Trump makes Republicans big spenders again

President Trump promised to “Make America Great Again,” but his budget-busting debt deal with profligate Democrats abandons that project in a weak-kneed play to save him from actually having to fight a tough fight for budget sanity before reelection.

While the political reality of a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives surely limits Trump’s bargaining power, it’s baffling that the Art of the Deal author negotiated away all his leverage by stating his real bottom line at the start. He sent Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a singular demand: a deal that avoids a debt-limit fight or a potential government shutdown before the 2020 election.