This White House is sensitive to criticism, especially criticism from its right flank. Press secretary Sarah Sanders just threw shade at those accusing President Trump of caving after he reopened the government without first securing funding for his border wall.
Trump didn’t concede anything, Sanders insisted, “because the negotiations are still ongoing.” Any voices who say otherwise, she seemed to suggest, are out of the mainstream: “I would argue that conservatives who actually have influence supported the president throughout this process.”
A subtle dismissal to some, that sentiment will be an unmistakable slap-in-the-face to some of Trump’s earliest and most enduring allies.
It is a long list.
Ann Coulter expressed her displeasure with the deal on Friday:
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 (@AnnCoulter) January 25, 2019
The conservative commentator and New York Times best-selling author endorsed Trump in August 2015 and predicted his eventual presidency to the laughter of liberal pundits.
Mike Cernovich was similarly displeased. The right-wing commentator has been a loyal digital bulldog for Trump, regularly ripping his critics.
Nancy Pelosi is alpha.
— Mike Cernovich ???? (@Cernovich) January 25, 2019
Trump is a broken man. It’s over for him.
— Mike Cernovich ???? (@Cernovich) January 25, 2019
Sanders also implicitly wrote off a slew of Trump-friendly outlets critical of the so-called deal. The Daily Caller, the masthead built by Tucker Carlson, ran with the headline “TRUMP CAVES.” Breitbart, the empire built in part by former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon, wrote: “Government Open … And Border. NO WALL.”
The Drudge Report, the right-leaning news aggregator run by Matt Drudge, linked to news of the deal, summarizing it as: “NO WALL FUNDS.”
Sanders appeared to address all of them in one fell, roughly 30-second, swoop Monday. The message seemed clear: Anyone foolish enough to cross the administration must not have much influence.
