Donald Trump had put his reputation as the greatest dealmaker of all time on the line when he refused to sign the money bill that would keep the American government running unless it contained billions to build the wall he wants on the Mexican border.
For thirty-five days - the longest is US history - eight hundred thousand American government workers have been on furlough. National parks and tourist icons such as the Statue of Liberty have been shuttered and rubbish collection has ceased in many cities. The second pay day has passed with no money flowing into worker bank accounts.
Perhaps the key to Trump's abject surrender was the fact that the air traffic controllers at American airports were part of those eight hundred thousand laid off. They are an essential service and by law they must remain on the job but controllers calling in sick began to fray safety and should a plane crash be blamed on controller error the public would be unforgiving.
Trump has opened the money spigot - for just three weeks. If the Democrats refuse him money for his wall he threatens to implement another shutdown or declare a national emergency and take those funds from the defence budget. What is missing from this debate is Trump's promise that Mexico would pay for the wall. Trump has conveniently ignored that key item from his vote winning agenda and is now demanding that the American taxpayers foot the bill.
It seems that a wall between America and Mexico is something most Americans think is not needed - and not wanted. Trump has ignored statistics to incorrectly claim that most of the drugs entering America are smuggled over this porous border and that Mexican immigrants are all rapists, thugs and murderers.
Trump staked his presidency on building that wall and now the Democrats are able to call his bluff. If he takes the course of declaring a national emergency and taking the funds to finish the wall from the defence budget he will be simply reducing America's ability to defend itself in an increasingly hostile world.
Any president who loses the support and goodwill of the vast American defence establishment and the CIA is in peril. Americans are proud of the men and women of the armed services who have shielded the free world under the American nuclear umbrella since the end of the second world war. Taking money from defence must mean reduced defence ability and that would be unthinkable to the American people.
It seems that Donald Trump has managed to catch a tiger by the tail. That promise about building a wall was the pivot that got him elected to office. His inability to deliver will probably be the issue that destroys his tenure as the resident in the White House.
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