Rush Limbaugh said Thursday that President Trump got word to him that Trump would veto any spending bill that doesn’t include funding for the border wall.
After hammering Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and boasting that he’d accept blame for any shutdown, Trump seemed to be backing off in recent days, suggesting a willingness to forego funding to avoid a shutdown before Christmas.
The perceived waffling was a concern to numerous conservative pundits, Limbaugh being one of them. So it’s no surprise that the President reached out to radio’s most dominant force to ensure conservatives that he’s not going to accept any bill that fails to provide funding for the wall.
Trump: they either fund the wall or it’s being shut down
House Speaker Paul Ryan provided an early indication that President Trump was standing firm on his demand for border wall construction money.
“The president informed us that he will not sign the bill that came up from the Senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security,” Paul said, likely dousing water on Pelosi’s dancing feet.
RYAN: trump says he won’t sign senate bill.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 20, 2018
Limbaugh backed up that assertion, saying he had been notified by the President that he was standing his ground.
“I just received clearance –the president has gotten word to me that he is either getting funding for the border or he is shutting the whole thing down,” Limbaugh said on Thursday afternoon.
“I just got a phone call — well, I got an instant message, it’s the equivalent of you getting a phone call, because that’s how people communicate with me,” Limbaugh explained during his radio broadcast Thursday.
“You tell Rush that if there’s no money in this, it’s getting vetoed,” he relayed. “If there’s no money for a wall I’m vetoing this plain and simple.”
Rush Limbaugh just stated @realDonaldTrump notified him personally that he is either getting money for the border, or he is shutting the government down.
— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) December 20, 2018
Rush was highly critical of Trump’s waffling
Limbaugh had been one of the more vocal critics of the President when it appeared he was backing away from his demand of $5 billion in funding for the border wall.
The short-term bill that passed the Senate is what the media called compromise, which Limbaugh helpfully translated into English for the rest of the fair-minded world.
“Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything! Including control of the House in a few short weeks,” he explained.
“In fact,” he added, “Trump is going to get less than nothing because this compromise strips out the $1.6 billion for the wall that the Senate Appropriations Committee had already approved weeks ago, that’s gone too.”
Pelosi has already declared that funding for the border wall is a “non-starter” when it comes to spending measures that would keep the government open. She clearly thought the President was caving on the matter, but with Trump drawing a line in the sand it’ll be interesting to see who blinks first.
