In his typical bold manner, President Trump announced his plans to visit the southern border at the end of January to mark the start of construction of the Border Wall.

Trump briefed the press from the Oval Office on Christmas Day. Actually, it’s a pretty audacious strategy. While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and soon to be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gloat about the tremendous power they hold over the President, Trump has signed a contract for the initial phase of construction of his signature project. Trump told reporters:

Yesterday, we gave out 115 miles worth of wall. 115 miles in Texas and it’s going to be built hopefully rapidly. I’m going there at the end of January for the start of construction. That’s a big stretch because we’re talking about 500 to 550 miles.

It’s a 2,000-mile border but much of it has mountains and region where you can’t get across. So we’re looking at between 500 and 550 miles, so we gave out 115 miles yesterday. And we gave it out at a great price. We’re going to have a great wall there and we have other sections to give out.

One other thing people don’t understand or know or whatever, but they might as well, because they’re not really told is we’ve renovated massive amounts of very good wall — wall that was good, but that was in bad shape. So you don’t have to replace it, but you have to renovate it. And we’ve renovated a massive amount of wall. And in addition to that, and I think very, very importantly, we built a lot of new wall. So it’s all being built. The new piece, the new section is very, very exciting, what’s going on there.

And you’ll see it because in January I’m going there. We’re almost having a groundbreaking – it’s such a big section. It’s probably the biggest section we’ll get out. So while we’re fighting over funding, we’re also building and it’s my hope to have this done, completed, all 500 to 550 miles, to have it either renovated or brand new, by election time.

What will Congress’ reaction to Trump’s latest move be when they reconvene to facilitate an end to the partial government shutdown? Liberal heads, and maybe even some conservative heads, are going to explode over this.

At this moment in time, it appears that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have no interest in striking a compromise on funding for President Trump’s border wall. The spending bill passed by the House last week calls for $5.7 billion to fund the wall while the Senate version allocated $1.3 billion for border security, but has stipulated that none of those funds could be used to pay for a wall.

Schumer and Pelosi refer to the partial government shutdown as “Trump’s shutdown,” even though the President has signaled his willingness to compromise. Trump’s acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney hinted that the White House would accept $2.5 billion in funding while Schumer has said he will not even consider funding for a wall.

Pelosi has, so far, stood with Schumer. In an interview with USA today this week, she mocked Trump’s willingness to negotiate on the specific construction materials for the wall:

First of all, the fact … that he says, ‘We’re going to build a wall with cement, and Mexico’s going to pay for it’ while he’s already backed off of the cement — now he’s down to, I think, a beaded curtain or something, I’m not sure where he is.

During the interview, Pelosi accused Trump of fear mongering saying that Trump “talked about terrorists coming in over that particular border, which wasn’t so. He talked about people bringing in diseases and all the rest of that, which wasn’t so. He’s using scare tactics that are not evidence-based, and it’s wrong,”

Of course, these statements are so. There is documented proof that terrorists have entered the country illegally and that many migrants have brought diseases with them.

Why are Democrats so lax on border security? What is behind their fierce resistance to a border wall?

They oppose a border wall because it will reduce the number of illegals streaming into the country which provide a steady stream of potential Democratic voters. The other reason is that because Trump made this issue the center of his campaign, his failure to build the wall will hurt his chances for reelection in 2020 and Democrats hope to exploit that.

Translated, Democrats are putting politics before national security, which for them, is business as usual.

And for this, they must be called out. Their lack of concern over the increasing numbers of migrants entering America illegally must be broadcast.

Pelosi said “But one thing’s for sure, the first week of January, we will be passing legislation to open up government.” She did not indicate how she would manage this, or rather if she planned to compromise or not.

Although Trump is willing to compromise on the amount of funding, he will not sign a bill unless it provides some funds for a wall.

Trump on Tuesday reiterated his demand for a wall. He said “I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open. I can tell you, it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want.”

Stay tuned.