As the shutdown is in day 38, the threat for Pres. Trump and the GOP is that suddenly the eye is off the ball and people are noticing. While the people are hurting and want to get paid and back to work (they will be paid at some point but work is slowing down), he is talking about Ukraine and Russia

Admittedly he is meeting with Hungary’s Orban. Nevertheless he says

• We will talk, trade, energy, Ukraine with Hungary’s Orban
• Looking at exemptions for Hungary from sanctions on Russian oil.
• Hungary’s Orban has not made a mistake on immigration
• We are talking about meetings with Putin
• Think EU should respect Hungary.
• The basic dispute with Russia is they don’t want to stop war in Ukraine

Hungary is reliant on Russian oil. The thought was that to pressure Russia toward peace, you have to cut off the avenues for their oil. So who knows, but with the domestic economy under pressure from the government shutdown, not only is Trump not exactly winning overseas – there is still tension in the middle east, China is saying that rare earth thought may not be the same as the US – and the US government in shutdown and the K economy gettting worse and worse, and stocks taking it on the chin, happy days and not so happy.