Much has been said about President Trump's recent meeting at the White House with presumptive House majority leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.  While Pelosi talks a good game about the need for transparency in government, she balked at the idea of the media broadcasting her visit to the Oval Office.  When the media cameras failed to leave after the obligatory pleasantries, she remarked, "I don't think we should have a debate in front of the American people."  After a second failed request to meet in private, Pelosi remarked, "Let's call a halt to this.  We have come in here ... in good faith to negotiate with you about how we can keep the government open."  It's clear to even the casual observer that Speaker Pelosi doesn't want the American public to see or hear her defending the Democrats' desire to flood the country with illegals, in addition to thwarting President Trump's campaign promise to build a wall.

Pelosi's request to have a debate in private, behind closed doors and beyond the hearing of the American people, doesn't indicate she's willing to discuss anything in good faith, much less in a transparent manner.  As a matter of fact, she was downright uncomfortable, and for good reason.  First of all, President Trump is a world-class debater.  He wasn't about to be lectured to by Nancy Pelosi, nor let her set the meeting agenda.  Furthermore, Pelosi must have realized rather quickly that President Trump's intention was to not only control the course of the discussion in front of the cameras, but also to draw both her and Chuck Schumer into a conversation, in which the two Democrat leaders would be forced to admit they advocate for open borders, unfettered illegal immigration, and dismissing border security.  Not exactly a troika of policy platitudes supported by the American people, nor in the economic best interest of the United States.

President Trump hasn't dismissed his promise to build the wall and is willing to accept full responsibility to shut down the government in order to get funding.  It was, as they say in hockey, a hat trick -- three goals in quick succession. In plain speak, both Pelosi and Schumer were cleverly outmaneuvered, given that Trump has learned the game play of his opponents, turned their notorious strategy back on them, and then called their bluff.  Maybe that explains Chuck Schumer's slouched posture during the meeting, head bent down, looking at his shoes, while Pelosi squirmed on the couch, prattling incoherently.  The president is not going to compromise.  Pelosi's post-meeting posturing and name-calling is par for the course.  Not willing to admit that she was tremendously upstaged, she resorted to insults.  

Unlike most politicians, who make a plethora of unobtainable and, in some cases, downright ridiculous campaign promises, President Trump is actually following through.  After all, that's what his supporters elected him to do, and his business acumen is all about getting things done.  Much to the chagrin of even the most virulent Trump-hater, the list of Trump's accomplishments is long, from the vastly improved economy and lowered unemployment rate to foreign trade policy favoring the United States to increased security and military defense spending, not to mention rolling back Obama's multitude of red-tape regulations and executive orders.  And if shutting down the government in order to get Congress to pass funding for the border wall is the only tactic the Democrats understand, so be it.  The migrant caravan fiasco couldn't have occurred at a more opportune time.  If the goal of the caravan sponsors was to embarrass President Trump, they failed spectacularly.  The American public isn't in favor of throwing open the border to thousands of uneducated, unskilled, and largely unemployable military-age young men despite the best efforts of a disingenuous MSM, attempting to portray the migrant mobs as displaced women with kids, fleeing violence in their home countries.

Whether or not the government will shut down in the next couple of weeks remains to be seen.  If Pelosi and Schumer thought their White House meeting with President Trump was an opportunity to outsmart the president, they thought wrong.  Donald Trump has said from day one he's working in the best interest of the American people, and apparently, he intends to build the wall.