US Government Open: Strengthening House Speaker Pelosi and US Democrats

Two months ago, Nancy Pelosi was facing an internal Democratic Party "war" to be nominated as Speaker of the House after the party won control of the House in the November 2018 midterm elections.

At the time, she faced doubts about whether she was the right person to lead the House of Commons, with many members even calling for her to relinquish power.

Now, just a few weeks after officially receiving the powerful gavel of the House of Representatives, this California congresswoman has "defeated" President Trump in the first "battle", shaping the context of the 116th congressional term, and further consolidating her power in the House of Representatives in general and in the Democratic Party in particular.

1-0 and the advantage for future "confrontations"

President Trump “surrendered” to Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on January 25, despite previously declaring he would never reopen the government without winning his 2016 campaign pledge: a strong border wall between the US and Mexico.

However, just like what she did with the Democrats who opposed her about two months ago, Ms. Pelosi waited until Mr. Trump could "go" no further.

Amid reports of hundreds of thousands of furloughed or unpaid workers showing up at food banks and understaffed airports across the country due to the government shutdown, President Trump has been blamed for the chaos. Pelosi has won.

“No one should underestimate the Speaker of the House, as President Trump has learned,” Mr. Schumer told reporters on January 25.

Pelosi’s victory over Trump will further consolidate her power in the House of Representatives as well as the Democratic Party’s majority in this body. There will still be many disagreements between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress and with the President on issues such as the Russia investigation, immigration and health care.

President Trump not only lost in the budget plan to build the border wall, he also had to "bow down" to Ms. Pelosi's request: to postpone reading the State of the Union address - an important and meaningful event for Mr. Trump himself.

Republicans also seem to have to admit that Ms. Pelosi is really a “tough” opponent for President Trump. “She is not a pushover,” said Republican Representative Mark Meadows, a Trump ally and supporter of the President’s government shutdown.

President Trump himself has expressed frustration with the government shutdown that has lasted more than a month. In a tense meeting with White House officials on January 24 after watching negative news about the government shutdown, Mr. Trump said: “Nancy will never give me what I want [on the border wall-ND], Politico quoted two sources familiar with the matter as saying. And the next day, Mr. Trump had to concede.

President Trump agreed to reopen the government until February 15, without getting the $5.7 billion he demanded for the border wall.

Victory is not easy

Twitter was flooded with praise for Pelosi and how she “defeated” the president. Of course, the victory did not come easily for Pelosi. She had to hold closed-door meetings within the party to ensure unity.

Some Democrats are uneasy about the impact of the US government shutdown and have urged Ms. Pelosi to take into account President Trump's recent compromises.

And Pelosi's answer was: "Don't give up and come together." She told Democrats: "If we back down from President Trump on the border wall, we will lose. Right now, we are winning."

Even House Democrats who support Pelosi’s hardline “no negotiations until the government is open” stance have had their doubts. They worry that the longer the government remains shut, the harder it will be to come together. Some even admit they may have to capitulate to President Trump’s demand for border wall funding.

During a closed-door meeting of House Democrats on January 23, Ms. Pelosi defended her “no negotiation” strategy.

“Understand that there is a plan. It is to work for ourselves.” She also recalled that in 2005, Democrats defeated then-President George W. Bush’s efforts to privatize Social Security by uniting and sticking to a simple message, similar to what they are doing now. Democrats did the same with Obamacare when the US government took office in 2013.

Pelosi did one important thing that Trump couldn’t: she kept the divisions at bay in closed-door meetings. Trump, who changes his mind about what he wants almost “daily,” couldn’t keep Republicans united on his demand for a border wall—something they didn’t fully support from the start.

“Our unity is our strength and maybe the president underestimated that,” Pelosi told reporters on January 25.