that President Trump has no way out

of the government shutdown he's boxed himself into.

For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."

[ Suspenseful theme plays ] [ Cheering and applause ]

The shutdown is having real effects for millions of people

and that includes law enforcement officials

going without pay.

Yesterday, in his confirmation hearing,

Trump's pick for attorney general, William Barr,

was asked about the effect on law enforcement

and said the shutdown was the fault of both sides.

- People would like to see the shutdown ended

and that's why people wanna see some kind of compromise

and, you know, you call it the Trump shutdown,

but, I mean, it takes two to tango.

-Okay, but this is not a tango.

Trump is the only one dancing.

[ Laughter ] And, judging from how

he moves his hands, he's doing some off-brand version

of the Macarena. [ Laughter ]

I mean, look at 'im. He looks like a grandpa at a wedding.

[ Laughter ] ♪ Hey, macaroni ♪

[ Laughter and applause ]

It's not both sides.

We all remember the meeting in the Oval Office

where Trump literally said he was proud

to shut down the government and, yet,

despite the fact that he is on camera,

saying the shutdown would be his fault,

Trump actually thinks he's winning the argument.

CNN reported yesterday that Trump has been

telling aides and allies that he believes

he is winning the battle for public support.

Well, of course he believes that.

He watches more Fox News than all the residents

of a Texas senior center, combined.

[ Laughter and light clapping ]

Trump always thinks he can win any fight.

He can be in the Octagon with Conor McGregor,

takin' a kick to the face, and he'd say, "Did you see?

I just head-butted his foot with my face."

[ Laughter and light clapping ]

Trump also thinks his Oval Office speech

on the wall last week

really moved public opinion to his side.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "Wait,

Trump gave a speech from the Oval Office last week?"

And that's because everyone has already forgotten about it.

[ Laughter ] That speech was only a week ago

and it's already been eclipsed by several insane news stories,

from Trump's trip to the southern border

to the fact that the FBI thought he was a Russian asset,

to the fact that the White House

is serving so much fast food, they've added a drive-thru.

[ Laughter and applause ]

What's next, is he gonna --

[ Applause ]

[ Cheering and applause ]

Is he gonna try to achieve peace in the Middle East

with a summit at Chuck E. Cheese?

[ Laughter ]

[as Trump] No quarters for anyone 'til you sort this out.

[ Laughter ] So, yes, Trump really did

give a primetime address on the wall last week

and he thinks it helped sway public opinion to his side,

but the actually polling says something very different.

-Within the last half hour, Quinnipiac has come out

with a new poll, asking, "Did the president's speech

last week from the Oval Office

[ Laughter ] change your mind

about the wall?" Only 2% said yes.

-2%?!

Maybe the speech only polled at 2%

because Trump's eye was only 2% open.

That's why he thinks he can win any fight.

He's Popeye, except, with bacon, instead of spinach.

[ Laughter ] Trump's argument is not working

'cause it's detached from reality.

It's also very hard to follow.

For example, Trump has recently found a new favorite line

that he keeps repeating at all of his public appearances:

"Walls work because cars have wheels."

-They say a wall is medieval.

Well, so is a wheel.

A wheel is older than a wall.

[ Laughter ]

And I looked and every single car out there,

even the really expenses ones,

[ Laughter ] that the Secret Service uses --

and believe me, they are expensive.

I said, "Do they all have wheels?"

"Yes." Oh, I thought it was medieval.

The wheel is older than the wall, you know that?

And, uh, there are some things that work.

You know what? A wheel works and a wall works.

They say it's medieval.

Well, so is the wheel, medieval.

I looked at all the vans and all of the serious equipment

that they surrounded me with yesterday.

-Mm. -The Secret Service, the police,

the Border Patrol, ICE.

Every one of those had the wheel.

Well, they say wheels are medieval, too.

But some things don't change.

Wheels and walls.

[ Laughter ]

-Hey, um,

I'm worried about Grandpa.

[ Laughter ]

Yeah, no. It's, uh --

[ Applause and cheering ] Yeah.

[ Whistling ]

[ Applause ]

No, it's a wheel wall. Yeah, it's a wheel wall.

[ Laughter ] I gotta go.

He just keeps saying the same things over and over.

In other words, he's hitting a wall

and it's his brain is going around like a wheel.

[ Laughter ]

But I guess, now, we know what Trump's been doing all day

in the Oval Office during the shutdown:

Just starin' out the window,

countin' all the wheels on the car.

[ Laughter ] One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Oh, no, a bus! This isn't gonna be easy.

[ Laughter ]

Now, as dumb as Trump's argument is, he was actually going

to get another chance to make it later this month,

to yet another primetime audience,

for his annual State of the Union address.

But presidents technically have to be invited

to give the State of the Union by the speaker of the House

and, today, because of the shutdown,

Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Trump to reschedule

his State of the Union address or deliver it in writing.

[ Laughter ] That's such a great burn

because, you know, when Trump heard reschedule,

he thought, [as Trump] "Yes!"

But when he heard deliver it in writing, he thought,

[as Trump] "No-o-o-o-o!" [ Laughter ]

I would love to see Trump write down his State of the Union.

I can imagine what that would look like.

[ Laughter and applause ]

It's fun!

It's fun.

[ Cheering, whistling, and applause ]

Fun, picturing Trump sittin' down at a typewriter,

punchin' the keys one at a time with his sweaty hand paws.

[ Laughter ] [as Trump] Is wall spelled

with one L or four?

[ Laughter ]

I'll just use all the L's.

[ Laughter ] What we're witnessing right now

are the desperate gasps of the Trump agenda.

The wall was the signature promise

of his campaign and presidency.

He's been talkin' about it for three and a half years,

but, now, it's slipping away,

with Democrats in control of the House,

and, in his desperation to save face and get a deal,

Trump is throwing everything he said about the wall

out the window.

For example, he said Democrats didn't even have

to call it a wall and offered one very strange suggestion.

-This is where I asked the Democrats to come back

to Washington and to vote for money for the wall,

the barrier, whatever you wanna call it's okay with me.

They can name it whatever.

They can name it Peaches.

[ Laughter ] I don't care what they name it.

-They should call his bluff and name it Donald Trump's BO.

[ Laughter ]

Then, his supporters would have to say,

"Donald Trump's BO has been very effective

in keeping immigrants out of the country."

[ Laughter ]

And that isn't even the weirdest suggestion

for what the wall should be called because, last week,

Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy said,

"You can call it a barrier.

You can call it a wall.

You can call it a wang doodle,

[ Laughter ] for all I care.

Wang doodle and peaches don't sound like names for a wall.

They sound like a euphemism for a guy's junk.

[ Laughter ] Did you hear about Rudy?

He accidentally sat on his wang doodle

and banged it into his peaches

and that explains why he looks like that.

[ Applause and cheering ]

So, now --

[ Applause ]

Now, Trump is throwing out all of his campaign promises

about the wall and saying Democrats can call it

whatever they want, but one thing he guaranteed,

the one thing that was crucial to the whole idea

was that it would be impossible to get through.

-So we're gonna build a wall and it's gonna be impenetrable.

We will begin working on an impenetrable, physical,

tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall.

-Physical, powerful, and beautiful.

Was he building a wall

or setting up a Tinder profile for it?

[ Laughter ]

[as Trump] Physical, tall, powerful, beautiful,

works hard, plays harder.

[ Laughter ] And, as dumb as the wall is,

literally the only point to building one

is to make it impenetrable and Trump repeatedly promised

he could do it because that's what he does.

He's a builder!

-Look, as a builder, nobody in the history of this country

has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump.

I build infrastructure.

Do I know how to build a wall?

Our nation's in such trouble.

That's why being a builder, and a great builder,

and a very successful builder, I think, will greatly help.

Donald Trump, another great builder in New York,

now a politician.

I can't stand this. A politician!

I don't wanna be called a politician.

-Oh, don't worry.

No one -- [ Laughter and applause ]

No one thinks you're a politician.

We think of you as a politician

the way we think of Shaq as a movie star.

[ Laughter ]

So, the only point in building a wall is

to make it impenetrable and, yet, last week,

it was reported that testing of a prototype proved

it could be cut through with a saw.

And they even got a photo of the wall

after it had been sawed open.

Last week, Trump was asked about that report

and the guy who repeatedly promised

an impenetrable wall said this --

-What good is a steel wall if they can saw through it?

-Well, that's a wall that was designed

by previous administrations.

There's nothing that can't be penetrated, but you fix it.

But it's a very difficult thing to do.

But that's a wall, and they have other walls.

We have many walls under consideration.

[ Laughter ] -I love how you can tell

when Trump is lying, because he circles

through every explanation he can think of in five seconds.

[as Trump] It was Obama's fault.

Nothing is impenetrable. We have other walls.

[ Laughter ] Next, he's gonna say,

[as Trump] They can't saw through the new one

because we made it out of saws.

[ Laughter ]

All right, but so what? Maybe they can just find a new,