Donald Trump alone (Pete Marovich/Getty)


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A day after retreating over his Trump Shutdown, Donald Trump also fumes about the approach of the Trump-Russia investigation, following the arrest of his former advisor Roger Stone.

Trump turned to Twitter throughout the day, assailing his own agencies and the “fake media”, interspersing all-caps exclamations such as “BUILD THE WALL & CRIME WILL FALL”!

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Trump’s ultimatum, closing nine Federal Government agencies for 35 days, failed to get a penny of the $5.7 billion that he demanded for the $25 billion Wall with Mexico. The reopening of the Government for three weeks for talks between Republican and Democrat legislators raised the possibility of border security measures which could allow Trump to re-present “The Wall” as a combination of enhanced fencing, infrared technology, drones, and electronic sensors, as well as more personnel at ports of entry.

But, far from embracing the possibility, Trump returned to his grail of a massive physical barrier along the US-Mexico border, whipping up fear with unsupported declarations about criminal activity:

He again sought to rally support with the specter of caravans, with many women and children among those fleeing violence, invading America: “We have turned away, at great expense, two major Caravans, but a big one has now formed and is coming. At least 8000 people! If we had a powerful Wall, they wouldn’t even try to make the long and dangerous journey.”

Struck by a Trump-Russia Stone

But, in a sign of his immediate concern, Trump opened the day with a response to the arrest of his former advisor and long-time Stone, detained early Friday in a FBI raid.

Stone faces seven counts, including obstruction and witness tampering. The charges arise from his role as intermediary between the 2016 Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which disseminated material — from servers hacked by Russian military intelligence — seeking to damage Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump tried to divert attention from Stone, and Trump’s inner circle, by railing about former officials such as FBI Director James Comey, FBI agents and senior officials, and Clinton:

He said nothing specifically about the Stone indictment’s references to senior Trump campaign officials or WikiLeaks, but later tried to counter the summary of CBS News of data “released during the 2016 Election to damage Hillary Clinton”.

Trump declared a “Fake and Unverified ‘Dossier’, a total phony conjob, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary to damage me and the Trump Campaign”.

In fact, much of the “Steele Dossier”, a collection of 17 memoranda from mainly-Russian sources about claimed links between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, has been corroborated by later revelations.

But Trump had already moved on, celebrating widespread dismissals of journalists amid budget difficulties at outlets like BuzzFeed — the site which originally published the Steele Dossier:

He finished the day, “WITCH HUNT!”