Old allies slam Trump over wall

Most media coverage of Donald Trump’s administration has been persistently negative, but typically the president has at least been able to rely on loyal supporters to fight his corner. That changed this weekend, as the president’s decision temporarily to end the government shutdown without receiving any funding for a border wall earned him criticism from some of his champions.

Ann Coulter, perhaps the leading anti-immigration voice on the right, was brutal. Comparing Trump to the late President George HW Bush, she tweeted: ‘‘Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.’’

Fox Business presenter Lou Dobbs, usually one of the president’s most reliable backers, said the president had been ‘‘whipped’’ by Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, whose refusal to budge an inch on wall funding during the longest shutdown in American history eventually brought Trump to the table, an act seen as caving in by his supporters and critics alike.

Tomi Lahren, a popular figure on the hard right, said Trump had allowed Pelosi to ‘‘walk all over him’’. A source close to the president said: ‘‘There’s no way

around it. The president folded like a deck of cards.’’

Some key Trump backers, including Fox News host Sean Hannity, remained optimistic. Hannity argued that the president still holds ‘‘all the cards’’ and, having placed the security issue front and centre, may win his border-wall funding in the long run. Overall, though, the picture was bleak for the president.

Trump’s decision to reopen the government came in the wake of mounting public anger and long delays to flights at New York’s LaGuardia airport, as an understaffed air traffic control began to show the strain of the 35-day shutdown.

The deal reopens the government for three weeks, while also creating a bipartisan committee that will seek to make a deal on border security as part of a new spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump struck a defiant note on Twitter, insisting the deal was ‘‘in no way’’ a concession and that he would continue to press his case for border-wall funding. He said: ‘‘It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!’’

The decision came in the wake of troubling poll numbers for the president, as surveys showed the majority of Americans blaming the shutdown on him. Trump reached his highest disapproval ratings yet: 59 per cent now view his leadership unfavourably, according to a CBS poll. An Associated Press poll showed his approval dropping from 42 per cent a month ago to 34 per cent last week.

As has so often been the case in the Trump era, major news events came in pairs. On Saturday there were more troubling headlines for the president after a very public FBI raid on the Florida home of Roger Stone, his longtime associate and the man most closely linked to possible collaboration between Trump’s presidential campaign and WikiLeaks.

Stone was arrested after being indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. He was charged with five counts of making false statements, one of witness tampering and one of obstructing a congressional committee’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

– Sunday Times

‘‘Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.’’ Ann Coulter