Second: The Republican congressional leadership didn’t really care about the wall, and certainly wasn’t going to go to the mat for Trump on the issue when he wasn’t asking it to. [snip] (Alternatively–and better from my perspective–Republicans could have tried to redirect their supporters’ attention to better ways to enforce the immigration laws, like mandating that employers check the legal status of new hires.)

[snip]

Third: Throughout 2017 and 2018, Senate Democrats had the power to filibuster wall funding (and while Senate Republicans could have changed the rules to eliminate this power, they did not have 50 senators that wanted to take this step).

// The main problem: The GOP did not and still does not have 50 senators who want to address this issue.