President Donald Trump made an impromptu phone call to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show Wednesday to congratulate Limbaugh for his 30 years on the air and take the opportunity to talk about the government shutdown.
The president was addressing the subject of his July 31 tweet, which sparked predictable outrage from many pundits.
…Border Security is National Security, and National Security is the long-term viability of our Country. A Government Shutdown is a very small price to pay for a safe and Prosperous America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018
“Here you are, suggesting that you’d be willing, to maybe, you talk about shutting down the government if thats what it took to get this wall built … I saw a couple consultants say, no need to mention their names–they’re Washington DC professionals– they say that you need to drop this immigration stuff. You’re cruising for defeat…You need to pivot back onto the economy,” Rush said.
“Well, I’ve heard them–probably different people than you– but I’ve seen a lot of people saying ‘oh don’t do it before the election you’ll upset the apple cart’ and because we’re doing so well economically, we should do well and the polls are ok,” Trump said.
After talking about how effective his endorsements have been on races all across the country, Trump gave some insight relating to his thought process on the exact timing of the shutdown.
“I have to say that I’ve heard this theory. I happen to think it’s a good thing politically. I’m not doing it for politics. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. There are many people within our party…they’d rather do it after. They don’t agree on doing it before, and I accept their opinion, but I happen to think it’d be a good thing to do before. I actually think we’d get more and there’d be more pressure on the other side. We’re doing it because the democrats are not giving us the votes.”
“I will say, though, a lot of good people would ask me in the nicest of ways ‘could we do it after the election?'” Trump told Limbaugh.
Curious if these people were impacting Trump’s thought process, Limbaugh asked,”Are you still following your gut and your instinct or relying more on your circle of advisors that you trust?”
“I think it’s largely instinct,” Trump concluded.
WATCH: