President Trump stunned Washington Tuesday by calling a meeting with twenty bipartisan members of Congress in an attempt to hash out immigration reform. Trump allowed the critical meeting to be caught on camera.
Analysts on both sides of the aisle don’t know what to make of what happened. Trump seemingly backed off his former hardline stance and offered to give Democrats whatever they wanted as long they approved funding for the border wall.
“My positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with… If they come to me with things I’m not in love with, I’m gonna do it, because I respect them,” Trump said.
The president is famous for his tough approach in the negotiation room, but he’s not a one-trick pony. He understands that compromise is the only way to get things accomplished in Washington. His base doesn’t want him to extend the DACA protections put in place by the Obama administration, but Democrats will never agree to the border wall unless they’re thrown a bone.
“I feel having the Democrats in with us is absolutely vital because it should be a bipartisan bill. It should be a bill of love,” Trump said. “Truly, It should be a bill of love. But it also has to be a bill where we’re able to secure our border. Drugs are pouring into our country at a record pace. A lot of people coming in that we can’t have.”
Democrats want to protect the Dreamers, Republicans want to beef up border security. Nobody is going to get everything they want, but Trump is creating a way to leave most people satisfied.
“If Democrats don’t try to do everything in their power to defend Dreamers, that will jeopardize Democrats’ electoral chances in 2018 and beyond… In short, the next few weeks will tell us a lot about the Democratic Party and its long-term electoral prospects,” warns a memo being circulated by progressive group Center for American Progress.
There’s no way that the Democrats will support increased border spending without getting what they want regarding the Dreamers. Conservatives who are against Trump’s capitulation should recognize that he’s the president, not the dictator of the U.S. He often has no choice but to compromise.
(Source: Daily Mail)