Trump's speech was the Hollywood equivalent of a doomed remake: COLUMN

The Hollywood equivalent of President Donald Trump's speech Tuesday night on immigration would be releasing a movie for the 12th time after it bombed at the box office a little over two months ago.

The president's speech from the Oval Office provided no new information for this debate we are in over the government shutdown and border security, did not expand the audience who would be receptive to the president's message and will not move a single swing voter in America or in Congress to the president's position.

Other than all that, it went well.

One of the fascinating things about the president rerunning this same message but merely switching the venue to the Oval Office, is that the box office receipts already came in on this project on Nov. 8, 2018, and the message pushed by the president failed miserably at the polls. In fact, the president and his immigration message lost by a historic margin in a midterm election.

So why would you roll out the same message which failed just a few months ago and think it would be successful? My guess, just like some in Hollywood, is that when you lack creativity and you have something that got an applause line years ago, you try it again.

So in the aftermath of this presidential address, where are we?

The president doesn't seem to understand that the majority of the country is opposed to him on this issue, as all public polling shows that Americans are against a border wall, blame the president for the shutdown and are supportive of the Democrats position of reopening the government. Until the president understands that, or enough Republicans in Congress finally get the religion of reality, this shutdown will go on.

On Friday, the length of this shutdown will set a record for longest one in U.S. history. And that is definitely not a point of pride for anyone. Soon, a large number of Americans will miss a paycheck and be in real pain. When that becomes readily and vocally apparent, this issue will be addressed.

In the meantime, it might be a good idea for the president to invest in a new script, new creative people, and refrain from relaunching a rejected movie. For a man who seems to crave ratings wins, the president might not want to stick with this immigration box office failure much longer.

Matthew Dowd is an ABC News analyst and special correspondent. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of ABC News.