there. What if we get into late 2019, into the year 2020…?

The campaign’s heated up and construction on the wall is taking place and there is video of the wall being built and there are pictures of the wall — and it’s a big, beautiful wall, the kind of wall Trump’s talked about? If that’s happening during the campaign, what do you think it does to Trump’s reelection chances? Because every politician… He wants to be reelected. He knows how important the wall is to the country, first and foremost, and also to his reelection. I don’t think he’s going…

Whatever this ends up being, whatever he ends up signing here is not the end. It is going to be the next stage of getting the wall built. And if they have to declare a national emergency and go through the courts and have the Democrats go through the motions of trying to stop it, then all the better! Let the Democrats demonstrate as often, as loudly as they can that they do not want border security. That’s what I think’s gonna happen.

There. You’ve heard it. (interruption) Nope! I haven’t told anybody. You’re the first people I’ve talked to about this. I haven’t spoken a word of this to anybody.

C’mon, folks! Get real!

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RUSH: So, yeah, you might say that I think the president has a Plan B here. My only point is that if he signs this… I don’t think he’s happy with it. I don’t think he’s… I think he’s offended by it. I think he’s ticked off. Look, folks, it is truly pathetic that the president of the United States has to ferret out ways to pay for something that truly is a matter of national security, that he cannot get cooperation from the opposition party on something as dire and as consequential as national security.

It’s not the first time. I mean, you know, FDR had to pull some strings to get us into World War II because there were a lot of isolationists then saying, “It’s not our problem, it’s not our fight, we don’t want to go there.” You know, some people think they knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor. I’m not saying I believe that. I don’t think they did. But I just think it’s pathetic that these kinds of arrangements — you know, finding money from elsewhere in the budget — have to be done because a major political party…

You know, I said that they (chuckles) don’t want open borders. They may not even want a border! I mean, if you listen to the extreme leftists of the Democrat Party and of the world… And, you know, this is… Trump said, “Looking over all aspects knowing that this will be hooked up with lots of money from other sources. … Will be getting almost $23 BILLION for Border Security.

“Regardless of Wall money, it is being built as we speak!” I think that $23 billion is not… It comes from elsewhere. This is the stuff that Mulvaney and these other people have said they have found. They’ve got the money. They’ve got more money than they need for what they want. They just need a trigger to be able to use it here. That’s where the national emergency declaration once again becomes relevant.

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RUSH: I want to go through this $23 billion, where out of nowhere that seems to have come from. And Trump was talking about it yesterday. Also, this from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. This is a left-wing rag unlike many left-wing rags. It’s down in Ft. Lauderdale. But they’ve got the story here. “Florida Voter Support Surges For Mexico Border Wall, New Poll Shows; Trump Approval Inching Up.”

This is of Florida voters. “Florida voters are much more supportive of President Donald Trump’s signature issue — building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico — than they were a year ago. A Florida Atlantic University Poll released Tuesday reports a majority of Florida voters now support the idea. FAU pollsters also found Trump’s approval rating has ticked up in Florida.” He’s still underwater, but it’s ticking up.

So this $23 billion, this story here in TheHill.com by our old buddy Neil Munro, Neil Munro, the journalist who was chased out of the Rose Garden by other journalists when, during an Obama press availability, he asked a question when no questions were permitted. It was a no questions press event in the Rose Garden. I don’t even remember what it was about, but Munro asked questions and these guys chased him practically to the Washington Monument, the rest of the press corps.

“President Donald Trump touted construction of the border wall on Tuesday, even though the draft budget for the Department of Homeland Security adds only enough funds to contract for just 55 miles of new wall in 2019.
The draft deal offers far less than the $5.7 billion and 234 miles requested by Trump.” We talked about this yesterday. “Trump spoke before a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and hinted he might redirect more funds for wall construction.”

Now, the border wall with Mexico — I want to go through this, because I don’t think enough people know what the status of the wall or walls and construction at the moment is. “The border wall with Mexico is a mix of old metal panels and new bollard walls 30 feet high. Some of the wall sections include two walls with a road in between. In January 2017, when Trump was inaugurated, the stretch of various walls added up to 654 miles along the border.”

That’s how much wall we had, and it was of varying quality, varying height. It wasn’t uniform because states had been involved in the construction of the wall through their territory. “A document from DHS says officials need a total of 762 miles of border wall.” That is the target. Total miles of barrier needed, according to Homeland Security, 762. Three hundred and sixteen miles of new primary border call and 174 miles of primary border wall system in place of less effective designs.

So this is where the 65 mile figure comes from. That is the difference between 654 miles of wall already in place and the amount of new wall the CPB says is needed. But it’s confusing because the CPB also want 174 miles of the current wall to be replaced, modernized. And that’s how we get to the 214 mile total that Trump is calling for. And when I say Trump is calling for it, this is Trump following recommendations of Border Patrol and ICE and the people responsible in law enforcement for patrolling the wall.

Now, “Money provided in 2017 and 2018 is funding new construction, says DHS, including: Work On-going or Planned: More than 115 miles (FY 2017 and FY 2018 funding), including: [Roughly] 83 miles of new primary wall in place of less effective existing barriers in San Diego, El Centro, Yuma, and El Paso Sectors. [Roughly] 14 miles of new secondary wall in place of less effective existing barriers in San Diego Sector. [Roughly] 13 miles of new levee wall system in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. [Roughly] ~8 to ~12 miles of new steel bollard wall system in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.”

This is the work that’s currently underway, which the mainstream media claims is not happening. This work is underway. It has been underway since 2017. When you hear Trump saying, “We’re building the wall” he’s telling you the truth. It’s happening. The media is acting like he’s been shut out, he’s been stopped, that every attempt to modernize, rebuild, or start new construction has been thwarted. It hasn’t been!

Obama and George W. Bush authorized the money for some of the construction that’s happening now. Obama, the Democrats have participated in already authorizing lots of money to do what’s currently being done! And it’s important to contrast the fact that they’ve already allocated money and agreed to allocate even more prior to Trump becoming president when they have become zero. They have shut it down.

They’re acting like they don’t like a wall, want a wall, Trump doesn’t need a wall, we’re not gonna get a wall, after they have already allocated, appropriated millions and millions of dollars for current new construction and upgraded construction. A lot of work underway. In reality, the $1.375 billion in the proposed deal would keep the construction teams busy probably for the rest of the fiscal year through October, the end of September, which would give the national emergency funding time to work its way through the courts.

See, this is why that little reference there tells me all need to know what I think’s gonna happen here. El Trumpo is gonna sign this bill whenever it’s presented to him, and he’s gonna declare a national emergency. The $1.375 billion will take us through the end of this fiscal year, through the end of September. It will be used to complete current under-construction projects. Declare a national emergency, go use this other $23 billion.

The Democrats will go to court, shut it down, bring it to a screeching halt. They will claim Trump doesn’t have the constitutional authority, that this is not a national emergency like a hurricane would be or an earthquake or some such thing. He’ll declare the national emergency and let it wind its way through the courts through the balance of this year, probably find its way through by the end of the fiscal year and bammo, then get a favorable ruling on it, which he will ultimately at the Supreme Court if it goes that far. And bammo, here comes the other $23 billion and then the next two years Trump is building the wall in the run-up to the 2020 presidential campaign. That, my friends, is what I see.

All put together from the realization here that the stories are abundant out there that there’s $23 billion. Look at the existing projects under construction, how much the $1.375 billion would fund. The downside to the national emergency is — and this is something that Inside Washington constantly frets over. Whenever the prospect of, say, using the nuclear option in the Senate and getting rid of the filibuster comes up, what’s the objection that’s always mounted? “Well, we can’t do it because you know the Democrats are gonna be in power one day, and then what if they do it and we can’t stop ’em? We don’t have any moral high ground.” Yeah, you’re right, better not do it.

Well, the same thing is gonna be said about this national emergency. I guarantee you what’s gonna happen. There are gonna be people opposed to the president declaring the national emergency because, look, the Democrats are gonna win the White House someday and what if, as an example, they want to declare climate change a national emergency and go marching right to doing whatever they want to do without legislation, without congressional approval, without the opinion of the American people behind ’em.

So that’s gonna be thrown up to the president. “Don’t do it, don’t do the national emergency. It’s just gonna open the doors for the Democrats to do it.” Well, climate change is a national emergency. Democrats will still have to go to the Supreme Court because if that happens, the same thing’s gonna play out in reverse. Some Republicans will go to court, try to get it shut down. “A president can’t declare national emergency on climate change. All we’ve got is models. We don’t even know if it’s really happening,” blah, blah, blah.

Bottom line is that, yeah, it’s a campaign issue, but more than that with President Trump, Donald Trump, it’s needed. It’s needed to protect and defend the country, to maintain our culture and society. It was the first thing he talked about when he came down the escalators in June of 2015. There’s no leverage in a shutdown. It doesn’t get him anywhere. Because a shutdown does not panic the Democrats sufficiently so to letting him have what he wants.

Plus, he doesn’t need a shutdown now. The shutdown served its original purpose, as we had a caller point out a couple days ago. The shutdown resulted in the media spending every day for, what, a month explaining what was going on at the border and all the people flooding in. You and I have to keep in mind that a lot of Americans do not know anything if all they watch is the mainstream media.

So anything Trump can do that expands the universe of things the Drive-Bys talk about, and because they are obsessed with him and obsessed with destroying him, they will spend a lot of time focusing on things that he talks about in their attempt to ruin him. In the process they end up informing a lot of people about things Trump cares about that they otherwise wouldn’t know.

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RUSH: Here is Ray in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Ray, you’re up first here today. It’s great to have you with us. Hi.

CALLER: Well, thank you, Rush. I just wanted to say that you nailed it again with Mr. Trump. I’m sure you realize that he put signs out there saying, “Finish the wall.” He’s already campaigning for 2020. He knew he wasn’t gonna get the money he needed to finish the wall here, now. So let’s get it going for 2020. I mean, he’s so far ahead of them, it’s incredible.

RUSH: Yeah, this is a good point. I mentioned this yesterday when it was announced what the deal was, $1.375 billion. We had a couple people here saying, “If he signs that, I’m done. I’m out.” I understand that. That’s people who want to smoke the Democrats, and they look at this as the Democrats winning, nailing Trump, screwing Trump, denying Trump what he wants and so forth. But that’s not the way to look at it.

The Democrats are being who they are, but there are ways to make them pay prices for this — and it doesn’t mean that Trump doesn’t want the wall. He does. And you’re right. At the rally in El Paso: “Finish the wall.” Great slogan. I talked about that yesterday as well. “Finish the wall.” Democrats hated the slogan, the media hated the slogan, because they live in the world where if Trump only gets $1.375 billion the Democrats have won and Trump has been stopped.

Trump’s not looking at it this way. If anybody thinks that Trump is not going to see this wall built, they don’t know Donald Trump, and I still maintain that as the 2020 campaign unfolds, if the wall is being built and there’s video of it and still shots, what will that be? Donald Trump keeping promises. Donald Trump following through. Donald Trump thwarting the Democrats. Donald Trump winning. However you want to analyze it.

And, meanwhile, the Democrats, you know what their campaign’s gonna be. They’re gonna be arguing with each other over who can get us out of the world the fastest and who can raise taxes on the rich the fastest and who can bring on socialism the fastest. It’s gonna be a great contrast.

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RUSH: If you missed the first hour, the highlight was my prediction of what’s gonna happen here based on all of the data available and how I have read it, read between the lines and absorbed it all. I think the president’s gonna sign this deal with $1.375 billion in it and then declare a national emergency to access all of the money that he says and that Mulvaney and the administration say that they have rounded up. It may total $23 billion, and that doesn’t count the $14 billion they could seize from El Chapo!

Joaquin Guzman, El Chapo, has been convicted and given life imprisonment yesterday. And the amount of money they seized from him in that conviction is $14 billion. Ted Cruz says use that to build the wall. I guess it’s… You know what Obama would do with money like that? I’m not making this up. Any time that there were seized assets like this or the asset forfeiture, you know what Obama would do with the money? He would give it to left-wing activists and community organizing groups. That’s how they got funded.

(interruption) No, no, no, no, I’m not making that up. That’s public and they were very proud of it. They did their best to hide it, but they used fine money and asset on forfeiture money and things like the money seized after the El Chapo verdict to give, in part, to people like Planned Parenthood or other left-wing extremist organizations to fund them. So why shouldn’t we do what Cruz says and take some of El Chapo’s $14 billion, use for the wall? Anyway, I think it’s gonna happen.

Because I don’t think Trump is gonna accept defeat on building the wall. That’s not gonna happen. The wall is gonna get built. It’s underway now. Much of it’s under construction, renovation. It’s gonna continue. There’s no leverage in a government shutdown. There’s no way to get what he wants shutting the government down again. So I think he’ll sign it, and I think there will be declaration of a national emergency because this $1.375 billion happens to be enough money to continue construction projects that are already underway.

I’m not gonna go through the details again, but I did just in the last half hour. There is current wall construction and current wall renovation going on all along the border at various spots. The $1.375 billion is enough to continue the construction or visions that are happening now, while a national emergency declaration would wind its way through the courts. That $1.375 billion is enough money to keep working on wall projects through the end of September. That’s the end of the fiscal year. Now we’re back at that point to coming up with a new budget.

It’s all predicated on the fact that I don’t think that the president is going to abandon this project. I don’t even think he sees it as a campaign promise. It is, but I think he sees it as something much more important. It’s national security, and it’s protection of America. It’s all part of “Make America Great Again.” It’s part of rebuilding America and maintaining America as founded by controlling the border and controlling who gets in and who doesn’t. That has to happen. It has to happen. You know what I would really favor?

I would favor just right now putting an immediate stop to all immigration, just a time out. Nine months, six months, nine months. Get a handle on what’s happened up to date. Just stop it. You people remember that we essentially stopped immigration from the 1920s to 1965. After the gigantic wave of immigration — legal — from Europe after World War I, we shut it down. There wasn’t… I mean, people were authorized. There was some. It was not zero.

But mass immigration was shut down while we assimilated all those millions that came in through Ellis Island and other places from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. We need to do something like that again. Just shut it down. The Democrats are raise holy hell if that happened! ‘Cause the Democrats use illegal immigration as the way to keep their current requirements of a number of their people being in an underclass.

It’s how they keep that constituency populated. Here’s the president, by the way. This was in the Oval Office. He met with the president of Colombia, Ivan Marquez, and during the Q&A with reporters, a reporter said (impression), “The congressional legislation… Mr. President! Mr. President! Will you sign it? Will you sign it?”

THE PRESIDENT: We’re building a lot of wall right now with money that we already have, and when people see what we’re doing, I think they’ll be very surprised. We’re doing a lot of work. I think a point was made with the last shutdown. People realized how bad the border is, how unsafe the border is, and I think a lot of good points were made. But I don’t want to see another one. There’s no reason for it. And we’re gonna look at the legislation when it comes and I’ll make a determination then.

RUSH: Another reporter (impression), “Mr. President, is there the same money this time as what was on the table a few months ago?”

THE PRESIDENT: The numbers are almost $23 billion, which you don’t report too often. It’s about an 8% increase over last year. So if you look at the total funding, it’s almost up to $23 billion. It’s about 8% higher. The border area is happening. It’s going to happen at a really rapid pace. We’re giving out contracts right now and we’re gonna have a great wall. It’s gonna be a great, powerful wall. We’ve got a lot of funds for a lot of other things. But with the wall, they want to be stingy. But we have options that most people don’t really understand.

RUSH: Look, the $23 billion is DHS funding, the Department of Homeland Security. That’s what’s up 8%. So there’s some money there that they can get. They’ve identified — I think Mulvaney said the number is — $8 billion or $10 billion, I forget which. But they say they’ve found it elsewhere. Then you’ve got the $14 billion from El Chapo. But the point is that the Democrats have gone along with authorizing a budgetary increase for DHS for $23 billion.

When Trump says they’re just being stingy with the wall, that’s the allocation for the wall they’ve agreed to: $1.375 billion. But I think I know how this is gonna go. I mean, it’s a prediction, but I’m pretty sure, ’cause he’s not gonna give up. This is not gonna be the end of it in any way, shape, manner, or form.

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RUSH: Fox & Friends, Ainsley Earhardt talked to Sarah Sanders and asked her what was coming, and this is what Sarah Sanders said.

SANDERS: We’ll see what the final package looks like. The president will make a determination on whether or not he’s gonna sign it. But you can rest assured the president promised he was gonna build the wall and he’s gonna deliver. Just like he said he was gonna run for president and win and he has. He said he was gonna make better trade deals and he has. He said he was gonna rebuild the military, and he has. He said he was gonna grow the economy, and he’s done that. He’s promised to build the wall and he’s gonna get that done too.

RUSH: Yeah. That’s the key to this. The wall construction is underway as we speak. Anyway, one more bite here, and this is from Chuck You Schumer. This is interesting. Schumer yesterday and then again today really, really, really begging Trump to sign this, really trying to goad Trump into signing this. And let’s listen to the bite, and I will analyze this after it finishes. This is today from Schumer on the Senate floor.

SCHUMER: President Trump, sign this bill. Neither side got everything it wanted in this bill, but both sides want to avoid another shutdown. It provides additional funding for smart, effective border security. Let me repeat that. It does not fund the president’s wall, but it does fund smart border security that both parties support. So I repeat my request. President Trump, say you’ll sign this bill. Remove the axe hanging over everyone’s head. President Trump, in politics, to quote the Rolling Stones, you can’t always get what you want.

RUSH: I’d much rather hear the Stones sing that than to listen to Schumer say it. “You can’t always get what you want,” because I’m still here. So what is Chuck You actually doing? You notice here that Chuck You goes to great lengths to tell everybody that there isn’t any money for the wall in here, this is smart border security, but there isn’t any money for the wall. “It does not fund the president’s wall.”

I think he’s trying to goad Trump into not signing this. “Mr. President, please sign this, please.” I think he’s trying to goad him into not signing. I think Schumer is trying to engineer what he thinks would be another big win-win with another shutdown.

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RUSH: “Rush, did I hear right? You think the president’s gonna sign this?” Yes. I think he’s gonna sign it. I don’t think the president wants to wait 20 years to build a wall. He doesn’t want it to wait four years. He wants to build the wall. He wants to get it down now. There isn’t gonna be another government shutdown. There’s no leverage to do that. There’s no sense in (sigh) not signing this to try to defeat the Democrats. The objective here is to get the wall built, and I think he’s gonna sign it. I think he’s gonna do or declare a national emergency at some point in this.

They’ve amassed a bunch of money that they can use to complete these border wall projects that they want, and I think that’s what’s gonna happen. This is my wild guess. Well, it’s a little bit more than that, but it’s still a guess. It’s a prediction of what’s gonna happen. I wouldn’t be sidetracked by the $1.375 billion in terms of if Trump signed it, it means he’s accepting it. It doesn’t mean that at all.

It doesn’t mean, “Oh, well. If that’s all I can get, that’s all I can get; I’ll take it.”

That’s not what signing this would mean in any stretch of the imagination. I think there’s a lot of factors going into this. I think he’s as committed to getting this wall built as he ever was and is gonna see to it that it happens, however it needs to happen. He’s gonna find the money for it elsewhere. If they have to challenge him in the court system to try to shut him down, they’ll do that. I think they’ve got a plan ready to go — it would be silly if they didn’t — that could accommodate pretty much every attempt the Democrats make.

Remember, every effort the Democrats make to stop the enactment of border security is a plus when it comes… I don’t know how many Americans are in favor of wide-open borders or no borders, just let anybody who wants to come in. I know there are some, but I know there are not enough of those people to elect anybody president.

If the Democrats want to own that position, then maneuver them into it and let them have it. I think that’s the objective here that will be met along with getting the wall built. I’ve never been more certain of Trump’s commitment to this than I am today, than I was yesterday, when this whole thing came up. I think he’s every bit as committed to this as he was in June in 2015 when he came down the escalator and announced his attentions regarding this.