It has taken just under eight months for the signature issue of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—the construction of a border wall along our southern border with Mexico—to become negotiable. You could almost hear Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer grinning as they typed their statement out following their Wednesday night dinner with Trump at the White House. “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” they said.
“The wall will come later,” the president claimed Thursday morning. That’s a stunning admission from Trump. Yes, he and the White House have since walked back from that position, with Trump saying later on Thursday that if Democrats don’t agree to approve funding for the wall, “we’re not going to do what they want.” And sure, for a long time now the White House has vacillated on what constitutes a wall. (Is it beefing up existing structures? Is it actually a fence?) The truth is that since January the administration has paid little more than lip service to the one promise that defined his candidacy and helped him win the Republican nomination and the presidency.
But even if the Pelosi/Schumer deal on DACA fails—a very likely possibility, given the volatility of what its principals say is in it, and the way it makes the roll call vote unusually unpredictable—it is an important signal of his willingness to back off from just about any of his positions, if the pressure and charm offensive are correctly calibrated.
Republicans around the president as well as on Capitol Hill have been impressing on Trump this reality: the more he deals with Democrats—on the debt ceiling and now on DACA—the harder it gets for Republicans to rack up legislative victories. That in and of itself may not matter to Trump, but to the extent that an unproductive Republican Congress becomes a successful Democratic talking point in next year’s midterm elections, it might. The message Trump’s been hearing? Losing the 2018 midterms guarantees Trump will be impeached in 2019.
That’s why it may be more than just vanity that has Chuck Schumer gushing that Trump “likes us.”
An important question is how much of Trump’s base will abandon him over this deal? My colleague Andrew Egger snagged an interview with one avatar for that base: Kelli Ward, the pro-Trump Republican challenging incumbent senator Jeff Flake of Arizona.
“I absolutely trust President Trump,” Ward said.
Nork Watch—According to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump was briefed by his chief of staff, John Kelly, on a missile launch by North Korea. The U.S. Pacific Command issued a statement late Thursday that it had detected a launch just before noon, Hawaii time, of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japanese territory before landing in the Pacific Ocean.
Must-Read of the Day—The New York Times has an incredible story on Trump’s “humiliation” of Jeff Sessions in the moments and weeks following the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. The Times reports Trump “berated” Sessions in an Oval Office meeting and told him to resign immediately after hearing about Mueller’s appointment:
Sessions became “emotional” in the Oval and said he would resign. But Trump later rejected his attorney general’s resignation with a handwritten response to Sessions’ letter.
Read the whole thing.
As Bob Mueller’s investigation continues, the White House is quietly moving to make it easier for aides to raise money to hire attorneys.
The U.S. Office of Government Ethics has reversed an internal policy prohibiting lobbyists from giving anonymous donations to the legal defense funds of White House staffers. Politico reports:
Former OGE head Walter Schaub said the move was “depressing” and “unseemly,” provoking a prickly response from the White House.
“This is another example of Walter Schaub—who has no direct knowledge of anything the White House is doing or assisting with—trying to make himself feel relevant,” spokeswoman Lindsay Waters told Politico.
Trump (Administration) Tweet of the Day
I didn’t use a government plane on my honeymoon, and if I had I would have paid for it myself. #FakeNews
— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) September 14, 2017
President Trump traveled to hurricane-battered Florida on Thursday to meet with displaced residents and local officials, praising the state’s recovery efforts and chatting freely with local supporters.
Speaking from the airport in Fort Myers, Trump applauded FEMA and the Coast Guard for “the job you’ve done in saving people, saving lives.” The president also praised the efforts of governor Rick Scott, senator Marco Rubio, and other state and federal officials.
“It’s a team like very few people have seen, and I want to thank everybody,” Trump said.
Later, in waterlogged Naples, the president handed out hoagies and water bottles to a friendly crowd of residents and rescue workers.
“Where was Obama during the last hurricane? On the golf course!” a man yelled.
President Trump shook his hand. “Best vote of your life?” he asked.
Song of the Day—“High and Dry” by Radiohead.
