It would have been smarter to have started the infrastructure spending negotiations at the beginning of the administration and then kept stringing it out while pushing for Obamacare repeal, tax reform, funding for the Wall and other things.
That way you can reward or punish people like Susan Collins for going along with the other things you want by giving her or denying her infrastructure spending in her district.
Yes it’s sleazy but it’s the way things actually got done in Washington back in the years before the federal government was funded by just periodically renewing a massive omnibus continuing resolution spending bill.
You nailed it—pork is desert in DC.