In a press conference yesterday, President Trump tossed out two tasty nuggets regarding the ongoing government kinda-sorta shutdown and the border wall.

One: After a closed-door meeting between the president and Democrat higher-ups, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer ran crying to the media, tattling that Trump said "he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time, months or even years."  Reporters then flocked to Trump, doubtless hoping for shamefaced equivocation.

Nope:

Trump later confirmed in the Rose Garden, "Absolutely I said that," while clarifying he hopes the partial shutdown doesn't last more than a few more days. He said it could be opened "very quickly" if they come to an agreement on the wall.

Two:

"We can call a national emergency [to build a border wall] because of the security of our country," Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden, during a lengthy and impromptu press conference.

"I may do it," he said, before adding, "If we can do it through a negotiated process, we're giving it a shot."

The Washington Post exemplifies the tenor of the MSM reaction, shrieking about "a rambling hour long news conference" and "little empathy" from the president for the Transportation Security Administration.  Seriously, the WaPo assigned three whole reporters to sob to Americans over the grope-happy TSA:

Real-life consequences of the shutdown are already beginning to seep in.  In one example Friday, union leaders said hundreds of Transportation Safety Administration workers at major airports nationwide are off the job because they can't afford to get to work, although a TSA spokesman said the absences aren't enough to affect airport security operations.  Millions of Americans also face delayed tax refunds and cuts to food stamps if the standoff drags into February.

This is the best they can do to frame a "shutdown apocalypse" narrative: airport security operating as normal and the prospect of some people maybe perhaps possibly "facing" "delayed" tax refunds – which is to say the government will hold the people's money hostage, interest-free, for even longer, or else hold off on sending out Earned Income Tax Credit welfare giveaways.

Trump's "national emergency" comment looks like an offhand remark.  As an indicator of practical policy, it probably doesn't mean much.  But it speaks volumes about Trump's superior understanding of the country's political landscape, inextricably intertwined with its entertainment landscape.

Here are three things Trump understands about most Americans that the exploding-head liberal media don't:

Now that voters have handed them control of the House of Representatives, Democrats are forced to reveal who they are to the national electorate, and it ain't pretty.  The party has more than its share of bizarre eccentrics, able to win a local election in a deep blue district, and they are feeling their oats.  They thrive on media attention, which they get because they are colorful and young and say radical things that excite progressive journalists.

But money and power remain in the hands of the gerontocracy branch of the party, headed by Nancy Pelosi, the shrewd power player who learned her craft at the knee of the political boss of Baltimore, her father, Tommy D'Alesandro, who knew a few things about money, power, and deal-making.

Her first speech as speaker of the House this term feigned stately grace (calling the Capitol a "temple of democracy," for instance) and bipartisanship fairly effectively, and she brought her grandkids to the podium at one point.  However, her disturbing quirks as a public speaker were all too evident, even as she read her prepared speech.

Listen to the bizarre giggles she cannot repress as she is being applauded.

Anger and downright hatred for the sitting president of the United States powers most of the 40 newly elected members of the House Democratic Caucus, along with many veterans, including "Mad Max" Maxine Waters, slated to become chair of the House Financial Services Committee and very publicly committed to impeachment.  Pelosi is shrewd enough to realize that impeachment without a smoking gun would be a disaster for Democrats, but that won't stop the Trump-haters, who believe they have momentum and support of the party's faithful.  Eleven-term veteran Congressman Brad Sherman, of Ventura County, California, has already introduced articles of impeachment, and that's just the beginning of the ordeal Pelosi will have trying to rein in her crazies.

Those crazies include another media darling, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who chose Palestinian garb in which to take the oath of office, no doubt simultaneously pleasing the 19% of the American public that chooses to support the Palestinians over Israel, as well as the Republican Jewish Coalition.  (See what I mean about the clown show now?)

Grabien screen grab.

Perhaps because the Koran commands women to be modest, Rep. Tlaib eschewed sharia-compliant garb and wore more conventional clothing to tell her supporters (to wild cheers), "We're gonna go in and impeach the motherfucker."