Veteran politicians across the globe can attest to a political rule of survival: never quote the price.  According to popular culture, setting the bar too high is foolish, but setting the price is unequivocally dense.  When you set the price of victory, you give your opponents the definition of your defeat.  By setting the first-year price tag for The Border Wall, President Trump gave his opposition room to make him lose politically yet win.  All they have to do is give him some money for The Wall, just not as much as he demanded.

Consider this potential scenario.  A future President announces she will have a bill introduced in Congress, a ground-breaking initiative to create a new division of the Veterans Administration dedicated to addressing mental illness and homelessness among veterans. Awesome.  A win/win, correct?  Then she sets the starting price at $50 billion for the first year, which is probably a fair guess.  The crowd groans.  The President just gave her political adversaries the key to take credit while ensuring the President’s humiliating political defeat.  “We will sign the bill, but only with $20 billion.”  Now the President must sign it, else the Ann Coulters of the time will declare to all who will listen ‘it would be beyond moronic to accept that deal.’  Score: President zero, bipartisan Congressional legislation (and veterans) one.  This, of course, would never happen, right?

President Trump has found defeat at the point of victory.  With the bill agreed to in Congress and that will, in some form, reach his desk, he gets some money to start the border wall.  The Mayor of El Paso this week handed him the answer to how to improve border security, admitting that “barriers” near the city improved border security.

The President, heels completely dug in and behind his line in the sand, intends to sign the bill but declare a state of emergency for the United States, to address the “crisis” of a missing Border Wall.  No, it is not the only answer to border security; ask the citizens of El Paso.  The crowd groans again.  Madeleine Albright will soon need to consider amending her book to admit that Trump did just take the first significant step towards being a Fascist.  He declared a national State of Emergency to win a political fight for power.  The Border Wall is of course, in Trump’s view, part of his fight for the 2020 Presidential election.

Donald, take the lesson: don’t set the bar next time. Don’t state a number.  At least, leave some negotiating room, like removing the honestly ‘beyond stupid’ seven-tenths of a billion dollars you tacked on the price for The Wall, that made you feel like you analyzed the projected cost scenarios.  Maybe then Rush Limbaugh won’t make fun of you, and you can be friends again with Fox News.

The best advice for President Trump?  Sign the bill, and accept the compromise, and say you will revisit the State of Emergency issue next year.  Fox and Friends, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh, among your other recent detractors, will always come back and play nice, as you are their patron saint, and their main raison d’etre in mainstream media.