The headlines are screaming that President Donald Trump caved to the Democrats when he agreed to open the US government without new funds for his prized border wall. But read another way, Trump had more courage than the Democrats to do what had to be done.

On Friday, Trump endorsed a deal to temporarily reopen the government after a record-breaking 35-day shutdown of federal agencies. He had previously vowed to reject any such bill unless it included $5.7 billion to fund his signature campaign pledge of building a wall at the southern border to stop what he has called crime, drugs and illegal immigrants from flowing in.

The criticism from the far-right media came fast and furious. Trump “bowed”, “surrendered” was “brought to his knees”. At the same time, Democrats and the liberal media had a field day, dancing on the same words.

But if the conservative media felt so betrayed by Trump’s decision, feel they can do better, and seek to dictate the policies of the administration, then maybe they should run for office themselves. They have never had to be in the position of having to sit down and work through something until a solution is found. Trump is in that position. And in Washington, where the Republican Senate and House-controlled Democrats ensure partisan gridlock at every turn, no side is going to get everything it wants.

A US president is not a dictator. He’s got to work within the confines of getting something through two houses of Congress. In Trump’s case, it’s one where he didn’t have enough votes to win legislation, even in the Senate, and the other where House Speaker and arch Trump nemesis Nancy Pelosi is in charge. Thus, if Trump gets anything done it would be miraculous.

The cost of changing course for Trump could be steep, maybe even politically fatal. But so was the cost of keeping the government shuddered indefinitely. He could see that there was no prospect of victory in any real sense of the term, and when the shutdown was causing massive suffering among government workers, he acknowledged as much.

Polls suggest the majority of Americans blamed Trump and the Republicans for the closure but Democrats had their demands as well and were therefore just as responsible for the imbroglio. Democrats rejected outright a physical barrier along the US-Mexico border and steadfastly refused to give Trump the money for it, claiming that what was truly needed were border security improvements such as retrofitting ports of entry, new sensors and drones, more immigration judges and border patrol agents - but no wall.

Few countries are as porous as America whose laws on immigration and amnesty are loose and behind the times. And while the cost of a wall seems prohibitive, the amount Trump is demanding is a tiny fraction of the US budget.

Trump is not exempt from sharing blame for the chaos. Why did he wait a month to accept a deal that was on the table last year when Republicans ruled the three branches of government? Or even last month when Democrats demanded from Trump what he eventually signed on to – open the government and then negotiate. And his often stated campaign pledge that Mexico would pay for the wall never transpired.

The issue is not closed. If no permanent deal is reached by Feb. 15, the government could close again or Trump might resort to declaring a national emergency. This could divert military funding toward building a wall, but that would provoke multiple legal challenges.

No one likes to admit mistakes, certainly not Donald Trump. But in his own way he has done so. He took the high road when the Democrats would not. It was either an open government or an open border. For now, Trump has chosen the former.