President Trump’s top supporters among right-wing media despaired on Friday after he agreed to a three-week deal to end the government shutdown without securing his border-wall funding.
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter—whose anti-immigrant views have informed much of Trump’s beliefs, and who has repeatedly pressed Trump on a border wall since before the shutdown—ripped into him after the deal was announced.
“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,” Coulter said of Trump.
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Coulter also used the opportunity to take a shot at the president’s son-in-law and top advisor. “Maybe the solution to the border crisis is not deporting 22 million illegals but one Jared Kushner,” she tweeted, alluding to the far-right’s disdain for Kushner because of his reportedly liberal beliefs on immigration.
“I’m happy federal workers will be paid,” Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren tweeted, “but @realDonaldTrump just allowed Nancy to walk all over him. It’s President Trump, not President Pelosi. Act like it.”
Under the announced deal, Trump has agreed to fund the government for three more weeks, through Feb. 15. While the deal raises the possibility of future money for border security, it does not contain the wall funding that Trump requested.
Conservative news outlets proclaimed their disappointment at the top of their sites, with large headlines lamenting the deal. “NO WALL FUNDS,” Drudge wrote in red font. “GOVERNMENT OPEN… AND BORDER,” Breitbart’s headline blared, tacking on “NO WALL” in red font.
Pro-Trump internet personality and far-right troll Mike Cernovich jabbed at Trump’s manhood, dubbing him the “commander-in-soy” while calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) an “alpha.”
“Trump is a broken man,” Cernovich wrote. “It's over for him.”
But other pro-Trump media personalities stayed optimistic—at least publicly.
“We’ll just have see what happens in the next three weeks,” talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said on his show.
“Some of you say ‘He didn’t get any money for the wall,'” a similarly positive Fox News host Sean Hannity said on his radio show. “No, he didn’t, but he’s going to.”
His former Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly, meanwhile, managed to spin the deal as a victory for Trump.
“Political chess game continues,” O’Reilly tweeted. “President Trump reopens government - a good thing. Gives Dems three weeks to make a border security deal. Reasonable. Advantage Trump today.”
