There have been all kinds of mail;y negative articles about the short term spending bill denigrating Trump's ability to 'make a deal' and keep his campaign promises. I have listed a few of the articles:

GOPe gives Trump the finger in stopgap spending bill
http://canadafreepress.com/article/gope-...p-spending-bill

Trump 'very happy' with bill outlawing future border wall
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017...rules.house.gov

Spending bill excludes border wall, but Trump declares victory anyway
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli...yway/101200694/

White House scrambles to rebrand spending bill as Trump 'win'
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02...rump-win-237883

Vice President Calls the Show to Defend the Budget Deal
http://canadafreepress.com/article/gope-...p-spending-bill

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Here is Mulvaney's press briefing that addresses the criticisms. The transcript is very long so I have only posted some of the highlights:

Press Briefing by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017
For Immediate Release
May 01, 2017

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And I saw how the Democrats thought they did a great job and how they think we didn’t.

I think it’s great that the Democrats like the bill. That’s fantastic. We thought it was a really good deal for this administration as well. We’ll talk about that here today.

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Can you imagine how different this bill is from what the bill that President Obama would have signed back in September? And it’s those differences that I want to talk about today, and those differences that summarize why we think this was a really solid bill for the administration.

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What did we get more money for? We got more money for defense. We got more money for border security. We got more money for school choice. Looking around here, many of you were here in March when I came out for the very first time to talk about our budget blueprint. What did we ask for more money for? Defense, border security, school choice.

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What did we get more money for? We got more money for defense. We got more money for border security. We got more money for school choice. Looking around here, many of you were here in March when I came out for the very first time to talk about our budget blueprint. What did we ask for more money for? Defense, border security, school choice.

Q Aren’t you going to have the same problem funding the wall in five months when they start looking at this again? Because the opposition seems pretty entrenched.

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Well, you know, a lot can happen in five months. Maybe we can prove to folks in both parties that we’re serious about this and that the border wall is not just some campaign concept, it’s real, and that we’re serious about securing the border. So maybe if we do a really good job deploying the technology, deploying the -- or making the maintenance and stuff that this bill provides for, maybe it will help convince people that this is not just demagoguery. We are serious about securing the border. And maybe that will help folks come to our side of things.

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Q Thanks. This bill, as you know, obviously, also includes continued funding for Planned Parenthood and the Obamacare subsidies that you all have talked about, or as the President had talked about, being withheld are in here. So while --

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Half of that is right, half of that is not.

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DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Let’s talk about Planned Parenthood on one hand and then we’ll talk about the Obamacare subsidies on the other. In fact, let’s deal with the other one first. That was the Democrats’ top priority, was to secure the continued Obamacare payments, and the bill doesn’t do that. We didn’t -- the bill does not address the CSR payments. That was a major demand that they gave up. We thought it was appropriate, because we gave up on our primary demand, which was bricks and mortar. So I thought that was the proper functioning of a negotiation. So I’ve seen in a couple places where some Democrats are saying that the bill covers CSR payments, and it does not.

As to Planned Parenthood, yeah, it does fund that. It absolutely does. And we were concerned about that to begin with and then thought it through and had a chance to talk with some pro-life leaders both on the Hill and then off the Hill from some of the outside groups. I think everybody came to one realization, which is that if you’re serious -- if you’re a lawmaker serious about voting to defund Planned Parenthood, then your opportunity to do that is in the AHCA, the American Healthcare Act, which the House is currently debating right now.

So we decided not to fight the Planned Parenthood battle on this funding bill because it’s contained in the AHCA, which we hope to take up this week as well.

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Q Just following on the question about -- when we heard in March you discussed kind of things like foreign aid and the EPA. And so can you talk about sort of why those are still in this? And secondly, and more broadly, what you were calling for in March was something that was going to be deficit-neutral.

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: A couple different reasons. Part of the compromise is sort of the big answer. But the smaller answer is that a lot of our folks -- our Department of Labor Secretary just got there Thursday. So to expect them to be able to implement dramatic changes in their bureaucracies in a short period of time I think is probably unreasonable. So we’ll continue to push what we pushed on ’18. But we were happy to go ahead and let ’17 run out in order to help get this deal done.

Q Deficit?

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: The deficit is not going to change by this. Keep in mind one thing that's also not being reported -- we did all of this without busting the caps. The number is still going to be $1.070 trillion. So those spending caps held as part of this agreement.

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off...r-mick-mulvaney



Her is the text of the actual act:
/files/115/OMNI/CPRT-115-HPRT-RU00-SAHR244-AMNT.pdf
Press Briefing by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017

IMHO Trump is playing a very shrewd and difficult game using the tactics the progressives used to get us in the fix we are in today. His administration is chipping away at the left's changes letting the left think it won a great victory. Remember these changes were put into place over decades. Trump has been in office only a few months.

For example look at the border wall. This is a project that will takes months to put into effect. Since Trumps inauguration, the Border Patrol reports a noticeable decrease in illegal border crossings, and criminal illegals have actually begun to be deported. The FY17 funding bill adds funds to fix broken parts of the existing fence. The Justice department is issuing reports of cries committed by illegals and stats on the number of illegal incarcerated and the cost to the tax payers. A few days ago the Department of Homeland Security announced the creation of the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) office, which will provide aid to people affected by crimes committed by illegal aliens. Meanwhile the progressives in both parties jump up and down celebrating no funding for the new border wal in the short term budget.

Have the progressives becmoe the proverbial frog in the pot ?