Optics - the republicans and Trump will look like losers if they don't ... If Trump doesn’t take advantage of the State of The Union and address why he gave in, he will look weak. If Trump and the Republicans don’t take advantage of all the material gained during the shut down for the up coming election cycle, they will look weak. Yeah, yeah, trust the plan. Well, things might be moving in the back ground but if some stump thumping doesn’t happen, then the plan might not unfold. 3 weeks isn’t that far away. Let’s see what happens because right now the democrats will spin this harder than you can imagine. All they have to saw is that they stood up to Trump and people will believe it.