You need to argue with Trump himself about the (lack of) logic in what he tweets, not with me.

If Trump were to directly refuse to sign a budget bill (is there a need for one?) he would be the culprit. Issuing a sloppy proposal however enables him to blame congress, more to the point: Democrats.

Difficult to convince people outside his core supporters that the Democrats are to blame when Congress has a Republican majority in both houses and a Republican President.
Such an argument could likely bounce back on Trump in the 2018 elections.

Again: You need to argue about that with Trump himself.

His proposal on health insurance alone should be enough reason for a landslide loss. But I'm not suicidal so I won't hold my breath waiting to see that happen.

Do let me know when Trump joins EF

It is an uphill struggle for politicians in the US. Trying to get any sort of message across when so many people are wrapped in their own prejudices and biases.

Prime example here;

Nearly a third of Americans who voted for President Trump said they don't believe that Trump's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer last year, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

That's despite the fact that Donald Trump Jr. has admitted that the meeting took place.

Source

It is clear most Trump voters see the Russian story as irrelevant. Maybe the healthcare story will be more relevant but only if they believe and understand what the GOP had proposed.

So far I have seen little evidence that he cares much about public opinion, or lets it influence his decisons. Unless he changes radically, I don't think he's going to have a second term.

Why not? He's said before that he thinks the govt. needs a shutdown. His chief strategist Bannon thinks the entire system of government needs to collapse.

Trump is probably hoping that by squeezing the little guy via shutdown, calls will flood into Congressional offices telling senators and representatives to do whatever Trump wants.

BTW, a little side note on the president's options when a bill arrives on his/her desk: http://www.dummies.com/education/pol...essional-bill/

Come again?
If you were right he wouldn't care about the inauguration crowd's size. Nor would he call polls that show his low approval rating fake.

You may be right about the lack of influence though.

... as well as confirmation by DJT.

Rephrase:

He wants people to like him but he doesn't actually want to change anything he does so people like him more.

What Russian story?

You mean the one that after six months of zealous media reporting and constant leaks, has zero evidence of Trump's involvement?

The one in which his son admitted meeting some Russian but his voters believe it is fake news that he met the Russian.
Whether it was OK or not to meet that Russian is not the question here, the question is if he met her.

In a loss for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court Wednesday left intact a lower court opinion that temporarily exempts grandparents and other relatives from President Donald Trump's travel ban.

Source

It is good the Courts exist to put a brake on Trump's actions.

Zero evidence is your assumption which has no basis in fact!
Unless you have a direct link to the FBI which I strongly doubt.

But the travel ban is still being enforced right?

Seems like it's not a total loss for the Trumpster.

The travel ban is now only enforced for migrants from the named countries who have no bone fide relationship with people already in the US.
But since such people would probably not have qualified for a migrant visa anyway.......

Trump says he wouldn't have picked Sessions if he knew he'd recuse himself.

Trump's remarks, in a 50-minute interview with The New York Times, represent an extraordinary rebuke from the President toward the nation's top law enforcement official who happens to be one of his earliest political allies.

Source

For Trump, loyalty seems to be a one way street

***********************

Trump warns Mueller against investigating his family's finances beyond Russia probe.

Trump during the interview said he wasn’t ruling out firing Mueller as special counsel on the Russia probe.

He did not say that he would order the Justice Department to fire Mueller or under what circumstances he would fire him, but he indicated Mueller investigating his family's finances would cross a line.

Source

To quote Trump himself "What does he have to hide?"

So kind of a question of priorities? I agree.
Trump's involvement may be difficult to prove (time will tell), but his tweet linked to above (and here again) show he consented and still consents to using the information against Hillary.

Do IRS and FBI share relevant info?

US 2018 budget

The Senate Appropriations Committee departed from the budget plans of President Trump and the House, choosing to stick to 2017 funding levels for its fiscal 2018 spending plan.

The committee’s funding guidance laid out on Thursday $1.07 trillion in discretionary funding: $551 billion for defense and $518.5 billion for non-defense, with an additional $103.7 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, which does not count toward budget caps.

On Wednesday, the House Budget Committee approved a $1.1 trillion resolution that increased defense spending by $70.5 billion and cut non-defense spending by $7.5 billion compared to 2017 levels; it also cut OCO spending by $16.7 billion.

Source

I suppose it all makes sense to someone somewhere

Meanwhile in the Trump family tradition of "do as I say not do as I do" during "Made in America" week;
President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida filed requests with the government on Thursday to hire 70 temporary foreign workers as cooks, housekeepers and servers at the private club, according to records posted by the Labor Department.

Those positions would take advantage of the H-2B visa program; the Trump administration moved to expand the H-2B program on Monday, saying it would offer an additional 15,000 visas.

Source

The Russian thing goes from bad to more bad. Mark Corallo has resigned as spokesman for Trump's legal team.

If there's nothing to hire why go to all the trouble to ...

"The New York Times reported that Mr Trump's team was looking to discredit the investigation led by Mr Mueller, analysing the background of the lawyers hired by him in search of any possible conflicts of interest.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post said that the president's lawyers were working to find ways to limit or undercut the investigation, also looking into possible conflicts of interest in Mr Mueller's team, and discussing the president's authority to grant pardons."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40678397

I see another first for Trump coming on - he'll grant a pardon to himself when he's impeached.