This is your government on Republican dope

After yesterday's meeting with Trump, John Thune and God's vicar, Chuck Schumer unwittingly acknowledged that Democrats' demand for government funding negotiations is a resolute insistence on a sham deal.

"How could we negotiate a bipartisan agreement?" asked Schumer — only to "have [Trump] unilaterally" nullify it, conceded Schumer.

Precisely. To Trump, bipartisan agreements on paper are like business contracts. Both are useful as toilet tissue. Hence we are left to ask, Why do Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleagues insist on negotiating one of the stinky things?

Trump's not alone on his cleverness throne, where he sits and thinks, though sometimes he just sits. As does Mr. Vance, who says we're "headed into a shutdown because Democrats won’t do the right thing," forgetting that OMB's Mr. Vought has said "we want [government] funding to be shut down."

Indeed Trump's cleverness is a party-wide phenomenon. That's one of those rare truths rarely reported by the major press. They came through this time.

The Washington Post writes that "Republican leaders signaled that they are unwilling to consider Democrats’ demands." The NY Times writes that "Republicans repeatedly chided Democrats as being too unyielding."

Meanwhile, having canceled a meeting with Democrats last week, saying they're "unserious and ridiculous," last night Trump landed a counter-blow of this-boys-and-girls-is-how-seriousness-is-done":

Note the line, "give all these illegal aliens free healthcare." The deepfake isn't Schumer's. It's Republicans' — and strangely, it's not fake.

It's JD's: "Democrats ... demand we fund healthcare for illegal aliens." God's vicar: "Chuck Schumer wants to reinstate free healthcare for illegal aliens." Senate Republicans on X: a Democratic demand, "Give illegal aliens free healthcare."

Another oddity. The press reports that moderate, dictatorship-supportive Republicans prefer the reinstatement of higher Obamacare subsidies. But doing so in the Senate would send the funding bill back to the House. So the underlying hangup isn't the Dems after all.

Plus the House majority ditched its scheduled return this week, choosing to sit on their hands elsewhere — anyplace far away from where an altogether sham deal could be negotiated. Which is even stranger.

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This piece is cross-posted in Substack.