PAUL BEDARD: Where Trump won: Historic ICE funding, triple wall miles, killed ‘poison pills.’
Republicans are pushing back on reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., beat President Trump in the latest budget shutdown fight, claiming that Congress approved historic funding levels for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, added miles to the border wall, and erased the cap on criminal illegal immigrants that can be jailed.
Insiders who worked on the deal said that compared to going along with a spending continuing resolution, the GOP scored several wins, though it did not reach the $5.7 billion funding Trump wanted for the wall.
“I know the conventional wisdom is that he lost on the wall in this package. But he gained … under impossible conditions,” said one insider on background.
He also reprogrammed several billions of dollars of funding outside his emergency declaration, which should be immune from any court challenge.
Related: Jeff Greenfield: Why Trump’s Going to Win on the National Emergency.