Trump’s new deal: Democrats can help me
Trump’s new deal: Democrats can help me
By Willie Brown
September 9, 2017
No one, least of all Republicans, should be surprised by President Trump’s decision to dance with the Democrats.
Donald Trump has never been about ideology. He’s about making deals. He makes absolutely no secret of that. During the Obamacare debate, it was plain to see he was ignorant of the details of the various Republican repeal-and-replace proposals — he just wanted a deal.
And that experience was instructive, because the Republicans couldn’t get him a deal. So now, he looks at the looming debate over the federal debt ceiling, and what does he see? A hard-line GOP willingness to default on our obligations, become a deadbeat superpower and throw the world’s financial markets into turmoil, all to score a few budget points.
That horse falls out of the gate dead. Even Trump can see that. So he comes to the obvious conclusion:
The sane Republicans in Congress are going to need the Democrats on this one. Why should I wait for Mitch McConnell to figure that out? I’ll cut the deal with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi myself.
So suddenly, there he is with “Chuck and Nancy,” his new best buddies. Then he doubles down with the Dems by tweeting out, at Pelosi’s request, reassurance to the “Dreamers” that there will be no immediate crackdown on them, even though Trump wants to roll back Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
People on both sides of the aisle tied themselves into pretzels trying to figure out what Trump was up to. It’s not so hard — just look at what Trump himself said to Pelosi in a phone call, as reported by the New York Times:
“The press has been incredible.”
And that’s not just boasting. It was also a message to the battered Democrats that they can score some points if they find their way to the table.
Unlike the Bernie Sanderses of the world, who come into a meeting with a laundry list of goals and conditions that must be met or no deal, Trump comes in with one idea: Come out a winner.
Truth be told, Trump is a lot closer in spirit to Schumer than to the courtly, reserved McConnell or Boy Scout Paul Ryan.
Trump and Schumer are both from New York. They’ve traveled in the same circles for years; they speak the same language.
When you saw Trump and Schumer laughing together last week, rest assured, it was not the first time.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/w...e-12184790.php
