what is it that the asshole wants to see in a bill before he'll sign it? "The Wall," but what does

[gratuitous]

3. Trump just wants to burn a big pile of money

The ask of $5.8 billion (or whatever it is this afternoon) won't do jack/squat about building the impenetrable barrier Trump keeps yammering about. It will be as effective as using a squirt gun on a wildfire for all the effect it will have. But once you've thrown $5 billion at WALL, you have to keep feeding the beast. The administration will be back at appropriation time for another $10 billion of $50 billion or however much Trump wants. Once Congress has said yes once, they're not likely to say no next time. And the time after that? Well, by then the boondoggle will have taken on a life of its own and it will have to be, must be, funded or concede that we were just burning money for no particular purpose.

This is a classic "give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile" scenario.