It's a hostage situation

Trump's latest plan to get the money for his wall is to have it made out of steel instead of concrete, as if that makes any difference. Meanwhile, people are asking why the Democrats don't just give in and let him have the money. The Democrats don't do that for the same reason that governments don't negotiate with terrorists ... if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk.

Trump isn't an effing king who can order the government to comply with his every stupid whim. And the wall *is* a stupid whim. It's not the best way to deal with the border situation, it's just a prop to Trump's ego and a sop to his brain-dead zombie horde of a base. Since he can't simply order it done, he's taken the country hostage instead.

Because of this shutdown, people have already died (Three dead in national park system accidents as shutdown wears on), and soon millions of food stamp recipients, elderly people and little kids, will be deprived of food (Food stamps for millions of Americans become pawn in shutdown fight).

Trump isn't worried about the damage done, he's relishing it (Trump’s Leverage in the Shutdown Fight: His Own Nihilism). If the Democrats give in to this moral blackmail, Trump will use the same tactic again and again to satisfy his every selfish urge.

There is a solution to the problem. The Republicans could vote to pass the very same bill they did pass earlier that would keep the government open. It won't matter if Trump refuses to sign it because Congress has the votes to override his veto. But the Republicans won't do this. They give more fealty to their would-be king than they do to the American people.