Something for everyone here. For Trumpers, it’s a case of the president kicking their least favorite RINO cuck in the ass on his way out the door.

For anti-Trumpers, it’s a case of a guy who bent the knee to Trumpism getting a much-deserved kick in the ass from the guy he toadied to on his way out the door.

A nasty squabble over immigration between the president and the Speaker of the House six days before the midterms seems like it can only portend good things for the GOP on Election Day.

Yesterday:

.@SpeakerRyan responds to Trump: "Well you obviously cannot do that. You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order. We didn’t like it when Obama tried changing immigration laws via executive action, and obviously as conservatives we believe in the Constitution." pic.twitter.com/XMnt7ZzZrF

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 30, 2018

Today:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057674390446448642

I think this interpretation of Trump’s tweet is correct:

Translation: "If we lose, it's not my fault." https://t.co/qU0ncZ7pnX

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 31, 2018

I’ve been wondering what inane explanation POTUS would come up with to deny responsibility if House Republicans get blown out next week. “Americans are screaming for us to end birthright citizenship but Paul Ryan broke their hearts” might be it.

I’m 50/50 on whether he came up with the idea of an executive order about this purely as some sort of campaign ploy, knowing full well that it’ll go nowhere in court, or if he really believes it’ll work, having been convinced of its soundness by an especially forceful “Fox & Friends” segment or whatever at some point. I think there’s a chance he … really believes it’ll work:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057624553478897665
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057637708296794114

It’s true that Reid supported ending birthright citizenship, it’s true that Democrats want open borders, it’s true that it’s batsh*t insane to reward someone who entered the U.S. illegally by granting their child citizenship just because the birth happened to occur before they were deported. It is not true that “many legal scholars agree”; practically none do, including Kellyanne Conway’s better half.

And it is not true that SCOTUS is going to come through for POTUS on this — although I think that may help explain his sudden interest in the subject. A man like Trump, having a transactional nature and zero interest in legal niceties, has spent the past four months hearing how he’s made the Supreme Court conservative for another generation. Not only that, he and Mitch McConnell went to the mat to shepherd Brett Kavanaugh through confirmation amid some of the nastiest partisan fighting in years. Kavanaugh owes him, Gorsuch owes him — or so he thinks. They’re going to come through! Let me break the bad news to him, though: It’s waaaay more likely that the Court would come out 9-0 against Trump’s position than it would come out 5-4 in favor. Maybe he’d get Thomas to make it 8-1. Maybe he’d get Gorsuch or Kavanaugh. Realistically, his best-case scenario is losing 6-3. I hope Don McGahn explained that to him before he rode off into the sunset. If not, re-read Trump’s tweet about Ryan up top and imagine a version 100 times nastier. That’s what Kavanaugh’s going to get if he sides with the majority in favor of birthright citizenship.

Exit question: Is it true, as the chatterati is insisting today, that Trump’s birthright-citizenship gambit is a sudden liability for Republicans in the midterms? I understand the logic but my gut says that this will be filed away by the electorate in the ever-expanding category of “Sh*t Trump Says.” Is he serious about it, or just thinking out loud? Is he trolling someone by proposing it or has he studied the issue? Was Hannity talking about it last night and now Trump is riled up for a few hours, but he’ll be onto something else tomorrow? Unless and until there’s an actual order drawn up or a bill passed, the “Sh*t Trump Says” category can be safely ignored.