It's hardly a secret that Trump doesn't want a bill that's going to handcuff his first year, hide documents that he wants exposed, bloats the budget, funds censorship, and adds loads to the debt.

So what? It was also hardly a secret that Johnson has to get Democratic votes to pass the bill, and that the bill would therefore include some of their priorities. Almost every bipartisan bill is going to include things that the other party might prefer not be in the bill - and omit stuff off the President's wish list.

It's up to Trump to let Johnson know what his priorities are. Does he want the bill to just pass without a whole lot of kerfuffle? Does he want the bill to include a debt ceiling provisions? Does he prefer to suck up the stuff he doesn't like in order to avoid having to spend time and political capital managing a shutdown fight, or does he want Johnson to go in a different direction?

Part of Presidenting is taking an active role in managing that stuff, rather than just leaving other parties to try to guess what you want. If you don't like the way a bill is going, then say something.

So why bring that 1,500 page monstrosity up at all? I don't believe this was a serious bill, ever.

It was dead serious - Johnson went into the week expecting it would pass. Why bring it up? Because the GOP doesn't have enough votes to pass a CR on its own, and needs Democratic votes in the House. Because the Senate is still controlled by the Democrats, so they need Democratic votes in that chamber as well. Because members of their own caucus were insisting that they wouldn't vote for the CR unless it had hurricane and farm provisions. Etc.

If your caucus won't support a clean CR, then you can't pass a clean CR. So you have to cut a deal.