WHAT THE EXIT RAMP LOOKS LIKE:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told the president that he had no leverage and that, without a clear strategy, he would be "boxed in a canyon." He tried to make the case to Trump that even if Pelosi and Schumer were interested in cutting a deal with him, they would be constrained from compromising because of internal Democratic Party pressures to oppose Trump's wall, these officials said.

Then-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) talked with Trump by phone for 45 minutes the day before the shutdown, warning that he saw no way to win as he paced in a Capitol hallway just outside a conference room where House Republicans were meeting. Then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned about the perils of a shutdown during the Christmas season. 

Inside, some of the more hard-line members urged a showdown over border wall funding, arguing that Trump's core supporters would revolt otherwise. But McCarthy asked, "Tell me what happens when we get into a shutdown? I want to know what our next move is."

A senior White House official characterized Republican leaders as "supportive" throughout the shutdown.

Trump's advisers are scrambling to build an exit ramp while also bracing for the shutdown to last weeks longer. Current and former aides said there is little strategy in the White House; people are frustrated and, in the words of one, "freaking out."

Tweet   @brothersjudd