RUSH: What is all this talk…? Remember that Trump was gonna be a dictator?
Shortly after the election into the transition into Trump’s first term, all we kept hearing from the Drive-Bys was, ‘This man doesn’t know the Constitution! He doesn’t care. He’s gonna become a dictator!” Dictator? I don’t know what Trump is thinking about. I’ll tell you what he ought to do, my humble opinion. I just saw on Fox everybody’s breathless. (impression) “The budget deal! It might be signed. We’re down to the wire.” I get so sick and tired of this! It’s a game! It’s not even real!
A government shutdown never hurts a damn soul, and every year at this time, “The government might shut down! It might shut down! It might shut down!” Trump should not sign this bill and leave for Mar-a-Lago, and tell them it’s not gonna get signed and their precious government’s not gonna get back up and running ’til there’s $5 billion. What are they gonna do? Impeach him? Huh?
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RUSH: Michael in Washington. Great to have you, sir. You’re up first today.
CALLER: Merry Christmas, Rush. Thank you for all the information to keep me informed.
RUSH: (chuckles) You’re welcome, sir. Thank you. It used to be, “Thanks for all the great work.” Now it is, “Thanks for the information.” That’s a trend in the wrong direction.
CALLER: Well… You know, this thing with the $10.6 billion that Congress has allocated towards Central America but yet they can’t find $5 billion to give the American people for border security, there’s no way… I don’t know if that’s a law. I heard you say Trump didn’t have to sign that, but he’s put in a box. If he does not… I don’t know if it’s veto this funding bill that’s coming to his desk — and he does not veto that — and he signs it, he loses. The only winning move he has is to veto this bill and shut it down and say, “Look, if you give Central America 10.6, I want five.” He’ll win all day — and I agree with you. Get on the plane. Go play golf. Get your swing in order and play golf for a week.
RUSH: Right! What are they gonna do, impeach him?
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: How much worse can it get? The Republicans already lost the House. There’s no salvation there. I mean, what else is there here? Grab audio sound bite No. 1. Can I get away with playing No. 1 without No. 2? Yes, I can. Let’s go back to August 1st, 2018, had Trump on the program talking about the shutdown and when it should happen, when it would be most advantageous. Here we go…
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RUSH: Here you are suggesting that you’d be willing to maybe — you’d talk about — shutting down the government if that’s what it took to get this wall built.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
RUSH: Now the traditional Republican says, “Oh, no! No! Don’t say that!” There you are saying, “Oh, yeah. I’ll be glad to do it if that’s what it takes.”
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I actually think it would be positive. … It’s like pulling teeth, though. Getting these guys to get it done is… You have no idea how tough I’ve been. I say, “Hey, if you have a shutdown, you have a shutdown.” Now, the shutdown could also take place after the election. I happen to think it’s a great political thing, because people want border security. … One way or the other, it’s getting done. But I’d be willing to do it. And you could do it before the election or after the election.
RUSH: Well, speaking of before, as a campaign issue, I saw a couple consultants say… I don’t need to mention their names. They’re Washington, D.C., professionals.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
RUSH: They said that you need to drop this immigration stuff, Mr. President. You’re cruising for defeat if you base the midterms on this.
THE PRESIDENT: I know. I’ve heard that. (chuckles)
RUSH: You need to pivot back onto the economy, start telling people what a great economy that we have, ’cause that’s the only way the Republicans can have a chance of holding the House in the midterms. What do you think about that advice?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ve heard them. Probably different people than you, but I’ve heard a lot of people saying, “Oh, don’t do it before the election, you’ll upset the applecart,” and… You know, because we are doing so well economically … But I happen to think that border security would be a good thing before the election, but there are many people within our party — that are good people that are like you that agree with you on everything you say. But they’d rather do it after. They don’t agree on doing it before, and I accept their opinion, but I happen to think it would be a good thing to do before. I actually think we’d get more and there’d be more pressure on the other side, because we’re doing it because the Democrats are not giving us the votes.
RUSH: I think immigration is the largest reason you got elected, your consistency on that.
THE PRESIDENT: Uh huh.
RUSH: I mean, it reverberates all across the country. There are people that the media, the inside-the-Beltway denizens are never gonna understand about this issue that you do. You’ve just articulated it, and you have articulated the thinking of what I think is a vast majority of people in this country. It’d be silly for you to abandon this issue now, going into the midterms.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if you do it before, there’s a lot more pressure to get a great solution. But it’s riskier. If you do it afterwards, there’s less pressure; there’s less risk. I’m just not sure you’d make as good a deal.
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RUSH: You notice what happens? We can never do it now! There’s always a reason to delay it! Now we gotta delay it, kick the can down the road. It never gets done!
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RUSH: That was President Trump from back in August, that interview — and, by the way, this $10.6 billion going to southern Mexico and Central America? That’s not money from Congress, folks. That is money from the executive branch! That’s what makes this so maddening. That money is already allocated somewhere. It’s just being spent this way!