Trump plans a PR blitz on border wall

Super Bowl Sunday interview among high-profile events

WASHINGTON – Aides to President Donald Trump sketched out a three-week public relations campaign, including the possibility of another trip to the border, as the president seeks to influence new negotiations over funding and his proposed wall.

The latest push, which includes next week’s State of the Union address, comes after Trump largely retreated from public view following his decision Friday to reopen the government for three weeks without new wall funding. The president hasn’t attended any public events since he called for a “great and secure deal” late last week.

As the clock ticks toward a Feb. 15 deadline to fund the government, White House plans include events designed to highlight immigration woes and

possibly another visit by the president to the U.S.-Mexican border.

Trump visited the border Jan. 10 to highlight what he has repeatedly described as a “crisis.”

White House officials developed their game plan as a bipartisan committee of 17 lawmakers met for the first time Wednesday to begin talks aimed at avoiding another shutdown and addressing Trump’s request for billions in border security money.

“The administration really needs to be forceful and hands-on when it comes to these negotiations,” said RJ Hauman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports a border wall. “They need to take the case to the American people.”

Trump has two high-profile events built into his schedule: a Super Bowl Sunday interview with CBS and the annual State of the Union address, which was rescheduled for Tuesday after the government reopened. Both will give the president an opportunity to frame the conference committee negotiations, which White House aides will not take part in directly.

“If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.

The Trump team discussed whether to bring lawmakers to the White House for meetings with the president as the Feb. 15 deadline draws nearer.

“We’ll continue to highlight the crisis at the border,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Marc Short, Trump’s former legislative affairs director, said he is skeptical the bipartisan conference committee will be able to broker a deal, but it makes sense for the president to keep pushing the issue even as he weighs declaring a national emergency.

An emergency declaration could free up billions of dollars for a wall, but it would draw legal challenges.

“I think both sides are entrenched, and a declaration seems inevitable, but the president should still be applying pressure in some moderate Democratic districts,” Short said.

Trump hopes to recapture some of the political initiative he lost after agreeing to Democrats’ demands to reopen the government without wall funding, though polling indicated the 35-day shutdown did little to hurt his support with Republicans.

“There are basically no hearts and minds not already on the president’s side to be won over,” GOP consultant Liz Mair said. “Literally no one in the country is changing their opinion about him at this stage.”

That has given the president a level of insulation with his base, Mair said, but has limited his ability to influence independent voters and members of Congress.

“Maybe he’ll get lucky,” Mair said. “It’s happened before.”

Though Trump’s public relations campaign on the shutdown got off to a slow start during the holidays, it picked up steam in early January. He made a high-profile visit to the Texas-Mexico border, delivered his first prime-time Oval Office address and gave a rare Saturday speech in which he offered temporary protection for some immigrants who entered the country illegally in exchange for $5.7 billion to build a wall.

One talking point the White House is likely to hammer in coming days is that Democratic lawmakers have privately signaled support for some kind of wall, or at least more security fencing along the border. Sanders offered that as a reason Trump reopened the government last week and agreed to negotiations.

House Democratic Conference Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York said there may be room for negotiation on that point.

“We are willing to support fencing where it makes sense, but it should be done in an evidence-based fashion,” Jeffries said.

Some Trump allies are skeptical congressional Democrats will agree to any kind of a wall, which will probably push Trump to spend more time in coming weeks on Plan B: declaring a national emergency.

“He’s got to prepare that legal route, which I think is inevitable,” GOP strategist John Thomas said, referring to what he described as Trump’s need to build a legal case for what could be a lengthy court battle. “He can recapture that narrative, but truthfully, this is going to be a rallying cry for the president heading into the 2020 campaign.”

Trump and his team “need to take the case to the American people.” RJ Hauman Federation for American Immigration Reform