Has anyone explained to these ignorant Trump-sters...
That China's "outer-space wall" cost vast fortunes in money & millions of lives to build...
And was STILL a dismal failure?
Ask the Romans how great it worked for Hadrian!
"Those who refuse to read history are doomed to repeat it."
This can ALL (nearly) be chalked up to ignorance, credulity & cynicism.
a) Ignorance, on the part of the Trump-sters in thinking that "the wall" will work as intended
b) Credulity, in believing that their "leaders" ALSO genuinely
think it will work & will follow through on their empty
electioneering slogans & chants, etc....their "leaders"
are generally not QUITE so ignorant as their constituents.
c) Cynicism, because their "leaders" are perfectly willing to. USE both a & b to fan the partisan flames...
Strictly as a ruse to get (re-)elected, to effect their REAL
agenda, which is, as usual...
Rewarding their masters & cronies with the
"Tax reform" (aka- corporate/donor-class welfare) they have "bought & paid for".
1
It is really dismaying and worrisome that so many readers and the media in general keep saying trump has no fixed political principles. What about his racism, the alt-right support for him, and all those extreme right-wingers he appointed -Pruit, de Vos, Sessions etc- who are busily and discreetly dismantling this country's human rights and unraveling democratic institutions? Doesn't this show a definite orientation? trump may be too ignorant and stupid to formulate them clearly, but the extreme right-wing direction is unmistakable. Saying he has no principles masks that fact that he may change course...
2
Dear far right Republicans,
You reap what you sow. Beware whom and what you put your faith in. Nuff said.
3
Amazing, Trump does what the "progressives" have been begging for and then what? He gets lambasted by the so-called progressives for listening to them, changing his mind and starting to give them what they want. As noted by others here, the previous administration (the love of a president that dare not say his name?) left millions adrift up a creek of political purgatory without a paddle, a map or compass.
Are they truly upset, or after months of non-stop embarrassment and failure, are they simply looking for any excuse to distance themselves from Trump?
1
It's always fun when a data point confirms your preconceived ideas. I have long thought that believers in the Trump Wall visualized something like the East Germans used to have, complete with minefields and vicious dogs. So I was delighted with the quote from the angry caller to Laura Ingraham who had voted for Trump to get a wall big enough "to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall." This person should ask Genghis Khan how well Chinese model worked out.
1
Why are Trump's meetings always at restaraunts?
1
We the taxpayers pay the "tab".
1
“Republicans have spent so much time and money targeting Nancy Pelosi as the enemy over the last few cycles ..." It's a shame that that's regarded as a solid accomplishment by Republican congressmen. Not crafting legislation, not explaining and debating their policies, not governing - just demonizing the opposition.
3
To All of the Trump Voters I have but one question-
Are you getting Tired of Winning Yet?
4
“It is just confusing,” Mr. Schriefer added.
It would not be so confusing if Mr. Schriefer could open his eyes and see the big picture. Everything is confusing to you if all you have is tunnel vision. He isn't getting anything done with the Republicans, maybe the Democrats will give him the huge win he so desperately craves.
1
Watching all this from abroad I don't understand why these shallow, mean, mostly uneducated and certainly aggressive people are referred to a 'conservatives'. There is nothing conservative about them. What they are is extreme right wing reactionaries of a type recognisable throughout history and in different parts of the world. In fact, their closest similarity would be the nationalist, far right supporters of Pres. Putin.
2
“I want the wall. I want it to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall.”
What kind of life leads a person to have such fear, ignorance, and willful disgrace of higher values?
2
Does anyone care what these obnoxious, loud mouthed talk show hosts think? Why does anyone listen to them?
2
Watch out Democrats, there is nothing more mouth watering to the trickle down Republicans (not the Apocolypse Republicans), than to saddle the Democrats with the Trump legacy and once again redefine Republicans as the opposition party. They did it after Bush with the tea party.
just noting that this reversal comes after Obama took an uncommonly public stand on it. this, as much as Schumer and Pelosi's maneuvering, may have opened the door to Trump's backpedaling on the issue.
You still don't get it. "The base" is not the conservative talk show hosts or the few callers who agree with them. Trump's most ardent supporters were never the members of the Freedom Caucus. They are the millions of people who voted for him, who wanted an independent thinker, not someone bound to either party by ideology or tibal loyalty. This article and the others breathlessly predicting a mass defection by the base is an exercise in wishful thinking. Trump's working with the Democratic leadership is the worst nightmare of Resisters, not of the base.
5
The idea that his spineless flip-flopping can lead to more unintentionally productive bipartisanship should give us Democrats pause from calling for impeachment. No way would we be getting this kind of deal with a President Mike Pence.
3
Why does anyone believe this is like a done deal? He hasn't signed anything into law yet. He's playing the Dems line a harmonica. He's going to string this along as long as he wants and then BOOM! Do whatever the next thing is that his unstable and unprincipled and ruthless mind says he should do. Why on earth is anyone thinking this is real?
5
You got played by Vladimir Putin, Republicans. Although this article isn't about that directly, the most important take-away from Trump's selling out the GOP is how he has sabotaged your collective future as a party, and possibly American politics in general, for the foreseeable future.
This is why you should have taken the Russian interference in our election seriously from the start, Republicans. The GOP establishment failed to grasp that they couldn't reliably control Trump once he was in power. They assumed he would defer to people on their side who actually understand the issues.
The Russians didn't groom him as a true "Manchurian Candidate"; he is too erratic and feeble-minded to carry out any elaborate plan directed from Moscow. Their whole strategy was based on discrediting American democracy- to sow chaos and infighting among us, both domestically and internationally.
America is now estranged from its natural allies on issues like collective defense, climate change, and the basic precepts of liberal democracy in general. The only non-Americans who support Trump are either white supremacists or governments who believe they will accrue strategic and economic gains from America's self-destruction (e.g. China and Russia)
The polarization of political discourse in America is now much more than just an worrying side effect of "social media bubbles" and the "splintered media landscape"; it's a long term political and economic threat to our collective future.
11
Taking the Russian threat seriously would require some Principles be violated. "Conservatives" seem to have one long-view principle, and that is for the government to stop meddling in the businesses of the very wealthy (and that inclines taxing them).
To this end they do whatever it takes to win over various single-focus groups:NRA, self-righteous religious groups, bigots, nazis, climate change "skeptics" and so on - and promote an absurd "Libertarian" philosophy, often surreptitiously.
Real principles are as remote to them as my chances of persuading them to change.
God forbid someone working across the other party!The same talking heads who raked Obama over the coals for being an imperial president for not working across the divide are upset now because Trump is? Has our political system gotten to point where it is a sin to work with the other party?We the voters are responsible for this mess in Washington that is posing as our governing body.To have Trump's lovers now call him a traitor just could mean that we are returning to some kind of semblance of sanity.The rights excuse for wanting to overturn the ACA was that the left rammed it through with no input from the right.Now that Trump is willing to work with left the right is ready to get the pitch forks out and storm the castle.Does the right ever remember any of their flip flops?The right is really upset because they let a Democrat, Trump, make them think he was a card carrying conservative.Trump played his charade for eight months and got nothing passed so I guess he has decided to jump ship.The party of no has become the party of chaos and they are looking more clueless every day.With the election of Trump, the right thought they had a cake walk in stealing from the poor to make the rich richer and they woke up this morning find out they could be wrong.Trump knew from the start the Wall was just a ruse to build a base now Paul and Mitch know also.
6
Surprised?
Trump became Republican when he decided to run for the Presidency.
That is not the answer though, nor is trying to please his home town. Simply put, he will work with those that he likes and associates with. He tries to surround himself with friends and business associates, family, and those that are "sworn" to him. This has not worked well as a great deal of these people have zero understanding of policy and less of geopolitical information, history, and the way of leadership. POTUS is finding these missing pieces for the first time in Democrats that only became antagonists when he chose the mantle of Republican. Trump is finding his way.
2
The people screaming about the Wall are the same ones screaming to shut down the federal government budget - even though Mexico suddenly isn't paying the billions it will cost to build it, we would be. Hatred clouds the logic. Even though it won't actually keep anyone out, they want it as big as possible, to display a giant division between us and a darker skinned country.
Use that money instead to build roads and bridges - we're desperate for real, and symbolic, ones.
10
Given that Trump has had many reversals so far (DACA, Iran, Treaty, Fire and Fury on N.K., ACA repeal, Build the Wall, Drain the Swamp) and his supporters seem to still support him wholeheartedly, one can only conclude that their only desire and political goal was to defeat Hillary Clinton. Again, my sports team analogy applies perfectly. They rooted for their team, dissed the competition, and after they won, went home, forgot all about it except for continuing to savor the triumph of victory (and look towards the next big game (2020)) and live their lives.
2
Most of those that are upset are the professional GOP politicians and the pundits that make money off the GOP.
People that voted for Trump will not turn on him because most of them wanted someone who would buck the established political system.
He could walk out onto 5th avenue and make 10 deals with Democrats and not lose and voter support.
Many people are just happy to see something happening in our government, some deal, some compromise.
2
So nice to see that the tyranny of the minority of the ultra conservative wing of the Republican Party, long supported by a few rich conservatives, a bunch of self-serving radio talk show hosts and pundits and a few power hungry politicians, does not always always hold sway and their influence on the moderate majority of Republicans may wane. This country long worked "best for most" when moderate conservatives and moderate democrats could work together, compromise at times and make laws and programs designed to benefit the majority of Americans!
I am far from a Trump fan but policy and the meat of bills, programs and laws is what matters and if Trump is willing to do some good things working with Democrats and moderate Republicans I am all for it. Funny how so much of what he said to get elected has not held up but now all of a sudden after so many instances of things being tried or done contrary to what he said, the hard right and some of his base are screaming.
Having gone hard right after his inauguration, its nice to see him realize that he may get more done and more things done benefiting more people (all the while feeding his need for approval) by working with moderates of both parties. Might actually be a blessing in disguise. One can hope!
1
Wolf in sheeps clothing. Bully playing nice. Has any legislation passed? Any bil actually been signed? Don't hold your breath.
4
He's toying with us -- all of us, of every stripe -- with another of his patented step-by-step theatrical manipulations of every situation. Step one is to launch an outrageous and barely believable accusation. plan or statement, throwing everyone off base as they scramble to figure out what to do next and derailing whatever they were involved in. Then quietly walk away from the fray, saying, "We'll see what happens..." Then, when protests reach a crescendo, announce a surprise modification to the original offering, one that makes the opposition breathe a sigh of relief amid exclamations of appreciation for his new, much more agreeable plan. Of course this modification is what he was planning to demand in the first place, so the new faux detent puts him right where he wanted to be, but with his image and ego puffed up to new heights. Members of Congress need to remember that his only true loyalties are to himself and to his family, while they skitter around in the shadows wheeling and dealing for Daddy. Everyone else is mere cannon fodder.
3
I am heartened by Mr. Trump's 'deal making' to get the debt ceiling allowance through and in his finagling of a beam of light for the DACA principles. Your President became the GOP candidate for the presidency despite the screams from the party entrenchees who saw a novice stepping into their 'ring'.
Trump has always claimed to be a deal-maker, and there is some commentary that he'll deal with just about anyone. Your political pedigree does not mean a thing to a real deal-maker if that's what Trump really is. It has been said that '24 hours is a lifetime in politics', but that was pre- Donald days. Now, 24 minutes is an eternity, and that is beginning to work for this president as he allies himself with Pelosi and Schumer who are moderate in their views. Mr. Trump could secure even more wins and consummate more deals if he could get 'deals' done with Warren and Sanders- steep odds, but Donald has played those odds before he says.
As to the usual hardliners, Colter and that lot, they are now experiencing what is likes to be marginalized, and their protestations amount to yelling into a culvert, culllverrrt, culllverrrt...
Your politics are fascinating, and the chameleon President is starting to make head-way, but not by butting heads; very interesting.
Wasn't it Winston Churchill that said something like- To improve is to change; TO BE PERFECT, CHANGE OFTEN. ?
1
What has he signed? Nothing. And you fall for this?
2
To those, including and perhaps especially the evangelicals, who think Trump's words mean something, they deserve to get this.
Trump was not betraying any one or any thing. He never believes in anything other than making money for himself and his family. He'd say anything to get what he wants. Think "Trump University". He is so desperately looking for a "win" he is going to "deal" with anyone to get that.
Maybe it's time to wake up and throw the rascal out! Sad!
4
Let's drop the wall as a dog whistle.
The views of those who want the wall that is coming out in rawer, truer orm now, I oppose. It's not the America I want to build for my children. Many will say I am hopelessly naive to think these issues can still be debated with a hope for resolution. But it's not about the resolution right now; they are still worthy of debate because I am never going to sign off on their vision of a future America.
This wall is primarily about white identity and perceived threats to it from immigration; let's not softpedal around that. The part of the debate about updating immigration laws and practices for the America I want is worth rehashing. The part about the wall that's about keeping non-whites out, I'm not only against but I think it needs to be soundly defeated in a real fight. If we don't resolve this for next generations but kick it down the road, we threaten worse. Immigration issues have had to be resolved by blood at times in our nation's history; I'm watchful to see if this is any different.
3
So Trump's supporters are finally saying they might be tricked. Hmmm. He lied to them from the start. DJT is in this only for himself. A wall,is a dump idea. There are better ways to secure our borders. Plus, spend that wall-money on infrastructure, something that will add value.
3
What would make you think he is suddenly sincere now? He hasn't signed anything. His promises are clearly very cheap. He is playing both sides against the middle for no ones benefit but his own.
1
Why the confusion & consternation amongst conservatives over their Presidents' behaviour? He ran on the platform of being a 'winner', never a 'loser', a master 'deal-maker' not a doctrinaire anything. He's switched parties 5 times over the years and wives 3 times always looking to be identified with 'winners' and 'deal-makers'. If they wanted a dyed-in-the-wool conservative they could have nominated one. They didn't so they didn't get one.
5
The really fantastic thing about a great, big wall like the one the lady in the article wants is that it will entirely change the destiny of this country. I imagine vast cities forming along it, eventually leading to a melding or dissolving of a tangible border between the countries.
Standard American culture will disappear and only traces will remain, similar to the ruined Anasazi cities dotting the landscape of the Southwestern desert.
What the outraged Conservatives don't understand is that Trump is fundamentally motivated by his narcissism. After the deal with Schumer and Pelosi re the debt ceiling, all Trump could talk about was the great press he was getting as a result of that deal. He has figured out that the Republicans in Congress are so divided that they can't get anything done (e.g. "repeal and replace,"), and that they are heading for a big defeat in 2018. They will not control Congress, so he is looking to curry favor with the Democrats who may well be in control in 2018, and will have a lot to say about the Russia investigation and his possible impeachment.
4
It reminds me of Aesop's fable of the snake and how it will always revert to it's true nature. Hopefully, the moral won't be lost on the Democrats.
3
Donald Trump's word is worthless and the news gives conservatives the vapors as they clutch their pearls?
We New Yorkers tried to warn y'all. Mikey B. called his candidacy a con at the Democratic Convention.
Faithless in marriage, faithless in business. What did conservatives expect?
8
Current Breitbart comment thread amusingly vitriolic.
4
The GOP is an embarrassment. They have no idea after 8 years what to do with health care. They have no idea what to do with the tax code after 8 years. Their ideas are sooo outdated. The only things they can pass is polluting our air, rivers, etc, hanging up infrastructure by attaching it to women's bodies and yet another blurring of church and state.
They have done nothing for 8 years and appear to be ready to do nothing for another four. Trumps rabid base is not that big. He didn't win the popular vote. Most people didn't like Hillary or weren't ready for the first Black President followed by the First Woman president.
I have no faith in Trump's word. I do think he wants to be remembered Bigly and how great would it be to go rogue on the GOP.
It's no profile in courage to do the right thing and not dump these poor kids in war zones as foreign to that land as any American citizen but it the right thing to do. And by the way, they all work for us. So collaborating with others who may disagree and coming to a compromise doesn't make enrage us. It actually strengthens our believe in our country.
2
Donald Trump is desperate to do anything, pass anything. The Republicans do not like him, and we know how that goes, so give the other side a shot. This is an easy issue for most people in the country, and the one thing Trump reads is the polls, so go for greatness and protect the Dreamers. Indeed, he got this right; bring the Dream Act to the floor, pass it and he will sign it...everybody wins.
3
who cares what his "base" thinks, says, etc. the President represents all people in the USA. i think the people of the USA support the idea of not deporting the dreamers and are against building a solid, concrete wall. Russia built a wall and it was named the "iron curtain".. President Reagan said "tear it down". it ultimately came down.
3
Well, it turns out that Donald Trump wasn't the craziest person in the United States. That distinction goes to Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Steve King and a host of their followers.
4
Is this the monent when Steve Bannon, as he derisively put it in his Charlie Rose interview, "clutches his pearls" and gets the vapors?
2
To those who advocate impeachment, be careful what you wish. Better a narcissist who wants people to like him as President than someone who answers only to God.
1
Mr. Peters emphasizes the peril to the President if he "alienates his base" by changing his stance on a border wall. By doing so, he is falling into the trap of most contemporary political analysts who are prone to view voting patterns in terms of standards largely worked out by academic ideologues. Such distinctions give undue importance to abstract classifications and pay far too little attention to historic associations, cultural commitments, and common sense. The American electorate strikes me as far more like a wounded and angry beast that is bleeding, growling, and reading to pounce. Trump is the only political leader currently willing to offer the beast red meat and brave/foolish enough to poke it with a sharp stick. Left and Right media flacks are just spinning wheels and wasting paper.
Much like their brethren in the Federal and Coastal state bureaucracies.
1
I would give just about anything to see Trump betray all the GOP sociopaths in congress and agree with the Democrats to pass a Tax reform bill that is good for the middle class and actually raises taxes on the rich. If that were to happen, watch the GOP, a party whose sole purpose for decades has been to make the rich even richer, come crumbling to pieces never to assemble again. If that were to happen, I would say this whole Trump nightmare has actually been worth it.
2
Maybe someone should do a study to determine what the economic impact was from the last amnesty that was given by Reagan. Surely it will be seen that immigrants, by and large are not the problem. They are highly motivated, and mostly a high achieving group. Never hurts to get more of them.
Frankly the problem is with a few white supremacists who think that admitting people who don't look like them will bring the nation down. It's just in their minds and not borne by facts. Immigrants have always been a productive and entrepreneurial lot. The wall we need to build is an allegorical one where we can put these white supremacists in, so they may do no harm to the rest of us.
1
From "Make America Great Again" to "took" in only eight short months. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving crowd.
2
Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham are just so vile. But how can they be surprised by Donald Trump? He is a loose cannon who they supported profusely.
1
Well, He rolled his supporters to get elected. So why are they surprised that they got conned again. "Full me once, fool you, fool me twice, fool me."
Ignorance is bliss: he wants Mexico to pay for the wall... as if only Mexicans are the only ones crossing the border — why not cut a deal to have all SA countries pay the price? ...he wants Dreamers deported, as if they had any choice in crossing the border — but then cuts a deal with the Dems to let them stay — and now the GOP is paying the price. He fired Comey to avoid an investigation into his Putin bromance — but now he has a dedicated special prosecutor investigating Russian election hacking.
Maybe he thinks the cross-isle cooperation will gain him some special consideration on all the repercussions of the SP's findings? Such a wheeler-dealer! Let's see those tax returns!
After all the broo ha ha he raised regarding the former president's citizenship, releasing his tax returns seems like a no-brainer. But, of course, we're dealing with a blissful ignoramus, a man who has the 'football' and relies on vacuous moral/ethical principles to make 'deals'.
Well, the wall is being 'repaired', the dreamers' deportation is being 'rescinded', the bromance is 'regrettable', and this blissful ignoramus is losing his deal making 'reputation', amidst the HUGE environmental, healthcare, tax reform, and nuclear threats we're now facing. Atlantic City, here we come...Ignorance is Scary!
1
A con man cons everyone. He has no scruples or respect for his marks. When one con starts to flag, he moves on. The real danger is for the patsies who keep falling for it.
1
Like Boxer (Animal Farm) Trump gravitates toward latest argument.
3
November 2018 will shock the GOP and the Democrats.
Pollsters will get it wrong... Interpretations will fall flat. Disgust will rise on all sides...
Perhaps we will realize that we are in a mess - that the mess is us...
Make us great again? Please... with Trump.
Where is Jack Benny?
Bob Hope?
Mort Sahl would do the era well...
Perhaps Trump has been useful the same way rat catchers are. First they have to find the rats so they bait the trap with something that stinks to high heaven that no one can stand but the rats love. Then once they catch a whiff they swarm to the trap, where it closes. Only in Democrats' case they would be compelled to condemn the rat catcher because their moral sanctitude requires to pretend to care about all poor helpless creatures, even if they're rats. Feeling worthy enough to stand on such high ground carries with it the risk of falling from great heights.
Let's be clear republicans, Trump is your choice for president. Make sure you own it.
2
Change we can't believe in.
1
Trump is figuring out that the conservative agenda is deeply unpopular. Quite the pig in a poke the GOP has been peddling. Oh, and the one they elected, too.
1
Too bad, so sad - Trump's supporters took him literally!!
The confusion on the part of GOP "pundits" gives me great joy. This is schadenfreude at its best. Their propaganda techniques of vilifying their political opponents, of turning them into caricatures of villains, is now coming back to haunt them.
The conservative base of Congressman Steve King ilk is truly bigoted and racist. These are the ones Trump encouraged just so he could win. It's so terrible disheartening that this ethos is what has become of the Republican Party.
2
Every Member of Congress should remember that the founders of The United States of America were all part of compromises that led to The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. None of them ever said "My way or the Highway". To refuse to compromise is Un-American and will lead to the destruction of our great nation! I want to see lots more grown ups in Congress, no more petulant children!
1
"Crazy like a fox!"
1
It is incredible how naive and stupid many of the Trump supporters are. There was never going to be a Wall built between Mexico and the U.S., particularly along the Rio Grande. And yet, these fools actually voted for Trump based on this ridiculous promise. And now that the president is becoming friendly with the Democrats, I wonder if all of these dumb yokels still believe that he was a better choice than Ms. Clinton. They probably do, which makes all of this hilarious.
1
So, are these same Trump supporters willing to do the kind of work that many "illegals" do for the same pay and in the same conditions?
As for the rest of America, do you know how & why your produce, poultry, etc. are so inexpensive? Why contractors can hire the roofers, gardiners, etc. at the wages they pay?
It's NOT because Trump supporters are doing the work. Or are willing to...
1
They are shocked because it is the first time in over nine years a president has reached across the aisle.
3
What!? Obama tried to reach across the aisle to a fault. He ended up relying too much on Executive Orders because of the total obstructionism of the Republican Congress. You must possess an extremely selective memory.
3
You an dislike Obama all you want but it simply goes directly against fact to accuse him of not trying to work with the Republicans in congress. The refusal came from the other side. You're free to complain of course. But that doesn't make what you're saying the least bit true.
3
This could be the best news in a year. Not because it rescues the Dreamers from their plight, though that is joyful. If Trump discovers that the best way to get good ratings and wins is to deal with Democrats, the Repub majority could find themselves on the outside looking in, even with their two-house majority. I hope Chuck and Nancy are already bending his ear about tax reform.
2
Some Conservatives are upset.
The average Trump voter out here in Trump land are not.
They know he makes deals ,,like they do when they buy or sell a used car.
Get what you can and move on.
It is really that simple.
Chuck and Nancy will bend and quiver as he dangles Daca in front of them,,,just like that used car salesmen does when the the folks walk out of a used car deal.
Same.
1
Dear Joe Paper,
Interesting theory, but this requires the average Trump voter to be unable to realize that these kind of deals are specifically not getting the goals that Trump claimed to want. This deal, for example, agrees to give young illegal immigrants a legal resident standing of some sort, in exchange for not building Trump's wall. So it's an interesting question of how long it will take the average Trump voter to realize the Trump promises are not being kept, and the deals are going directly against them. Maybe you're right, and they're incapable of realizing such things.
As an old white Democrat in Oklahoma, the first word that came to my mind after reading this article is VIVA ! Don't forget to celebrate Mexican Independence Day this Saturday. I will be at a fiesta in Oklahoma City. Get over it white American right wing, our USA Latinx culture is here to stay.
6
Ten years from now, when the earths temperature has risen .5%, and the water is undrinkable, and the land is poisoned by neonics, and the air is blue from burnt forest fires, no one will care what trump thinks.
6
"...Republicans have spent so much time and money targeting Nancy Pelosi as the enemy over the last few cycles, the idea that you’re now going do a deal with her has to rub people the wrong way,” said Russ Schriefer, a Republican consultant...
Well, Russ...
Over the past several months - Trump spent so much time and political capital considering Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell as friends...
That didn't turn out particularly well...
4
As has been said about Washington, DC: "If you're looking for a friend, get a dog."
1
You mean these people actually believed the opportunistic megalomaniac? WOW! It serves them well.
8
This episode just reinforces how the more serious problem we face in the longer term is the ever-present and quite sizeable rabble of overtly xenophobic, racist and, yes, deplorable Americans who are so outraged that a little child brought to this country without legal papers may actually have a future here.
9
Indeed. As for the Dreamers taking jobs away from Americans, I thought Republicans were in favor of competition in the marketplace. So, my fellow Americans: Compete! It (almost?) sounds like the Ann Coulters of our world do not believe that American citizens whose families have lived in the US for a century or centuries are capable of competing and defeating these first-generation US residents (officially or not) in the job race. Surely, Ms. Coulter and her compañeros like Rep. King can't believe that.
"No promise was more central to his campaign than building the border wall. And no constituency was more passionate in defending Mr. Trump’s pledge than the conservatives who believed he would be uncompromising in his approach toward illegal immigration."
Yes, these dopey true believers actually believed that wall nonsense. They even believed Mexico would pay for it. I remember them chanting about it. Now Trump has made fools out of each and every one of them. If you're not laughing yourself into stitches right about now, you have no soul.
7
It seems white Republicans have forgotten or conveniently forgot that since the birth of our nation there have been illegal aliens making their way tour shores and most of them were white. This seems to have been pushed to the back since it is an inconvenient truth. One of the largest illegal population were the Irish in Boston in the late1800's and early 1900's among many others. The "Dreamer" have been raised and educated in the US. They should be awarded citizenship and the we can focus on how we control our borders and allow the legal flow of immigrants into the country. To the person in the photo in the article God has nothing to do with immigration and Trump has made racist, misogynistic, and bigoted statements. I certainly hope God doesn't reward such behavior.
2
The president didn't trick his base. They tricked themselves. They were desperate to be tricked ... begging to be lied to ... and all Trump did was oblige them.
12
The Dreamers will stay, their parents will be deported and the cycle of life will continue.
Trump supporters have really been a mob with pitchforks and torches. Now we see into the hearts of his core supporters, and find them full of hate, domestic enemies and generally unAmerican attitudes. The Republicans fed this hatred over decades, and now that it is off the leash they own it.
9
I stopped by the FOX News website around noon today and there was not a single article, of about 50 on the homepage, on DACA or Trump's flip flop. I assume FOX is trying to hide Trump actions from their viewers.
Breitbart wasn't as secretive though. Every article on their homepage was on this topic.
what gives?
4
Ok Liberals, time to practice what you preach. Trump essentially will meet you in the middle. Something for you-DACA permanent solution. Something for him-fund the wall.
Or are you being hypocritical: we will deal and reach across the aisle, but ONLY if it is what we want.
This is what compromise looks like. Me thinks liberals don't really know what it is, and refuse to compromise. "My way or the highway."
Us folks in the political middle want compromise, not democrats to obstruct and whine and cover up statues that you find objectionable.
3
Unfortunately, the wall is a colossally stupid idea, and there isn't going to be any "deal."
1
You do realize that 10 yeas ago the Congress overwhelmingly voted to build a wall along the Mexican border?? Schemer, Pelosi, and B Obama all voted for it. Only stupid now because Trump won running on it and liberals hate anything Trump.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/apr/23/mick-mulv...
2
Dems DID compromise. They agreed on increased funding for border patrols and monitoring. No need for this "both sides are equally bad" rhethoric.
1
I'm okay with anything that causes Ann Coulter to feel aggrieved.
22
I don't like Donald trump. He is narcissistic,a megalomaniac and opportunistic to a fault. That being said isn't this the first time he has shown true political insight and growth as a politician.
"Shiny Objects" everywhere!
1
God Bless him? Well, I guess God is neutral, so OK.
Now they recoil? Not after literally thousands of lies, cons and overt manipulations of their anger with false promises, making fools of them by getting them to act like teens at a rave? (Sorry, don't mean to insult any ravers.) Mexico is going to pay for a wall? Congress is going to spend up to 12 billion to build a wall, that every security expert knows isn't a solution? Insults to prisoners of war, gold star families, women, all people of color, the "stupid" voters of Iowa, all the generals he knew better than and now so admires. Etc.
In my mind, these "conservatives" need to look in the mirror. If there's any recoiling it needs to be against whatever part of them thought that voting for a despicable con man like Trump was good for America.
Sure. Go ahead blame Hillary, the Liberals, "the blacks'.... It's ok: it's all comin' round. it's an inevitable recoil. And if this conservative is a gun owner, they know this recoil is gonna (and should) hurt! Trying to dance with the devil deserves a real good whackin' recoil!
7
please let the caller know... the great wall is not visible from space
1
These reactionaries didn't complain when Trump bragged about groping women or attacked Muslims over their religion.
4
Passing DACA could earn him a few million votes. Young voters. It also makes it very hard to label him a "racist" and DACA is just good business. These young "voters," or should I say people, are needed by our highest producing companies. Deporables, well, not so much. Unfortunaly, we cannot export the deplorables, but we will be trying. They might find life much more affordable in Mexico.
1
Good point! We can swap some deplorables for some Dreamers. Wouldn't be an even swap, though - the Dreamers are worth much more to the future of this country.
O ye of little faith! One divergence from the doctrine of hate and your angry, a tantrums one might even say.
Welcome, dear Donald's "base" to the world you really knew your were in, really, Reality President. This meandering from the pathway of your observed & spoken insanity is just a test of your fealty to the great conman you elected.
He's a liar, yes he is, you knew he was a racist and mysoginist, he's not a Christian except by necessity, but neither are you. He cares only for himself and his family and his friends, the grand Poobah Don the con is coining it.
It impossible for him to have loyalty to anyone, it's a one way street. He is lining his pockets for himself and his family, (who you may have noticed all have cushy nefarious jobs near to Pappa) and take vacas when they please.
By the way he's really bad at his job, no focus when it comes to work, but he is good at repeating phrases "like"believe me" remember that one?
DAILY he invites dictators and oligarchs and lobbyists to secure more money for himself and his 'get rich quick club' Oh and about this club you have to be very rich to get into it. The so called tax plan is a deliberate plan to take money out of your pockets and put it in the pockets of his swampy friends. He's not draining the swamp just restocking it with very very bad carnivores, and they are go to eat you and me alive!
And the wall! No money left I'm afraid. Houston and well the whole of Florida need help! So sorry. LOL.
4
The hard core so called conservatives may have the loudest voices but they are really a minority. Most people want to see some compromise and see things get done. The Republican Party as a whole has let these people lead them around for far to long, when it is the main stream republican who should be sitting their agenda.
3
"Immigration reform has never been an easy issue for Republicans..."
I had to laugh at this remark from Mr. Brooks, the supposed senator representing Alabama. (I say "supposed" because I am not at all certain that he truly represents the views and interests of the people of Alabama.) Has anything been an easy issue for Republicans, fractured as they have been over the past few decades, and probably will fracture even more throurghouly in the coming year?
Of course, a number of issues have not been easy for Democrats, either. But disagreement and the need effort to compromise in order to ensure the continued well-being of this great country is the nature of politics- which is, essentially an "art of the deal."
In my youth, I remember a time when members of the legislative branch of our government tried to work together craft legislation that benefitted the majority of people living in the United States. As I've aged, I've seen that willingness to craft meaningful legislation dissolve into partisan shenanigans, which appear to be aimed at obtaining funding from "interested parties," a travesty enshrined in law by the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United suit.
I sincerely doubt the effect of radio hacks on the supposed "Trump base."
1
I am very much looking forward to the insulting 5th grader nicknames Trump comes up with for Ann and Laura.
3
I'm settled with a bowl of popcorn for the night. I'll watch some MSNBC, then wander over to FOX to watch some heads explode.
9
The Fox heads won't explode.
They will rotate 180 degrees, however.
7
Trump hates McConnell and Ryan. He's been looking for a chance to poke a thumb in their eyes, and dealing with Nancy and Chuck gives him his opportunity for revenge.
4
I have no problems with a "deal" to shield "Dreamers" from existing U.S. immigration law...but can someone (anyone) tell me what Congressional Democrats Schumer and Pelosi are offering President Trump on U.S. border security in exchange for such an arrangement?
We know what Schumer and Pelosi get....but what are they giving to President Trump in exchange?
Has the mainstream media reported ANYTHING whatsoever on that?
No...nothing.
What's the "deal", NY Times?
4
More border security, excluding the stupid Wall.
Pelosi and Schumer are trying to savecTrump.
2
Here's another word for the Trumpistas, from good ol' Bob:
Ain’t it hard when you discover that
He really wasn’t where it’s at
After he took from you everything he could s-t-e-a-l…
How does it f-e-e-l.
Ah, how does it feel…
5
Both parties are SUPPOSSED to work together. Why the drama? Neither party should be considered the enemy. Come on and do your work, Congress.
48
Dear President Trump,
Some say that your DACA strategy is a page out of the Art of the Deal --complex, yet brilliant; simple, yet ugly -- an art that appears ugly to the ignorant, but brilliant to the geniuses.
Is that true ? Because you are beginning to look like a Picasso to me.
Sincerely,
A supporter who believes that no one is above the law, not even the DACA "kids".
3
Wow Bhaskar!
Glad to see you feel no one is above the law.
Like Sheriff Arpeio
Or even Trump should collusion with a foreign government be discovered.
3
There goes his lifetime contract on Faux Gnus. What will Hammity do now?
5
Can we PLEASE stop referring to trumpers as "conservatives"?
6
yes - call them what they are.
it's ugly, but true. conservative is not even halfway true.
start with troglodites and expatiate.
3
His disappointed base and (most) elected Republicans are getting EXACTLY who they voted for: a manipulative, lying fraud who's only in it for the ratings.
Doesn't feel so good, does it.
13
Hillary was partly right when she said half of Trump's supporters were deplorable. Fact is, they are ALL deplorable.
16
Few things would make me happier than seeing dishonest dons supporters finally see what he really is and turn against him. Fingers crossed ....
7
This is much ado about nothing. A blanket amnesty for Dreamers has little chance of passing in the congress.
1
Playing with the lives of innocents ... that's what the DACA debate is about. We all knew Ann Coulter had no shame on this issue, but to have to read about the moral vacuity of so-called Conservatives is very discouraging.
Now we can all wait for the "Americans are compassionate people" mantra ... the one to ignore and listen for the 'but' that follows.
Not for the first time, I am ashamed of my fellow countrymen.
Shame on them and shame to them. And please spare the rest of us the 'Christian' horse pockey.
I don't think Christ would recognize them.
9
Trump reveled in the good press he got after his first "deal" with Chuck and Nancy that kept the government open, but this second venture isn't producing accolades at all.
I bet he's mighty confused at this point, and trying to think of new ways to get people to like him.
3
The GOP leadership is loaded with really vicious, callous people. This is when I wish Jesus really existed and would appear and tell them how unChristian they are.
9
The DACA kids were left drifting in the darkness with the previous administration, left dangling in oblivion by someone who had no right to make law. Thank goodness that the current President will make congress do their job and allow these kids a pathway to citizenship.
8
Well, sort of, only Trump was entirely against the notion of offering them a path to citizenship last week, and may well be against it again next week.
Obama offered a human solution in the face of political cruelty by the GOP. Do not even pretend to make up that the GOP or Trump cared about these kids.
4
"The current President will MAKE Congress do their job"?
Seriously?
Hey, I've got some newly waterfront property in Texas you might be interested in buying.
And according to the 500 Year Flood Map, it never, ever floods....
1
“I want the wall. I want it to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall." You know, the one that didn't really work, but, heck, you can see it from space!"
4
Please, try to avoid contentious headlines like this ["Trump bends on immigration"] that insinuate weakness and provoke him to retreat into a "strong" unbendable macho stance. Beware of the rhetorics used in the paper to depict stances. Don't put him unnecessarily against the wall. We want him to proceed. There will be plenty of occasions to "catch him" on other policies. In any case, he may be able to pull this one through. He said that even if he committed murder in Fifth Ave. he would not lose one vote. This may be an interesting litmus test of the Republican soul (particularly the evangelical core's). Would Trump not lose a vote in the case of murder, but do so for supporting a humanitarian and decent DACA policy-- and particularly legislation (which Obama was unable to do)?
1
Really do not see the issue that the conservatives may have with this. Trump's promise was that Mexico would pay for the wall. Maybe when that happens they could revisit the issue. I don't see why I would need to pay for a wall that I don't want.
8
Remarkable. How about Trump is simply trying to break the log-jam that has stymied Congress for a decade or more? He is partisan when is works, but appears to be genuinely more interested in getting things done.
The NYT and other media have become too enamored of the politics and oblivious to the urgency of action - by Congress, the President, etc.
Pretty sure that's why Trump's supporters elected him.
1
Hate to say it but I like what Trump is doing on DACA; actually trying some bipartisan consensus. The hard right base are outraged, but will see sooner than later, that Trump is more an independent than Republican.
9
They cannot build the wall now. Who else besides cheap, foreign labor will come in and rebuild the country and islands? There is now a ton of work for Americans. Minimum wage, no benefits no unions. Let's see how this
works out.
5
I don't know what his problem is. Last night he tells the Dems there is a deal and when Conservatives go crazy, he back tracks than later confirms. So basically he lied. His agenda truly depends on ratings not common sense.
6
Hypothetically assume a single payer bill manages to find its way through both houses of Congress, and lands on the President's desk. Which person would be more likely to sign it, Trump, or Hillary?
My money would be on Trump. He got no health care industry lecture fees.
4
These 'outraged' people are Un-American and should find a different country to torture. They're losers.
16
The truth that Trump's anti-immigration supporters don't understand is that we need these DACA young people more than they need us. We do not have enough smart, trained and hard-working people to do the jobs we have open right now.
8
Rescuing the Dreamers in exchange for funding for border security (sans wall) is a deal worth taking, which is why it sounds like Democrats in Congress are pushing for it. And why Republicans are furious about it.
8
Trump has never been loyal to the GOP or to conservativism. Trump’s only devotion is his unwavering commitment to feeding his own ego. Trump prides himself on making deals, and the GOP can’t cut a deal. Republicans should have seen this coming. Chuck and Nancy apparently did.
8
If anyone's going to understand and be able to transact with a New Yorker from Queens it's probably going to be a New Yorker from Brooklyn!
1
If anyone believes the Ingrahams' and Coutlers' of world even care about immigration, they have been thoroughly duped. This is about power and influence. This is about relevance. This is about marketing. This is also about the far-right fighting desperately to avoid being exiled into the wilderness, just as Goldwater did to the John Birch Society decades ago. It is a lot of noise. Trump will not listen to them anymore than he will listen to anybody else. He will do what he believes makes him 'liked' and makes him feel good about himself.
12
The GOP failed him on repealing Obamacare. I'm glad he's cutting deals with the opposition to show them that he's not beholden to the Freedom Caucus and other Republican splinter groups who forgot their collective mandate begins and ends at the White House.
3
Steve King is suddenly discovering that no promise of President Trump's is credible? Mr. King, where have you been? And why does Iowa continue to reelect a person with such little awareness?
12
Can it be that Trump's "inner Democrat" is coming out? Remember that he has made political contributions to Democrats in the past. He's never really been a Republican like Pence or Ryan.
5
I agree!
He's an opportunist, he has always played both sides.
1
Trump has no inner Democrat. He has no inner ANYTHING.
2
May I remind all these "poorly educated" deplorables that before he was your friend, he was Bill & Hillary's friend. Hard to believe, but soo true. He actually supported Hilary in her first run for president. He made all kinds of glowing comments about her to the press at the time. She and Bill attended his wedding to Melania. His daughter Ivanka was friends with Chelsea Clinton. I'm sure she does hate him now. Perhaps you will feel the same down the road. But Donald J Trump is not a yahoo or a "poorly" educated person. He is a ruthless politician. Machiavelian. Welcome to a taste of reality deplorables. Your vote doesn't really count anymore because Donald can finally move to the center. Why? Because you have shown yourselves to be, well, deplorable. Bannon is gone because his political instincts are actually bad. He was making DJT, the most reviled man in America, not a president with power and influence. Steve, maybe, he told you it was temporary. Maybe you actually believed him. The truth is he couldn't wait to let you go. He is just not a dance with the guy who brung him kinda guy. Remember how he went after Hillary for her Goldman Sachs speeches. Well, Golman guys run our treaury again. It is politics, played hardball. Coal, who are we kidding. Now, oil, there is some free money to be made there, as Rex knows. DJT did not create this political world. He just plays it. Is he really that bad at it? Really?
11
Earth to extreme right-wingers: this President wants accomplishments and is willing to make deals. He was perfectly willing to do what Republicans in Congress asked, if they delivered majorities, but they couldn't. So now he has to cut deals with Democrats in Congress in order to get things done. What's so surprising about that?
7
You can't stretch the word "conservative" far enough to cover policies as pointless, wasteful, ineffective, and xenophobic as this wall. It's a hard-right boondoggle.
A wall would do nothing to address the holes in our immigration system. It would be incredibly wasteful. It would pointlessly antagonize our neighbor. The only reason to build something like this would be to give xenophobes and racists a symbol to soothe their resentful souls.
Please stop calling these fanatics "conservatives."
16
The Donald probably wants to start jumping ship before his personal brand takes too much of a hit.
5
The wall is obviously such an expensive dud that it amaze me anybody would still want it build. If you build a wall that is 17 feet tall you have subsidized the Mexican 18 foot ladder industry, if its 25 feet tall it subsidize the Mexican 26 foot ladder industry. If it is 100 feet tall you subsidize the Mexican human transporting drone industry. Those who like Nancy and Chuck actually want to secure the border are supporting proposals to fund “sensors to beef up border monitoring, rebuilding roads along the border, drones and air support for border enforcement. Those are things that will actually reduce the inflow.
4
Nah, they already build tunnels under our existing wall. And boats around it. And of course - coming in through the gate, as tourists and then staying. So many options.
2
All of a sudden Donald Trump should not plan on standing in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shooting someone.
5
Breitbart readers are flipping out! If you want a good laugh, go read some of the comments. Finally, they are realizing they elected a fraud.
15
"Conservative" is the new term for bigot.
If the "conservatives" are recoiling, Trump must finally be doing something right.
11
Re: “I want the wall. I want it to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall.”
1) It is not visible from "space." You can verify this on Google Earth.
2) The Great Wall failed, ushering in a non-Chinese government for 250 years.
But hey, the heck with history. Let's spend the billions on a wall anyway.
6
“The No. 1 reason I voted for him was for the immigration,” said a caller into Ms. Ingraham’s show. “I want the wall. I want it to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall.”
Anyone who reads the comment above and concludes that immigrants are the problem, isn't smart enough to vote.
11
The wall is really only useful as a metaphor, it makes no sense practically. If you view immigration from countries to the south of us as the primary problem facing our country a wall will not help. Mistreatment of people from those countries in the US, which Trump has successfully implemented is useful, the wall not so much.
We are a huge country with a huge boarder, and we are full of people happy to hire undocumented workers. There will be illegal immigration, as long as there is employment. There will always be a place in the world where people are desperate enough to make the trip. Are we meant to build a wall around our whole country. People are willing to spend weeks in a shipping container to reach our shores, a wall is no barrier.
Mistreating children who have educated and who came here through actions of their parents seems foolish, mean spirited and peevish. I see no way to justify it.
I differ from Trump's fans in that I tend to see this stream of willing workers who other countries expended resources growing as a significant American resource, not a threat, but really the DACA decision made by Dems is a gift to Republicans. Being Jerks about this will not help their party.
3
This whole thing proves why a border wall would never work. The best way to deal with any blocked path, such as Right-Wing Republican revulsion at the idea of doing anything with the opposition, is to go round it, or undermine it.
It's what happen with a wall, it's what happened with regarding finally doing some positive legislation.
1
Donald Trump doesn't care about DACA recipients. The whole business about his stupid wall was that he saw it generated lots of press and fanned the flames of his rabid supporters' ire against "those people." If the issue lined his pockets somehow, then he'd have an interest one way or the other, but without being able to personally profit from it he really couldn't care less. Oh, but Jeff Sessions cares. He cares quite a bit, enough to stay on as Attorney General and see through the end of DACA, despite Trump's extremely negative view of him. After all, it is Sessions, in Trump's mind, who is solely responsible for Mueller's ongoing investigations. To Trump and his outsized ego, everything is personal. He has shown again and again what a spiteful and vindictive person he can be. There is no bar low enough that he won't slither under. So then, what would be a greater insult to Sessions than sending him out to that podium by himself to deliver the news that DACA would be ending, only to turn around and work with Democrats (shudder) to allow those dreamers (gasp) to stay?
3
We all know Trump has no political allegiances to anything other than himself. Schumer has played that pretty well so far. And of course I'm taking delight in the writhing of the Trumpers who fell for this con man.
6
Art of the deal in action. You get what you voted for.
6
If you want to know where Donald Trump stands on any particular issue, just walk into a room, turn off the lights, and throw a dart at the wall.
Now leave the room. Go back, turn off the lights, throw another dart.
That's where he stands.
2
Reactionaries- not conservatives.
4
Their bitterest tears are the sweetest wine to us,
Their howls of outrage an angelic choir.
4
No doubt about it. POTUS is making his strong play to be the Democratic candidate in 2020!
1
Trump has his sights set on his re-election. He's moving to the middle.
Bannon, that disloyal so-and-so, is now the enemy.
Trump is looking to carve out his own party - majority middle -
leaving the far left and the far right as weakened "third parties".
2
The conservatives raging against Trump are overlooking the key to working with a completely unprincipled narcissist: He "likes," and is willing to deal with people who treat him with what he views as respect; but he heaps defensive scorn on anyone who criticizes him. So he's making deals with his new besties "Chuck and Nancy," who have been laying low waiting for just this opportunity. Recoiling Republicans will only drive him farther left. Out of all this chaos we just might get DACA in law, and maybe even some fixes to the ACA. Godspeed Chuck and Nancy! (Better hurry...)
1
Said the Mikado: "Nothing could be more satisfactory."
4
I'm surprised that his supporters are surprised. Time and again, Donald Trump's modus operandi has been to take possession of an item of value, strip it for all its worth, then discard the leftovers like yesterday's garbage when it's exhausted its value. He's done that with his ex-wives, he's done that with the various businesses he's run into the ground (I'm looking at you, Trump Taj Mahal), he's done it with many of his most visible supporters (Chris Christie, Steve Bannon), and now he's done it with his base.
Trump has the Presidency and all the prestige and bragging rights that carries. Now that he's got it, he's not going to work himself into a fit over what his base thinks. They were yesterday's news. Yes, his need for adulation is undiminished as ever, but like a lover ready to move on to his latest fling, he's looking for fresh adulation in unexpected places (i.e., the middle and left side of the partisan divide). Chuck and Nancy are milking it for all its worth.
1
Nothing that annoys Anne Coulter could be completely bad.
20
Wow. So Trump turns out to be con man who promises one thing and then turns round and does the exact opposite if you'll just give him a like on Facebook. Never saw that coming. Bwaaaaaaaah!
2
Since when is ignoring treason considered "conservative"?
4
I've always believed that vilifying immigrants, or "the other" was all part of a scheme for those who used it to stay in power. If you get someone to fear something enough, even if it's not real, you can buy their loyalty. It's clever, and it works constantly. There are reasons why there is income inequality, for instance, or educational attainment disparities..but dreamers, or those who are hoping to be citizens are not the cause of it. The fear is used essentially so that those in power push an agenda that benefits them and their special interests...effectively they distract with a non-issue and pick your pocket. If you want to fall for it, I suppose you could, it's been done before, a lot. But you could start to think critically, and wonder what is in it for the politicians for you to feel that way about other human beings? Start by following the money...you may find your interests and those of dreamers are the same, and the part of the equation that needs to be changed is really hoping you don't sort it out...
1
Why do so many leading Republicans want to build something that can be seen from outer space when they'll have nothing to do with building things that can be seen here, on the ground? Could it be true they really are representing the interests of aliens?
4
In viewing Trump, the central difference now between the right and the left is that the right was fooled about who he is, and the left never was.
16
You're exactly right!
It seems to e that the conservative's real problem is that they have no ordered list of priorities. What's more important ? DACA, border wall, immigration reform, tax reform, repeal and replace, debt limit, trade, and on and on. All seem to be equally important leaving them outraged at every opportunity. Maybe they are finally learning that Donald isn't their savior.
3
Lord knows this president has done virtually nothing since his election to warrant praise, but I find it ironic that his recent discussions with Democrats have been condemned -- and not just by his base -- as "unprincipled" exercises of ego aimed solely at "winning." What, my friends, is wrong with that? It is exactly what I expect any President to do -- that is, to put aside their partisan positions and move to the middle to get something accomplished for the good of the country. Now, given his history, Trump may just be playing us all -- but I for one am not going to criticize his move to the middle until it is clear that we've been played.
5
Of course we're being played! That's all this President knows how to do. Those of us on the left may like some things he does - such as preserving DACA in some form, IF that's where he ends up. But we shouldn't have any illusions that he's doing it because it's good for the country. He's shown over and over that he has no concept of the good of the community, only of the good for him (and maybe his family). Occasionally, what he thinks is good for him may happen by chance to also be good for the country, that's all.
In reading the Times comments, I am reminded of Gilda Radner's Rosanne Roseannadanna........."Its Always Something". They find fault with Trump's initial positions. They find fault when he moderates those positions to the point where Democrats can sign on. I guess there is no pleasing former Hillary supporters.
Better be careful. If you drive Trump from office, you will get Pence instead, and those Taliban Conservatives will be back in the driver's seat.
10
Quite so. If we but wait a while, at this rate Trump will become Hillary.
1
I thought Mexico was supposed to be paying for this stupid, ridiculous "wall". So now his supporters are upset that money desperately needed for hurricane relief isn't being allocated immediately for this wasteful fraud of a project? Maybe they got tricked by Trump - what a surprise!
18
Breitbart is having a total mind-meltdown in the comments section.
16
Hahaaaaa- awesome
1
The wall can never be built. There is a river running along a good part of the border and the wall would have to be at least several hundred yards to one side or the other of that river - the Texas side. The same place the Texas citrus industry is. No way Texas agriculture would ever give an inch of that land up to Mexico.
P.T. Barnum was so right.
18
Apparently, walls to impede unauthorized entry into a country only work in Israel. How much of our aid to that country went to directly or indirectly pay for it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier
3
President Trump
Is president for the whole Country. Polls say that only around 12% of Americas want Dreamers deported 79% want them either to have permanent work visas and given a path to citizenship. I am beginning to like the fact that Trump wants to get things done and is finding that getting this probably means crafting legislation that at least 30% of the Democrats will vote for to make up for the 20% of the Republicans who will not for it.
7
Conservatives? When is the media going to call these people what they are? They are radicals and extremists.
39
"Conservatives? When is the media going to call these people what they are? They are radicals and extremists."
And in some cases, traitors.
" that gives American jobs to illegal aliens rather than American citizens" -- but as soon as the law passes, they will be legal aliens, so what is the problem?
7
Jobs that American citizens are too lazy to take. Picking blueberries and peaches, making beds in Hampton Inns, cleaning bed pans in nursing homes, cutting lawns. I can't even find a teenager in my town to mow my lawn.
1
Like most losers, Trump is now taking the path of least resistance in policy making.
6
Isn't the path of least resistance essentially the same thing as the option most people agree with? That's exactly how policy is supposed to be made.
These so-called conservatives are so partisan that they criticize anyone who compromises, even if it's the right thing to do. They don't care what's right in an absolute sense. They only care about winning, and the other side must lose. Zero-sum politics. They have completely given up on compromise, on democracy itself.
26
What's the biggest takeaway from this? The Democrat leadership is going to take the possibility of impeachment off the table. Why let the GOP start over with Pence in the big seat when they can do deals with the Donald and watch the Republicans devour one another for the next three years?
22
@Jon Harrison. Good points about Pence and GOP fratricide, but impeachment will be totally up to House Republicans at least until early 2019.
If Dems take over, they can probably impeach both Trump and Pence (he also seems to be a party to obstruction of justice in the Comey firing). Conviction in a Republican Senate is more questionable, but I think likely if the apparent facts are borne out.
The next in line would be the Democratic Speaker of the House, that is unless the impeachments were staggered and Pence appointed a new VP first. But this would be subject to congressional approval, and, if withheld by a split Congress, the Speaker would again become president.
None of this weirdness is too far from the realm of possibility.
This is spot on! It appears that Putin's gambit completely backfired and gave the Democrats and their bipartisan Republican allies a potentially incalculable advantage. The Dems will slow-roll the investigation and employ the renewable debt ceiling vote right through to 2020. Next up Climate Change.
@Michael T: "impeachment is totally up to House Republicans."
Yeah, obviously. I'm not stupid. Do you think the Republicans in Congress want to initiate a Senate trial when they have only 52 votes in that body? Impeachment will only happen if Dems go along. And as I indicated in my earlier comment, Dems may now have no interest in removing Trump before the next election.
The idea that the legislature of the world's sole superpower, even if under Democratic control, would impeach both the president and the vice president, is ludicrous. Think of how North Korea, Russia, China, Iran might react to such disarray. Won't happen.
I'm juicy still amazed so many people actually believed in Trump's Wall. They seem to me to be the most gullible people on the face of the Earth. First of all, Mexico in no way, shape or form was going to pay for it. That was a non-starter. Second of all, our Congress was not going to pay for it or authorize it. Too expensive, too mind-numbingly controversial.
So where was the money supposed to come from... the Koch Brothers? Adelson? A GoFundMe account?
Another carnival barker from another time once described it this way: " A sucker is born every minute."
For all of The Wall believers, that pretty well describes our present situation.
16
*juicy*??? I sure don't know how that got thrown in...
Reality has set in for Trump that the right's agenda is a loser for his presidency. It is good for whipping up anger and getting votes but terrible for governing. He may end up alienating his base but could compensate with more Independents and Democrats support if he plays his cards well.
13
Any Dem who votes for Trump has been trumped.. this presidency is a disaster and the person at the top is a paranoid narcissist... not good for Dems, not good for independents, not good for the planet. DISASTROUS.
1
Conservatives should retaliate with a little "bipartisanship" of their own.
Team up with Democrats and impeach trump.
Pence, a true conservative, takes over.
4
Pence is a theocrat.
2
Not so. Trump picked Pence solely based on the Spiro Agnew principle "no one will impeach me as long as he's next in line"
3
Pence is a completely terrifying individual. I'd honestly rather have Dick Cheney back.
"Now, twice in one week, Mr. Trump has gone around Republicans to reach a compromise with Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi"
Trump's change of tune coupled with his willingness to compromise with "the other side" is almost too much to take in. I still don't trust him as far as I can throw him, but at least for this week, he is making and taking steps to find some solutions that will appease those on both sides of the aisle. That in and of itself is progress and something I never thought I would witness from this man. As for that stupid wall, why not use the money originally intended and put it into shoring up the coast lines and areas hardest hit by the most recents storms as well as towards the many millions who lost a loved one, a home, and everything in between. Why not spend money on preventing future coastal town damage when (and not if) the next horrendous storms hits. More overall good could come from that money spent than on a useless and ridiculous wall. All walls tend to do is keep love and people out and hatred and bigotry locked in.
4
So well said..
1
If it is any consolation, America is recoiling at the thought of Conservatives, who place the existence of our Nation in great peril by pretending that a foreign adversary did not violate the 2016 election.
18
They actually did by compromising Wasserman Shultz DNC server and computer. Can't wait to see the data stored on that server.
2
If my two over 80-year old neighbors were here, I'd be blasting them nicely for their utter stupidity voting for a guy whose father was a member of the KKK.
I'm glad HRC is out there. I thought she's stirring too much up but we've been hacked and taken over by Russia, so her books and her being out there calling out the facts is so critical. I wish we could just use a giant rope and drag what remains of the wh to outer space. Pence seems still interested in space travel - let him drive.
3
I hope the dems in congress recognize this for what it is. political expediency and it is not with them in mind. Trump will do or say anything to garner attention and support but dems have to remember what the true core of this man is. He remains the same guy who laughed at the disabled, made racist remarks about a federal judge and told everyone his favorite way to approach and overwhelm women
8
Recoil? If the GOP looked at this man's history they would have known he was an empty suit. Everyone who has lived in NYC for the past 30 years knew it all along.
8
Trump does not fear the loss of his base voters, because they have no one else who they could possibly support. The trumpistas are a personality cult of Trump and no one has been literally politically insane enough to win their support.
12
I find it mind-blowing that so few Americans know that we already have a wall and it has been growing at taxpayer expense since the 1990s. Last year National Geographic ran photos of it, lest people doubt.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160304-us-mexico-border-fence...
I suppose nothing should surprise me about what Gore Vidal so aptly called The United States of Amnesia. So many people seem to think that all the troubles stared when Trump arrived. Had they been paying attention before "the revolution" and its cute pink hats, these things would not be happening.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
9
The National Geographic pictures show the US Mexico border fence. Trump promised a great wall, not a fence. Then he started describing its fanciful features, such as being see-through so people standing near it are not crushed by large sacks of drugs he expects to be tossed over the wall. A see-through wall would be novel. It would be like the fence in the National Geographic article's first picture. . . .
So it is semantics?
And people wonder how we got to this state of affairs...
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
The NatGeo headline: "This Is What the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall Actually Looks Like"
Wall. Actually...
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
To the Ann Coulter(s), Laura Ingraham(s), and the Steve King(s) of our world: "don't worry Trump will again change his mind!"
6
Not "don't worry..." to the loathsome three and all the rest of their ilk, but "who cares". Any opinions they advocate are going to be extreme and most likely hateful. It is best to ignore them.
Schumer/Pelosi had a plan that might pass. Where is the McConnell/Ryan plan?
8
In this "deal" the only consideration for Trump is Trump—keeping himself afloat, trying in vain for some respectability.
3
More likely he's just found a new way to stick it to the Republicans who "failed" him, and to further publicly humiliate Jeff Sessions who also "failed" him. Trump is a pathological narcissist who will do anything to "get back at" anyone who appears to make him "fail," unless they're making him a lot of money.
Hmm. Shades of Tony Soprano?
99.9% of what Trump has done since taking office has been disastrous, but if he honors his deal to protect DACA recipients, and upsets the most racist of his supporters in the process, then I will give him that full 0.1% credit where it's due.
9
Wrong again. Judge Gorsuch was a home run .
Too high a % and I don't believe anything it says. Even doing it, can be undone. The only thing that will stop this is throwing the thieves out of our country and into a deep deep cold dungeon with some glass so we can watch the murderers (dt's regime) squirm.
Not "home run" but four republican-assisted plays:an intentional walk and three STOLEN bases.
A word to those self-styled conservatives who object to Trump dealing with schumer and Pelosi: it's called GOVERNING.
6
Remember those heady days when Mexico was going to pay for the wall and not U.S. taxpayers? Remember when those trumping penceholes believed that lie? How times have changed.
4
Are there any adults left in the GOP room? Now more than ever we need the likes of real Senators to stand, as statesmen and women, for the good of the Republic.
5
You have to give these DACA kids credit for making something of themselves (i.e. many are enrolled in college). Many who are against immigration do not have an education. If they want to compete in this world they need to get an education -- be it trade school or a bachelors degree. In other words, take some responsibility for your situation and work to change it. instead of blaming these innocent DACA kids for your problems.
8
Is Trump migrating back toward the Democratic Party, with the idea of getting some things done and thus establishing a record to run for reelection on? Trump runs as an independent in 2020, and wins a three-way race with 35% of the vote. It could happen.
2
'“No one knows what the deal is,” said Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, who expressed wariness about the deal. '
The Deal is Donald Trump, Mo. You haven't been paying attention. I think someone wrote about it for him.
5
It's a deal with the democrats that finally gets Republicans incensed. Not the lying. Not the despicable behavior following Charlottesville. Not the Russian influence in the election. Not the silly non presidential tweeting and retorts. It's a bi-partisan deal that has them incensed. That's what's despicable.
332
Whether he's for or against McConnell wants to control the outcome. To take that away from him is the ultimate sin.
Complete agreement with your comment.
1
But IS there a "deal?"
Aside from the entertainment that this clown-show is delivering, what I really fail to understand is the obsession with building a wall. Other than flushing billions down the toilet that the country clearly doesn't possess to begin with, there is effectively no difference to current border protection. And this from the self-proclaimed party of fiscal conservatism... building a gigantic piece of artwork in the desert so we can burn as much money in the most useless way possible.
4
The political logic is so simple: Trump wants to accomplish something legislately (make a deal). The Democrats sufficiently align with enough Republicans to provide the votes. However, the GOP must play to the minority extreme right caucus because they're afraid of being "primaries," so O'Connell and Ryan can't propose moderate/Democratic-supported legislation. But Trump sees this as the only way to command legislative majorites. The problem is more in the House, where the so-called Freedom Caucus holds the "primary" levers and where the Democrats have a greater chance of electoral success in 2018.
Trump has figured out that Ryan and McConnell are too afraid of their fringe-right members to be able to pass any meaningful legislation, so he's meeting with the leadership team that can negotiate. Schumer and Pelosi would be wise to make it look like he's wrung some concessions from them, so Trump can save face with some of his base.
If what we get is a center Democrat and center Republican coalition, we could be in for some productive governance. Fingers crossed - want only what is best for the nation.
4
Center coalition.... Exactly! The radical loons, Left and Right, have to pushed aside... They spew hatred and wallow in the muck of divisiveness... Enough of the media fueled factionalism! Together we are a great nation, divided we are nothing but prey....
The Republicans are just being themselves; that is, anti-cooperation with the Democrats. They did it when Obama was president and now they're doing it with Trump (only when they don't get their way). The wall was always a stupid idea.
The GOP members keep exposing themselves in morally compromising ways. The Dreamers belong to America and should be treated as Americans.
75
From what I've heard of most Dreamers, we should be fighting with Mexico over who gets to have them in their country instead of trying to kick them out of the US.
The Germans have a saying "Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude.« Schadenfreude is the nicest joy. To see Ann Coulter and other commentators of her ilk explode in fury is the nicest sight to enjoy, although it resembles the eplosion of an infected appendix.
12
In a way this is hilarious. All the rabid proto-Nazis finally think they've got their Il Duce in the White House, and it turns out he's just another poll-chasin' pol! How about that?
The really sad part is that people like Coulter and Ingraham are even on the air. In a civilized country with an educated populace, they would be considered too nutty to listen to, nevertheless sponsor.
Anyway, Racists and Haters of America, here's a little takeaway from the Trump "Presidency." What goes around comes around. Get used to it.
6
So, people are angry because they believed a person who has a long and consistent history of being a chronic liar? It says more about them than Trump.
6
I wonder - over time, I think they'll be angriest that they have to admit it - the 'liberal' media was right. The rest of the country was right. They were yet again suckered.
4
Yes and there's going to be a price to pay for that at some point.
Looks like a "it's ok if he is a horrible human, as long as he is our horrible human being" situation.
4
The conservatives should get down on their knees and thank Trump for the ride, but now it's over.
1
Amazing to watch Trump's base finally realize that what everyone else was saying from the beginning: that he's a liar, cares only about his own image, and will throw anyone under the bus in a minute.
9
Trump just needs to make his wall an electronic invisible wall by getting a deal with Congress to make eVerify mandatory for all private and public employers. Then the money not spent on a physical wall could go towards repair of all the failing roads and bridges throughout the country.
3
How are the high paid right wing talking heads going to react over this? The ones with the flag pins on , forever touting their patriotism and implying the other side does not share their love of country. They have a way of defending Trump no matter what he does. Or when there is an obvious stumble by him, nary a mention of it. They brag about conservative principles. Will they recoil?
2
Sean Hannity gave a preview of what the rest of the True Believers will say: That the RINOs in Congress sabotaged Trump.
Just an opinion.....Hannity forever touting his patriotism and says he's fighting for the country. Fighting for his guy...if the other side did some stunts his guy does...would be screaming bloody murder. a thousand examples. I don't call that patriotism at all. Finds a story and throws out red meat to the faithful...when there's a bigger and more important story not favorable to his side. Shilling.
How ironic (and sad) would it be that after all the actions Trump has undertaken, and all statements that he has made that were beyond the pale, it would be legislative compromise with democrats that finally causes him to lose his base support.
7
Personally I cannot stand Trump. This though is what Democracy is supposed to look like,not my way or the highway.
3
Trump shows compassion and his base - probably including his Christian base - freaks out...What does that tell you about his base (and their Christian values)?
6
The fascist's in America get all lathered up over DACA and the Wall led by the Ingraham's and Coulter's of this world- people who have a made a living by yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. All those good hypocritical "Christians" marching in lockstep with the worst of human kind. It is now 4 o'clock- within an hour we will be getting another unintelligible comment from Trump regarding this topic.
5
His supporters are fine when our president mocks the disabled or brags about grabbing women's genitalia or repeatedly disparaging a minority group or gives up intelligence to Russian officials in an Oval office meeting or discusses classified topics on a patio at his country club...
But offer innocent children, teens, and young adults a chance to stay in the only country they've ever known? Let the outrage commence.
238
Question: How do you know your Moral Compass is working? Because Direction Enemy is Coulter, Ingraham, King. That's how.....
4
Seems like the only people upset with trump are the white supremacists, nazis and white people - they hate anyone that doesn't look or act or have sx like them.
Pence is even worse because he's an extreme christian sharia law person and want the church to rule the US.
potus & v potus need to be removed!
4
Just as Nixon was the only one to open the door to China due to Republican conservative intransigence, perhaps Donald Trump is the only one to open the door to Democrats, also opposed by the same Republican conservative intransigence! Let's hope he has a button to push to eject the Freedom Caucus - "a bunch of losers" (a Trump quote) !!
6
I think it's hilarious they they're upset about him dealing with Democrats...he was a Democrat before he decided to run as a Republican (remember that famous quote about how he said he'd run as a Republican because they'd be stupid enough to vote for him) and Ivanka and Jared are registered Democrats (or at least used to be). He's a con man, always has been, and I wish more people would have done their homework (and the MSM would've reported more on that) before he was elected. A lot of us are saying "Duh!" to everything he does.
10
Coulter, Ingraham, Hannity, King, et al. They're leaf-blowers dressed as humans. And they elicit the same response: Please, please stop!!!
8
As long as they keep making the "big bucks' they never will.
Well he may be able to kill someone on fifth avenue and keep his base, but he sure can't suggest that immigrants are humans, regardless of status and keep his base.
20
I thought Trump's base didn't take him literally. Whoops.
9
The answer for Donald's wall problem is simple since he left himself an out. He said we are going to build a wall and the Mexicans are going to pay for it. Since the Mexicans are not paying for it we should punish them by not building the wall. That will show them, and make as much sense as anything else he has said.
10
Conservatives trusted Trump and now their feelings are hurt?
5
"I want the wall. I want it to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall."
That's real hatred right there.
8
To democrats: make Trump happy, just push the line that this bill will contain a "wall" of mesures to streighten border enforcement and prevent illegal immigrations. With the word "wall" in it, if there is a spin about a "alternate reality" wall in it, the Donald will be happy...
1
Saul Alinsky said it best, "The best things happen for the wrong reasons."
If you're looking both then I suggest another planet. ;)
So, Steve King has JUST realized that, in Trump's case, no promise is credible???
7
Someone needs to tell Laura Ingraham, Steve King, Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Hugh Hewitt, and the rest of the right wing ideologues that this should be the way our country works. The above named and the rest of the republicans, put their interests well ahead of their country's interests.. You folks are down to 30% support for your mean spirited, ayn randian metrics and dwindling rapidly. Savants you are not.
5
What if Trump has already decided NOT to run in 2020?
Assuming he still wants to be viewed as a winner, he could cut whatever bipartisan deals are available on a large number of issues (DACA, fix Obamacare, tax reform that benefits the majority, etc.) that would benefit both the U.S. in general while at the same time burnishing his own personal legacy.
If he could save the Republicans from themselves in 2016 and play the role of kingmaker in 2020, that would be icing on the cake in terms of conservative lore--to be remembered as the next Reagan.
Hmmm... make that 30% base happy, or go for a decent historical legacy?
3
What is the left's objection to the Wall? It would help to keep out at least some of the heroin that we're awash in.
3
What a softball question. Hugely expensive, the wall won't keep out much of anything without the investment of human and technological resources, and with that investment no wall is needed. The wall will of course break the migration lanes of many species who have no interest in dumb human politics, causing further extinctions and shrinking the viability of many that remain, and of course Mexico won't pay a dime for it, all costs will be on U.S. tax payers with little to no return.
3
don't be silly, R.P. The wall would have no impact on illegal drugs entering the US, not as long as the demand remains high. The risks are negligible for smugglers. The wall is aimed at the poor people fleeing poverty and crime at home, only to find poverty and crime in the US, BUT the demand for illegal labourers remains high, so they will keep coming. Perhaps you need to look at why there is so much demand
1
Yes, that will prevent them from tunneling, droning, and laddering
1
Maybe there is a way to reconcile Mr. Trump's various positions. He now wants a deal under which the 800,000 or so DACA recipients would each pay a $15,000 "visa fee" (in, say, $1000/annum payments for up to 15 years) in order to obtain long-term visas to stay and work in the U.S., which would both provide a legal framework for them to stay/study/work here and generate the $12B he wants for border security/wall. He can also get to say that it is not, technically, an amnesty. Maybe that is how he plans to square the circle.
4
His supporters should realize what a smart thing it is to keep DACA participants here. We have either given them on the job training, or formal educational training and these workers have value. Why should we hand over several billion dollars worth on educated and trained workers when we can keep them here?
5
I think realistically the conservatives knew and know that Trump is not a conservative no matter what he says out loud to pacify them, he's really about himself getting good ratings no matter how he attains them.
He will turn on you and stab you in the back with out blinking an eye, just ask the realtors, business people and banks of New York City, one of the many things Hillary did get right during the campaign were the ads ran depicting his business practices and they carry over into politics.
4
Is it possible that the same Trump voters that hated, absolutely hated Obamacare only to discover later it was the Affordable Care Act that they now love, are conflating DACA with a general amnesty of all the undocumented immigrants in America?
92
Of course it is. His base is too ignorant and blind to discern truth from fiction, lies from facts.
I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Pablo!
I view the basic Trumista as very low-information. In my mind, these are people who hear a few slogans from a rich guy who says he's a deal maker. They vote for the him because they believe he'll take away the bad hombres who are keeping them from becoming rich themselves. The fact that they are not rich already is obviously a sign that something is seriously wrong with the country.
So, their "savior" is elected. The Trumpistas go back to work and don't really keep up with politics for a few months. The next thing they hear is that their candidate is somehow reneging on his promise to get rid of those bad hombres. And they don't dig any deeper than that.
At heart Trump is a New York guy. Trump is obviously more comfortable with fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer. Cry no tears for Mitch McConnell who spent years trashing Obama. It's marvelous to watch all these Republicans howl in dismay. At least those on the Left were smart enough to know what we would get with Trump. A guy with no fixed agenda, no guiding principle. Just someone who wants to win by any means necessary.
3
Oh dear, "it's just confusing;" conservative Republicans are wringing their hands because their president actually wants to show mercy to 800,000 immigrants who were brought here illegally as children, have never known another country to call home and who now go to school, join the army to protect our national security or work for a living and pay taxes. If that upsets Steve King, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham and all the other despicable, narrow-minded bigots in the GOP I'm all for it.
6
I teach many of the Dreamers in California. I have this to say to those right wingers who think they can turn the clock to the 1950s, "Have you no sense of decency?"
Most of the anger is directed to immigrants, but it needs to be directed to Donald Trump and the Republicans who use racial hatred to win elections. Every wave of immigrants have been met with hostility and America grows stronger as we take these people in.
4
Would the press please stop using the term "coastal elites", at least without quotations, as it is merely a derisive Republican / Conservative marketing and trolling term meant to divide this country.
9
The quote from the Alabama guy is hilarious because they already threw out illegal workers and Republican businesses made them backtrack when farms failed and factories idled. There's no way they'll pay enough to employ Americans, though I'd love it if they did.
And who saw Trump playing this only for personal gain? No one, right?
"Now, twice in one week, Mr. Trump has gone around Republicans to reach a compromise with Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi."
In both instances, Trump got what he wanted, gave cover to GOP legislators, and did not give up anything he truly valued.
By pushing back the debt ceiling a few months, Trump gave Republicans breathing room to work on taxes, the budget, and gutting Senate rules meant to protect against one-party tyranny. By going along with it, Democrats lost leverage.
With regard to DACA, Trump, Bannon, and the mainstream Republicans have always been for it, but Trump created an awkward circumstance by promising his rabid base of white nationalists that he would rescind it as soon as he took office. Trump took the heat off himself by saying it was up to Congress to legislate the matter, but that put the political hot potato in the hands of the Republican majority. Now, Trump is getting the big, bad border patrol he wants, he gets to keep DACA, and whatever failures arise in the DACA legislation can now be blamed on Democrats because they have taken the bait and agreed to lead this effort.
Trump gets everything he wants and the Dems end up holding the bag for any problems. Then, next year, the Democratic DACA legislation will be used to rally the white-right against Pelosi and the Democrats.
Far from being crazy or inconsistent, Trump is playing a masterful hand and the Democrats don't even know they are being had.
2
Wouldn't it be lovely if, like FDR, Trump proves to be a "traitor to his class"? I'm not optimistic, but it's fun to see "conservatives" squirm!
1
He'll get even crazier as the Mueller investigation progresses.
3
Psych!
So if Trump really was in it for the fun & PR & really was just taking the red-statists for a ride, could somebody please tell Scott Pruitt...
3
I ask, how much longer must we tolerate this joke of a president.
What little "administration" he has is in complete disarray.
3
1. See the wall from space like the Chinese wall!? It is not visible from space.
2. They're angry because 45 has reversed his positions; the rest of us knew that he would just from his personal history (before the ridiculous campaign).
3. They're angry because he reached across the aisle. First, he had always been a Democrat, until his hatred of Obama took over. And, secondly, they don't want that. Theirs was the party of NO for at least 8 years; they'd rather nothing happened rather than cooperate. It's insane.
2
Don't take this for mopre than a headline. trump is hammering the GOP for their failures and for Mitch being a whiny guy from the seante and that 4-letter word phonecall they had. This WON'T LAST. Trump thinks he is the boss again, but that isn't going anywhere. Congress still signs the checks and as Mueller gets closer, they will less willing to sign anything but an imeachment trial.
If you are a Dreamer this has to be a nightmare. Watching a political storm created by Trump with rescinding DACA, then tweeting "it is up to Congress now", then an announcement we have a deal for Dreamers, no we don't have a deal, then we have a deal if it involves a wall. These are young people who did nothing and desperately attempting to be part of America which the Trump administration is treating like a cheap piece real estate. Shame on Trump, shame on Congress and shame on the Conservatives who are treating 800,000 young people so disgracefully.
10
For a guy with no political experience, our Mr. Trump is proving himself to be an awesome political animal. A lot of Republican candidates are sure to ride into Congress on the wave of the anti-immigration, xenophobia that has infected the US, the way it has in Europe. Trump is still, and even more so, Bannon's boy.
2
The Mo Brooks, the Steve Kings, these are the un-american pollutants constituents need to recoil from. Trump is this rot brought to life, but he is not the root of it. And that rot will no dissipate when Trump is removed from office.
2
One thing all this dealing by Trump signifies is that Mueller is probably getting closer.
Too bad there wasn't an anti-immigrant President when Sean Hannity's relatives arrived at Ellis island, to send them back where they came from.
Isn't it ironic that people like Hannity and Clarence Thomas, who themselves or their relatives "climbed the ladder", are so anxious to push the ladder away for anyone else.
3
To quote from the article: ""It is just confusing", Mr. Schriefer added."
This is funny. It's so easy to confuse a Republican. They don't handle change well.
4
Memo to Schumer & Pelosi:
Don't become too gleeful about your negotiating prowess with Donald Trump. Promises made by Trump (look at the man's history as a Trump Enterprises' lead deal maker and contracts signed with small businesses, financial institutions, etc) show a habitual pattern of agreeing to deliver and then reneging on the agreement. Until the legislation is agreed upon through the Congress, signed by POTUS Trump, and rolled out as law of the land, lots of pratfalls are possible - especially from a person who has no empathy and who has spoken about immigrants in the most disparaging terms.
DONT TRUST TRUMP!
Narcissists & megalomaniacs are pathological liars, too
4
Poor Trump supporters- left to feel bad about their President. Welcome to the club!
3
Oh come on. Did anybody really think the president wanted to run against Democrats as the man behind 800,000 broken dreams?
Maybe Trump just crossed the isle. He'll probably get more done with the democrats.
aisle - he may think he's God's gift to America but he doesn't walk on water
You voted for a man with all those bankruptcies, and now you're surprised that he's apparently going back on his word? Welcome to the real world, folks.
2
His base in an absolute fevver-pitched uproar over 800,000 brown kids who grew up in this country basically all of their lives and who are functioning, contributing members of society (more so than a good number of them)???
And here I thought the last election was all about economic insecurity! Well I'll be!
6
Well said
Republican and conservative's reaction to Trump:
1) Conducts briefing related to national security incident in full public view at his own restaurant: Who cares who's around? The situation called for swift, decisive action!
2) Discloses highly classified information to Russian envoy including the foreign minister and ambassador: He's new at this. Give him a break!
3) Admits on national television to firing James Comey because of Comey's investigation into his teams' alleged Russian collaboration to influence the election: Obstruction!? What? He likes to fire people! It's like, his thing!
4) Works with Democrats to ensure our government is funded, the debt limit is raised and attempts a bipartisan effort for a mutually beneficial agreement with regards to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival: Impeach. Him.
3
There, conservatives and republicans, somewhat like unruly children, you know, scream and shout then pout with no sense of reason.
Dear GOP: When you buy a snake, don't be surprised when he acts like a snake. You knew he was a snake from the beginning and had no trouble with it at all.....until - of course - you were the ones bitten.
4
For Trump, it is very simple.
He is a man of his words but if you don't like them he can always change them
So let me see now.......Trump supporters are surprised that he is going back on his word. Is it possible that they haven't noticed his frequent lies, distortions and a complete lack of well-thought-out policy? Almost every day, he says the opposite of what he said the day before. Nothing he is doing now is any different than what he's done the past 20 years. Wake up, conservatives!
1
Great while people like me - after clearing a 4 year engineering degree, a GRE - a Masters from US and doing everything legal possible - all the while paying taxes for 14 years - have to wait for 15 more years to get legal residency ??
What is wrong with these democrats?? This is just plain CRIMINAL!
2
A generous heart, Sanket, goes a long way.
Dear Sanket,
Nobody is talking about just giving these kids citizenship. And you shouldn't have to have that long a wait, sounds like you're an excellent candidate for citizenship. But keep in mind that the people who are against illegal immigrants don't want to help anyone else get citizenship either, so you will not be served well by Republicans.
2
The warning was repeated many times by smart and reasonable Americans - Trump is a liar, a demagogue and he's running a con game.
The Trump voters ignored the warnings, bought into the game, nodding mindlessly at his every word.
Turns out they messed up, they trusted him.
8
Once again: You knew he was a snake, when you picked him up.
Ouch.
4
Anything is negotiable to Trump's base except the racism.
6
Well put.
This is all hilarious...
6
Nothing funny about it to the people whose fate hangs in the balance--allowed to stay, or not?
You know your intellectual skills are limited if for every major wrong you blame people who members of either: 1) the .0001% super rich, or 2) the 20% poorest and most vulnerable.
3
I'm surprised by the public attention to the wall too. Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall. What is the wall even doing in a budget negotiation? You might also expect DACA to draw more attention than the wall. Trump made Dreamers illegal but is now fighting for their legal status in exchange for a wall designed to keep out other immigrants seeking legal status but he isn't getting the wall anyway, just a border security budget. He then tweeted the wrong details about the conversation at 4:30 in the morning claiming he got the wall and then retracted the statement later in the same day. What?!? Did someone spike Trump's kool-aid? Is the man off his meds? Trump might not drink but he sure ain't sober. I can only suspect he needs Schumer for a deal on taxes. That or he's completely lost it.
5
What the president is doing is giving his supporters a wall -- between him and them.
2
At a time when people are in dire need after two major hurricanes in two major red states, the whining of hard-right conservatives over wasting taxpayer money over a wall that now President Trump vowed over and over again would be paid for by Mexico is beyond absurd. It's time to meet the real and urgent needs of those suffering rather than cling to ideological symbols that are best set aside. This rabid rigidity is exactly why President Trump is finding it much easier to "deal" with Democrats to get things done rather than repeat the health care debacle over a wall.
7
There couldn't be a more straightforward expose of Republicans being part of the "swamp" than:
"... said Russ Schriefer, a Republican consultant who has worked for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. 'Doesn’t it hurt all these Republican congressmen who want to use [Pelosi] as the liberal foil in their campaigns?'”
In other words the position of these Republican swamp creatures is
"don't solve the problem, keep it festering as a future campaign issue".
However much or little any of us agree with Trump, on this aspect of immigration reform, he's trying for resolution of a situation that swamp denizens have allowed to linger for decades. Think of it. Someone moving ahead with the public's business!
1
If you're just realizing now that the wall is never going to be built, well ...
6
..."then I have a Bridge to sell ya too!"
Eventually we will all realize that Trump's many faces are the perfect reflection
of a tribal public that only listens to those who agree with them. Our hatred or love of Trump is just a summation of how our nation has broken apart into
each echo chamber. Trump's lying takes a back seat when one group
hears what they want to hear. And that includes everyone.
He's finally showing both political and common sense.
Such compromising is welcome and useful for the country. I'm sure that his troglodyte minions will neither accept nor understand the true nature of good politics, and the positive effects such can bring.
I, who dislike him, welcome these new directions and efforts.
1
Dear Dr. Rudolph,
Really I wouldn't be so willing to be taken in by his lies. Wait and see what actually occurs, not much reason to pay attention to the words of Trump, as he will go back on anything with no reservation.
2
Finally a good thought and a practical idea!
A wall that looks like the Great Wall of China!
Architecturally beautiful and a tourist attraction the government could charge access to by designating it a National Monument. The Wall would practically pay for itself, even the Mexicans would want to walk on it and take their selfies. And it would be functional, too! At 2000 miles long, it could easily house the governmental offices of all the federal bureaucrats. By housing them inside the Great Wall of America we would save tremendously on border patrol, since now all the bureaucrats in the building would merely have to be instructed to keep an eye out for ropes and ladders on the Southern side of the wall and occasionally push them off, cut the ropes, or pour hot oil over the more persistent wall climbers. And the best part: All the lobbyists would have to pay Park entry fees everytime they want to bribe my representative. I can practically hear the ka-ching already!
Of course, Our Wall has to be bigger and even more beautiful than its Chinese counterpart! I mean, that's a given. But if anyone can do it, then it's Our Donald. We are truly blessed to have him!
I love it! I hope the Donald is reading this. This idea might just save his hide from his irate supporters.
4
Conservatives oppose illegal immigration and raise reasonable arguments against it. But they fail to see that the Dreamers have done nothing illegal. Suppose that. as 10 year olds. they were sitting in a car while a parent was driving drunk. The parent would be subject to arrest, but the child had done nothing wrong. The same goes for crossing the border. The parent's offense is not the child's.
4
These people are horridly humorous. Now it’s “Repair the Wall”, Repair the Wall” from Ingraham. I don’t even know who she is but SNL could use her. Welcome to “switcheroo” land. Our Disaster in Chief has been pulling these stunts for the last eight months on the Democrats, World Leaders, and just about anyone outside his base.
But now it’s their turn. I’m used to it, and bounce back quickly now, but Trump’s base is now in for a ride of their lives. He wants a tax reform bill so bad he can taste it. The Wall always was a losing proposition, it does next to nothing for security, costs a ton of money and he probably knows now it won’t get funded.
But tax reform, if he plays it right with Pelosi, and Schumer, may just get him a decent piece of legislation that he can sign into law. It’s all about image, and ratings. His base will see him now for what he is, but won’t let go, it’s all they have.
Welcome to the Twilight Zone Republican base!
1
Didn't Donald tell us his base is loyal to a fault. Surely if he can shoot somebody and still retain popular support, he can have sympathy for DACA kids. Fear not, Republicans, the rats don't even know the ship is sinking yet.
5
After this latest decision it will be fascinating to find out how Trump polls amongst his base; if his solid 36% support remains loyal, then Trump is right that he "could shoot someone and still win". However, if his base support begins to waiver expect the political sharks to sense blood and close in for the kill.
3
So if the Democrats already loathe Trump and now the Republicans do, what could be more unanimous than that? Finally, a coming together. Who knew Trump could be such a healer. Just like after the Civil War, I'm sure another word of it will ever be mentioned again by the two sides.
"Conservatives recoil", "Die-hard Trump supporters fume" yada yada. Nothing shocks me at this point. Trump, McConnell, Ryan, Miller, Bannon..all the characters in this American Story have twisted and contorted themselves into caricatures trying to pretend these last 8 months have been "normal". The one constant has been that Trump can be relieved upon to change like the wind period.
1
Republicans should ignore Trump, Schumer and Pelosi and introduce a compromise bill that grants citizenship to DACA enrollees but (1) authorizes state, county and city police to enforce immigration law, (2) empowers states, counties and cities to make it unlawful for unauthorized immigrants to reside within their jurisdictions, (3) makes E-Verify mandatory nationwide, (4) and changes asylum laws to deny asylum to anyone who enters the country illegally. If these measures were put into effect, we wouldn’t need a border wall or a border fence, but the compromise package could designate the existing border fence the “Donald Trump Border Wall” so Trump will sign the bill. We could tear down the fence after he leaves office.
1
There is no way Trump will keep his word on anything, he never has. But the big problem is that the right-wingers of this country (whose inability to govern is right now so apparent) will get a new enemy in DJT to energize them. The Rigth wingers live to hate at this point and offer no guidance to how to better our nation. They don't deserve a place in the national dialogue, because they don't respect the dialogue or the nation. they need to learn shame and to find their ways back to the real USA.
With this new twist they will continue their self-righteous assault on all that is good about America.
2
None of us knew what we were going to get with this president. Is this move by Mr. Trump desperate or genius? He believes the Republican establishment failed him. In reality, they failed all of us. Moving toward breaking a seemingly unending gridlock may save his presidency.
The fact is that these "conservatives" can complain all they want, but the only danger Trump really faces is if the Republican party gets tired of being sidelined and decides to mount a primary challenge against him in 2020 with a real neo-Nazi rather than a guy who just plays one on TV.
1
These apoplectic Trump supporters should be offered free Ancestry DNA tests.
4
See! I told you he wasn't such a bad guy!
1
Trump kept telling his supporters he was the BEST DEAL MAKER. So who do you make deals with? Not Republicans, they don't do deals they are too obstinate.
2
It is a cosmic mistake to refer to the the deplorables as 'conservatives' unless the implication is that they want to 'conserve' 13th century values. We need a better term but 'deplorable' will do for now.
1
By not being affiliated with a party a President doesn't always have to lean left or right. They can simply do what's right for the country. Of course we're dealing with Trump. Soooooo?
1
To be honest, no one can know whether Trump is agreeing to this because of poll numbers or because he sincerely believes it is the right thing to do. (Most likely, it's a combination of both.)
But -- and assuming he does follow through (I am keeping my fingers crossed) -- the important thing is that it will remove the terrible cloud hanging over 800,00 human beings who have lived here most of their lives. Let's not lose sight of that.
And, if there are to be further "betrayals" of racists and fascists like Ann Coulter and Steve King, I am happy to give our President kudos for that.
2
Amen to that, craig 643!
Can't believe I am saying this. But Trump is finally doing the smart thing. 1. He is finally going to get something done. 2. He may just pull off what has been deemed impossible ... a third party (moderate Dems and RINOS). Let the polar extremes wither away. Lets truly take America to greater heights.
Reduce Inequality. Create Jobs. Show China Who is The Boss. (I think Trump and this Trump Party can deliver on these.) Reinforce American Values and our moral fabric? Not so much.
1
Ease up, Republicans. His ghost writer called it the art of the DEAL, not the art of sticking to your promises. My dream is that Secretary Clinton makes enough from her book to buy his family's real estate portfolio out of his next bankruptcy and turn it into affordable housing for the dreamers.
6
So many negative posts on Trump. Trump is a man that likes to be admired - if he is criticized, even when he makes a good decision, - he is not likely to continue that path.
3
"It is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles, and he weareth the Christian down.
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased:
And the epitaph drear, 'A fool lies here, who tried to hustle the East.'"
--Rudyard Kipling
2
I hope he continues to be perfectly inconsistent in making the Dream Act happen and not pushing the wall. Ask the Dreamers how they feel about this development. We should applaud, not gloat.
3
One commenter says: “I hope they still deport the parents who illegally brought children here.” And leave the children alone? Yes, the parents broke a law. How bad is it, really? They came into this country illegally because they wanted their children to be safe and have a future. Many come from countries that are practically lawless. Does anyone criticizing these parents ever think what courage it takes to leave the homeland and risk their lives to come here? I wish more red-blooded Americans had this kind of courage. What we do need is a revamped immigration policy that is generous and fair. And we should take in refugees. That, after all, is what the Statue of Liberty stands for. And we should give every opportunity to newcomers who work hard and strive to make America a better place.
4
Yes, Jeff, mine risked a lot to come here by boat LEGALLY from Italy and had to work from day one with no government support AT ALL.
1
We have a generous immigration policy. There are simply far more who want to come here than can fit.
And it's not a massive crime - we aren't proposing a 20 jail sentence for the parents - just that they lose what they stole. When a thief steals a car, to help his family - do we say that they can keep the car?
1
They are not eligible for support. Quit demagoguing.
Anyone who ever thought Trump was a man of his word (unless it had to do with gaining wealth) hasn't had their ear to the ground.
3
Trump was elected as an outsider. Frankly, I thought he had a lot of room for achievement if he had bucked party leadership from the beginning and tried to do a ton of bipartisan stuff right out the gate.
Next up, support for a public option? LOL
3
Trump wants to be popular. He suddenly realized that the majority of the American citizens dislike him.
Solution: give into what the majority wants. Very simple, he then thinks he will be more popular and he won't be impeached.
The net result I can't predict.
1
Why are they in an uproar that he's not getting money for the wall? He never said Congress would pay for it. He said -- or the frenzied mob said in answer to his prompts -- Mexico would pay for it. Maybe Democratic negotiators need to be diplomatic for the sake of the DACA deal, but Democratic supporters need to hammer away relentlessly at the lie that Mexico would pay for the wall. Just like the lies about the beautiful health care he was clueless about, or all the coal jobs coming back to a place near you, or the great deals and how easy it would all be. We'll never get the core of Trump supporters to step back from their support for a wall (or many other things), but we might peel them away by showing how they've been rolled, by a master con man (I think Michael Bloomberg and Mitt Romney more or less called him that, surely I can in a NYT post).
2
Agreed. The Democrats do not know how to play hard ball even when presented with a lob.
1
If Mr Trump, during his campaign, said he will build a wall, and all of you will pay for it, perhaps his followers would not have been quite as enthusiastic!
4
"...giving American jobs to illegal aliens rather than American citizens..." is another example of being completely out of touch. Jobs are never given to anyone, they're won in a competition known as a 'hiring process' and what conservatives need to think long and hard about is what innuendoes their heavy-handed immigration attitudes convey. That Americans aren't competitive with aliens for jobs? How sorrowful. Immigrants, who have a gauntlet of language, cultural and educational hurdles to climb over are somehow the biggest threat for an American getting a job? If conservatives truly believed in American hustle and work ethic, they would welcome the competition from new, eager people that want to come to this country and join, grow and benefit our economy.
3
Conservatives ought to recoil at who they voted for.
I am utterly bemused on one level and sickened on another. If this guy can finally, at last, actually work with the Dems, he could possibly pull off the ultimate sleight of hand--gaining some support from those in the middle or the left, which he desperately will need if he has any chance at re-election. So happy to see the extreme left and his withering base "confused" over whom to now vilify. How about civility and collaboration as goals for elected government officials?
3
Trump was never a hardliner when it comes to immigration. For he himself have employed illegal immigrants for his real estate projects. He only took the hardline approach to garner votes and support to get elected. Trump supporters are finally waking up to the fact they got played for their vote.
4
Simple minds prefer simple solutions to complex problems. As a symbol, the wall communicates, but do sensible people want to pony up $20B for a symbol. If the anti-immigrant folks had more than half a brain they would ask for laws requiring government issued ID and real time reporting for employers, with high and increasing penalties for those who employ those who don't have legal status to work in this country. The fact that they don't want to upset the status quo for employers is just one indication of their lack of seriousness about immigration control.
1
The 60 million people who voted for Trump didn't do so because they believed he would put an actual wall 50' high and 20' thick from coast to coast. They know there will be additional fencing, a whole lot more law enforcement and border security and that is all they really wanted. They also never believed that 15 million illegals would be sent back, especially the DACA children. These hardliners on the right are as out of touch with reality as the hardliners on the Left who think open borders is ok with the majority of the country. It is not.
I'm happy that after decades of abuse by both parties that something is finally, legislatively being done for these people. Handing out drivers licenses and bilingual classes, etc. has never been anything more than carrots to the undocumented by the Left. As nuts as Trump can be at times, he is getting things done and proving that he is willing to work with either party or both. Working with neither party was the Obama way and he knows that that is unsustainable for a governed society. He has already reached across the isle more sincerely than Obama did and that is the hard truth that every liberal needs to come to terms with. He is probably the most bipartisan POTUS since Clinton or G.H.W. Bush, and that, despite the tweets, is a big relief.
1
We've all heard that Republicans built Donald Trump with 50 years of race-baiting, fear-mongering, immigrant-bashing campaigns, but they also built their base -- people who have learned to blame other for personal shortcomings.
The marks have finally realized they've been conned by the Grifter in Chief. I only hope they use this as a teachable moment and not one that will drive them into the camp of the fascist right.
"The comments mostly added up to a damning conclusion: Mr. Trump had tricked his voters."
Thank the gods that this is finally sinking in.
Boo boo hoo!
The wall was ridiculous to begin with. Now with billions required for real needs, like hurricane relief, this idiotic boondoggle needs to have a stake pounded through its heart. The trolls of the alt-Right and the Freedom Caucus can go pound sand and scream into the wind.
1
My friend told me last week he would never forgive any democrat that worked with the Trump administration or any republican. I can't stand Trump personally and I don't in general like republican policy, but I understand that the only way to break DC deadlock is to look to the moderate factions of both parties. Leave McConnell out in the cold I don't care. Just get things done.
5
Loyalty of conservatives to conservative candidates is absolute, so why is Trump risking their loyalty by betraying them with respect to immigration? Well it makes no sense if you are conservative because you believe that conservative beliefs are the only genuinely valid beliefs, that all who do not also share those beliefs are truly deluded. When a candidate appeals to them, they think that they are hearing from fellow true believers in conservative principles, not someone who simply calculated the values of the support from conservatives without caring about conservative beliefs. Trump has tried to work with Republicans in Congress and they have disappointed him both by failing to pass his legislation and by producing legislation that the majority of voters really don't want to see enacted into law. So it would seem that Trump is making a purely political calculation, that to be re-elected he's going to have to start gaining some voters in the middle and even from the center left, so he's got to make some deals with Democrats around popular legislation. DACA is popular because it's about Americans, truly self identifying Americans, who like many just like themselves throughout the history of the U.S. happened not to be born in the U.S. and whose parents just showed up here without any permission from anyone. Throwing them out is impractical and would only be supported by a narrow minority of voters who tend to think that they are being displaced by foreigners.
4
I wish people would stop calling them "conservatives." It implies they are cautious, care about people, care about the environment and are moral. I am not seeing any of that in Trump's supporters. Money seems to drive everything they do, not God.
6
The question not being asked is: should A.G Sessions resign? Mr Trump through his tweets has contradicted all the points Sessions made during his press conference last week.
If Sessions were to resign, Trump will appoint a new A.G who will have control over the Russian investigations...
too late. Any interference with Mueller would not be looked on kindly. Remember, even the GOP Congress likes Mueller. Mueller has been there too long and now knows too much. What a loose cannon he would be if fired or let go. He would make Comey look tame.
Trump is not sincere nor genuine. Never has been, never will be. He is doing this because he wants to be seen as someone who can make the deal. So be it. Congress, the executive branch should be working together to help people. If that what comes from his deal making all the better for the country. But it won't last.
1
He will never do what is right, because it is the right thing to do. There will always be a beneficial, ulterior motive behind each decision. As he and his followers have stated repeatedly "he is a businessman" You may get this one thing, but down the road you always end up paying for it.Just make sure it isn't a price we all regret. Will it be the laughable tax reform, environment, education? Come on we all know whats going on here.
So am I missing something or is the conservative right supporting Trump when he panders to Nazis and fascists but when he starts working with Democrats to all of a sudden he is not such a great person. It seams to me democrats are a lot less offensive that Nazis and fascists. Where are their values?
179
Reply to Craig,
Yes, you just might be missing something here - something that most of us have been missing for years now, to wit:
For the hard core Right (Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Jones, Sessions, Bannon, Meadows, Mulvaney, Pruitt, Imhofe, et al.) - the Democrats ARE THE ENEMY. They're all raving socialists - which means that they're actually Communists - and that makes them much worse than mere Nazis, racists and white supremacists (who, we now see, are actually tolerated, if not openly embraced, by a fairly sizeable portion of the GOP).
In short, the Tea Party, The Freedom Caucus and all the nihilistic, far-right talk radio fascists have brainwashed almost half the country to believe that "Democrat" and "Demon" are synonymous. The racists, bigots and neo-Nazis are just a bit more to the right than the mainstream GOP now is - so they're sort of the "crazy uncle in the attic" - but still "part of the family".
And yes, that revelation should scare the living daylights out of the other half of Americans who still believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and in "E Pluribus Unum".
Why not just get to the heart of this particular matter: "Conservatives Recoil"? I think not. 'Bigots recoil', I believe, is most accurate.
Ever since that uppity 'White House Negro' suggested a means for the children of illegal immigrants to be treated as a unique category in addressing immigration reform (or virtually any other Obama proposal), the Jeff Session, Hannity and Dobbs congregation have stirred this un-American aspect of the 'Immigrant Problem' pot. Disgusting, evil and ignorant.
Sadly, it appears, a significant portion of our nation's population share their phobias, hatred and disdain.
40
We addressed illegals compassionately under Reagan and what did it get us? Another 12 million? Check to see what Mexico does on its southern border. It isn't very pretty or forgiving. A country needs to control its borders and possible incoming populations. Easy access across borders in Europe has brought what? Terrorism and isolated communities within their countries. The reason China does little as to Kim in N Korea? The fear of millions coming across their borders. Little Havana in Miami still exists without the original residents having integrated themselves into America as a whole. Areas that continue not to speak English, the American language, does not unite us as a country. My family from Italy didn't speak Italian after the 1st generation was born here. My grandmother and grandfather both in their 20s when coming to America, living in an Italian neighborhood, spoke English well within a few years. Me as a teacher of high school students, working with 2nd and 3rd generations from Puerto Rico, Americans, who can hardly speak English. It can easily be guessed their success rate after high school. Teaching English as a second language isn't very successful when it isn't used across the dinner table nightly or on the school bus coming and leaving school or in the school hallways between classes. Bilingualism is good when both languages are used in everyday life.
With Trump, it was always what you see is what you get.
And if conservatives didn't see this coming, they have no one to blame but themselves.
36
I'm going to quote myself, writing in November 2016 in a little blog I started back then:
"...we don’t have to wait anymore to see if a different pattern post-election pattern will emerge; it’s really very plain:
We can not believe a single thing he says.
It still amazes me that anyone pays the slightest attention to claims or promises made, then or now. All that means anything is what he actually DOES. Perhaps his base is starting to understand that.
13
A politico who doesn't keep his word is new? How many red lines did Obama draw against Iran and Syria? Obama promised to secure the borders and? Closing Gitmo and? He ever eliminate oil and gas loopholes with a dem Congress for a few years? End income taxes for seniors making less than 50,000, he promised that. Lift payroll taxes on income over 250,000 which he promised. Look at all his broken promises http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promis... Obama's base ever understand these?
His base said there was nothing Trump could do that would ever ever ever make them abandon him. Seems they were wrong. Apparently making a deal with Democrats and letting DACA immigrants stay are unforgivable sins.
Poor poor ignorant Trump supporting snowflakes. Feel it baby. Suffer.
68
It seems to me there is entirely too much giddiness about this DACA development.
Let us remember that the more the Donald changes the more he remains the Donald.
We still have 3 1/2 long years of this sad story, by then he could build a few more walls, explode the deficit, starve the ACA of funds and appoint a couple more right wing justices.
14
not without cngressional approval because THEY control the money bags. Trump can create al the EOs he wants but if there is NO FUNDING, oh well.
explode the deficit? What happened the last 8 years?
Trump was extremely happy with the media coverage he received as result of the budget/debt limit deal he cut with the Dems. He hadn't received that much praise working with the GOP because they can't agree on what they are for and therefore, haven't passed anything significant.
Trump has no policy program nor a governing vision. He simply goes for the applause lines. If the GOP could offer him a legislative win, he'd accept that too. The Dems have managed to be unified, giving Trump the ability to pass legislation with a minority of Republicans, which he is ok with. This is going to be a long and bumpy ride.
16
Any ratioal person who looked at Trump's record of 40 years in real estate should have known that Trump is out for the best deal for himslef. Nothing else is important. So I hope the voters for Trump learned something. I also hope they remember this in 2020. I also hope that the GOP, who backed Trump, are "rewarded" in the 2018 elections.
12
There is another side to the issue of Trump losing his base. I consider myself a centrist, perhaps biased a bit to the right. I am no fan of Trump. I am impressed by his outreach to the other side to solve some of the issues facing our country. Bipartisanship and comprise is what is needed in dysfunctional Washington. If what Trump is doing is sincere and genuine, not some "art of the deal" move, perhaps we all can benefit.
6
Read your last sentence.
1
Uh..did yu just use the phrase, "sincere and genuine," in this context?
1
"On conservative talk radio programs Thursday morning, listeners called in to voice their disapproval...The comments mostly added up to a damning conclusion: Mr. Trump had tricked his voters."
The real damning conclusion is that Trump supporters and voters, both in the government and the general populace, were ignorant suckers who never thought critically about the outcome of their votes. It has only taken eight months for Trump to make fools of them with his Keystone Cops approach to governing. The majority of voters knew this but couldn't compete with the outdated Electoral College rules. It is time to rethink how we elect a president to avoid a disaster like this in the future.
162
Some miss the point - it's all about him. He wants a deal, any deal, so he can say he won. He basically has no fixed opinions about anything. Besides, the Republican plans e. g. health care, are so bizarre and disconnected to the subject in question, and really so unpopular, that a vacuum has been created. Trump is about himself only, not Republican Party, not any principle, not even about America.
108
If Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Steve King and other people like them are opposed to the decision to legislate to benefit dreamers, then Trump and the nation must be convinced that such legislation is the right way.
32
Anything those three losers are against is probably really good for our country. Really good.
Trump will do whatever Trump has to do in order to stay in office in order to reap its tangible benefits. If that means destroying DACA beneficiaries one day and then trying to save them the next, he will do it. The one glimmer of faint good news in this scenario is that we at least know he can be swayed by popular opinion.
19
Unlike republicans.
If Trump said one time during the campaign he would work with Pelosi and Schumer he wouldn't have been elected. Oops, take it back; Trump was elected because AMERICAN WOMEN preferred him to Hillary Clinton.
5
...not really. They electoral college (the system) brought Trump to the White House.
Hillary Clinton received 2.9 million more popular votes than Trump and we also know about 77,000 voters in the isolated Rust Belt gave Trump the Presidency.
2
Actually he said that MANY times when he was telling his followers that he was the best deal maker, MANY times.
1
The women who preferred Trump also preferred to marry men who loved Trump. How many intelligent women voted for him?
None.
1
Hey GOP, maybe you were wrong to spend all that time demonizing the other side and Nancy Pelosi. Sure, you picked up a few house seats with those tactics, but you have made your own party so useless and dishonest that the president thinks he needs to go around you.
Come back from the edge of the cliff! We are waiting here patiently.
22
the best news i have heard all week.
laugh out loud funny.
let the circular firing squad begin!
36
The Lord knows, I do not love President Trump.
But I love these super-conservatives even less.
A lot less.
The people that scream. Chant their odious litanies. "Lock her up!" "Build that wall!" We heard it all last year. And an odious election it was! The worst in my memory. (Which, by the way, goes back to 1956.)
I would say this to the President:
"Sir, it was never in the cards. Run the entire U.S.A. just with super-conservatives? Springing up at the bidding of Ann Coulter? Or Laura Ingraham? Impossible! Sometime or other, you would have to come out. Leave the dark places, the caves and caverns of conservative America. Come out shuffling--blinking in the sudden glare of daylight.
"And run the entire United States of America. There are three hundred million of us. The super-conservatives, the alt-right--oh I know, sir--they can be noisy. Awfully noisy! You should know this better than me.
"But they are not all of us. Not even most of us.
"They're just--noisy.
"I think, sir, you have done the right thing talking to Democrats. Keep doing that.
"A lot of us, after all, ARE Democrats. Or leaning that way. A lot of us are utterly repelled--turned off by. . . .
". . .all that clamor coming from the alt-right.
"Ignore it, sir. Ignore it.
"Thanks for listening. Good luck to you."
26
What kind of people "recoil" in the face of basic decency and mercy?
429
Trump supporters.
@Sherry: Trump supporters!
You have answered your own question: people who have no basic decency.
And so The Worm-in-Chief turns . . . again.
No surprises here. It's what all worms do.
7
Aren't most of these conservatives Christian? Haven't they read what Christ taught? Guess maybe i missed one. "Hate all people who have a brown skin. I say this unto you even though i have brown skin, dark eyes and hair."
In this regard, conservatives have done well.
23
“It is just confusing,” Mr. Schriefer added. Nothing more to add.
1
I find it hilarious that the Trump base has no problem believing this news is factual and not fake when their hero has clay feet. Time for conservatives to put on big boy pants and stop whining.
12
What, all the conservatives are surprised that this guy is stabbing them in the back? What rock have they been under?
10
Chuck and Nancy - Chuck and Nancy - It's the Chuck and Nancy Show. Featuring Little Donny.
Oh dear - really - He compared himself to PT Barnum - and yes "there is one born every minute". You wanted him you got 'em. Oh dear this is funny.
Pray tell, what did you expect when you heard his multiple cheesy stump retellings of the frog and scorpion parable? And he would lean into the mike and bleet "but I told you who I am!"
Chuck and Nancy - Chuck and Nancy - Donny - Chuck and Nancy
Rollover Breitbart - tell Pelosi the News!
Where is Peter Sellers when we need him?
7
“Republicans have spent so much time and money targeting Nancy Pelosi as the enemy over the last few cycles, the idea that you’re now going do a deal with her has to rub people the wrong way” -- This sums up the root problem with the GOP. Demonizing Democrats might turn out the base on election day, but it is no way to govern. It has divided the nation, promoting bitterness and hatred. It has to stop. Political opponents are not (or should not be) enemies. They aren't trying to 'destroy America'. We are a nation of over 300 million people and we simply have honest disagreements. There is nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean half the country are "not real Americans." What this country desperately needs is to stop promoting hate and to start promoting respect for opposing political views with the understanding that everyone is trying to do the right thing and we need to work together. Compromise is not a dirty word; it is the only way to pass responsible legislation. If Trump does only one thing right, let it be this.
104
It seems pretty calculated to me - it causes anger in their base and when people are angry they don't act based on facts, they act based on emotion - this basically sums up the GOP's approach to motivating their base. It gets them active and prevents them from thinking very deeply about how they're actually voting against their own interests. ie Essentially this hatred causes them to support things which they feel will hurt their opponents (liberals) over things which will help themselves...this is in a nutshell why the GOP electorate went for Trump (they liked how angry he makes liberals...and don't care much about the rest of it)
This is delicious, of course, but I wouldn't celebrate the collapse of T's support just yet. Everybody quoted here as outraged is part of the sort of political elite that Tea Party types like to rail against--except they are their own. They might be tossed overboard, too, by the sort who adulate this pseudo-president.
11
I get the feeling that donald is reacting publicly to every twist and turn in the debate, constantly trying to take a stand that agrees with the apparent leaders of the swaying discussion.
Or, maybe he really wants to please his "base," but a tiny hint of humanity lurking deep within peeks out occasionally and, being a man with no internal boundaries, he voices that. Then the "base" raises a stink so he says something to keep them happy.
And so on -- round and round. If two sides of a debate both make a good case he says "You're both right..." and here we are.
39
I see it more like Ivanka is in charge now that Bannon is out.
This has nothing to do with humanity. It has to do with getting something through congress. He wants to win at something. The don does not have empathy for anyone but himself.
These Republican whiners need to read Edsall's column today. Trump's real base doesn't care about policy. They only care about Trump. It's a cult of personality, and they want him to succeed and will follow him wherever he leads. It doesn't matter what he does, they want him to win. He couldn't win with losers like Mitch & Paul, who only now how to oppose things, so he turned to Chuck & Nancy, who know how to get things done. They need to keep up their engagement. It's more surprising that Don hadn't started working with them earlier.
15
If the Right is dismayed and confused by their "blessed president" for waffling, much like a debutante before a mirror in prom night, well, they're way behind in the game.
Most of us who have our heads on straight have never taken the liar-in-chief at his "word" for anything since it counts for less than nothing.
Memo to the Right: The Wall will *never* get built. It's too costly and will rip the bottom out of the national treasury, a debacle that might require decades--if not a century--to rectify. Your hash pipe dream of an inviolable Wall on the Mexican bordervwill do absolutely nothing to staunch the inflow of people from crossing our borders--north or south. Or have you never heard of boats? The Coast Guard? Oh, please; those wishing to set foot on American shores have ingenious ways of tricking the rurales there and the federales (ICE) here.
Oh, and BTW, when was the last time you heard either Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell lean hard publicly on your "blessed president" to hurry up with The Wall? It's not a priority with them.
Wake up! You've been tricked!
36
This is actually fascinating.
Only a fool would spend billions on a wall that would accomplish nothing in terms of checking illegal immigration. Trump apparently realizes this and so is creating an exit strategy--it's politically smart, because a wall that accomplishes nothing but draining coffers would be a massive political liability. And he has plausible deniability--I couldn't do it because Congress wouldn't let me, so I did the next best thing.
Republican politicians aren't clamoring for a wall. The only ones howling for a wall are opportunists like Coulter who make their living throwing bombs and fringe nutballs who listen to her and take what she says seriously. Perhaps Trump is finally separating nutballs from the wheat, realizing that the nutball vote won't get him reelected, and trying to figure out ways to get stuff accomplished, because he's a one-termer otherwise.
Stay tuned, campers. It's early on, and who knows what tomorrow will bring.
5
No Wall = No Trump
1
Hey Trump, add in a few racist dog whistles into the deal and your people will flock back to your side.
7
This has been a surprise. I'm not sure what it means, but I say let's slow down on the ol' Mueller stuff. The Dems are rolling him right over. Can the Dems actually get legislation to the floor? Not sure about that.
2
Mueller's investigation is about seeing if there is wrongdoing. That needs to happen whether Trump suddenly becomes a liberal democrat, or tomorrow decides to veto every bill that doesn't help build his wall.
Wait, are the Republicans upset that American dollars are not being set aside to pay for the wall? Do they want to tax Americans for this?
Mr. Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall. Are the Republicans aware of some wall payments from Mexico that the rest of the country is unaware of?
15
Let me start by saying I am the furthest thing from a Trump supporter that one could imagine. However, he is simply following the polls with this stance. 88% of the American people support finding a way to accommodate those protected by DACA. There are differing views in terms of an eventual path to citizenship, but the vast majority of Americans support these young people. Let's label the remaining 12% accurately as the extreme right wing of the right leaning Republican Party. Seems to me that the president is simply reading the tea leaves appropriately.
25
This is so much fun to watch! So, if he looses his base, what's he got???
5
But that logic doesn't follow with other issues: better gun control, women's right to choose, or any of the other issues that 60%+ of the country think should be backed by the president.
2
Just wait . . . it's coming. If his base turns on him, he'll turn to the "others" to be able to boast about his ability to make deals and win.
It appears his most ardent supporters are only now discovering what everybody else has known since this whole thing started in 2015. Trump only cares about one person, and if he thinks there's a deal that has a chance to make him look like the fictional dealmaker he purports to be, then he'll jump at it and call it a win. Only thing is, I'm not so sure his unshakeable followers are going to accept it this time.
228
They will eventually except it and ask for more. When you are that far gone, even Jim Jones seems rational.
1
Yes, because as we all know, and as this turn of events proves yet again, the aspect of white supremacy and harsh treatment of colored people is the principal animus for trumpista voters and is where all the energy in the GOP is now.
I hate to say this, but I think they will!! Well, at least the ones who do not think it is important to be open minded (for lack of any other explanation). They do not seriously do not care what he does or does not do!! This has become more and more apparent to me. I don't even try to change their minds. It is a waste of my time. And if I were to eliminate the Trump controversy, I would not probably spend any time with people who are this narrow minded!! I haven't in the past and don't plan to start now!
In assessing the impact of the deal, it would be helpful to know the details.
Can the dreamers apply for Green Cards that won't be revoked unless they break the law? If after having a geen card for a certain amount of time, will they be allowed to apply for citizenship? How will marriage to a US citizen affect their status? Giving birth to a US citizen?
7
The President is not consistent on anything except being inconsistent. The more the angry wing of the Republican Party recoils from the President's tweets, press conferences and congressional candlelight dinners the more we see the Vice President in photos with POTUS. Accommodation or continuation of past practice in some ways that's hard to tell but what is telling is the President's challenge to wealthy backers in the cosmic outline for tax reform. We may have President Pence to kick around shortly. I don't think Donald Trump intends to stay on. The President likes to use the media to float ideas and shift direction and if more of his key initiatives are transformed by Congress, Donald trump will vacate 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His ego won't handle the challenge to his perceived authority as the American CEO.
1
There was never going to be a wall. It was Trump's way of cornering the fringe market inhabited by Coulter, Ingraham, and those that they earn their own millions from shamelessly.
Arnold didn't make his millions by being a great actor or get into office by acting skill. Trump's campaign by comparison was Oscar-worthy. Trump knows you can't govern from the fringe. One day his followers will catch on. Or not.
10
I don't know which rock it is, but I hope they crawl back under it.
Mo Brooks says: "Anything that smacks of amnesty in Alabama, that gives American jobs to illegal aliens rather than American citizens, is not going to be well received."
This is what the GOP is facing now. They either have to accept the bizarre and unpredictable choices by their leader or they are going to have to hold more tightly to their bizarre, irrational "ideals," as codified by Brooks. Brooks, like Sessions, will lie straight up to his constituency to feed its ignorance. Trump will do the same, but his actions are less certain. Which set of lies will conservatives choose?
6
Surely this will cause a few of the Deplorables to leave Trump's camp. But not all of them; there's no delusion like self-delusion.
7
Don't count on his loyal troops abandoning him; he might have been correct when he said that even if he were to shoot someone, openly, on Fifth Ave., his followers would remain loyal to him.
He can sound sympathetic to the labor needs we have post two huge hurricanes.
Can The Times stop referring to his "conservative" supporters and call them what they really are...."right-wing ideologues"?
77
"Can The Times stop referring to his 'conservative' supporters and call them what they really are....'right-wing ideologues'?"
I'd go with "deplorables."
If loud, troubled, frenzied Ann Coulter is unhappy, something good and decent for our USA must be afoot.
315
Eventually Trump betrays everyone who trusts him, from wives to business associates to voters. His base is just now figuring out what sentient inhabitants of the planet have known for a long time.
51
"Conservatives Recoil as Trump Bends on Immigration"
We may call this a 'teachable moment' for conservatives who must come to the realization that they cannot have their way 100% of the time on 100% of every issue. The GOP congress needs to work across the aisle to get some work done and move forward; they must accept a half-loaf isn't a banquet but is a meal.
9
Maybe it's finally happening, after almost eight months in, Trump is losing the support of the extremely ignorant people who have been his most steadfast supporters. If he loses them, I think he's down to just the white supremacists, and their support might be shaky too these days.
I call them extremely ignorant because of quotes like this anonymous caller's: "I want the wall. I want it to be seen in space, like the Chinese wall.”
The Great Wall can indeed be seen from space, but it failed entirely to prevent the builders from being overthrown, as they were replaced by a dynasty who originated south of that wall. So it's beautiful but turned out to be entirely useless.
Also it seems shortsighted to want to have a big wall visible from space, rather than regain the capability to get people into space to see it. Right now America has no manned spaceflight. We hitch rides on the Russian manned spaceflight program sometimes, that's it, we have lost the ability to put people into orbit on our own.
So people who really want this useless wall should consider a few things, I think. Most illegal immigrants in the U.S. came in legally, and overstayed their visas, so a wall wouldn't prevent that. Walls can be overcome by ladders, tunnels, boats, and planes. And lastly, they should read "Ozymandias" and really think about how it applies to this brainless wall idea.
455
the profoundly ignorant always applaud "easy" solutions that won't impact them
8
But, the builders of the Great Wall were not overthrown. That's fake news.
1
Read something? You surely jest.
1
Amusing to read how some conservatives are becoming upset about "broken promises". They'll put up with chronic lies and collusion with Russia but, oh no, not promises to THEM. Doesn't matter, though. Republicans will vote Republican no matter what - 2016 proved it.
58
Anyone who believed in Trump has been fooled. Trump has no interest in anything except his own self-interest. As a malignant narcissist ( a diagnosis given by many psychiatrists) he is mentally unable to identify with or relate to anyone or anything outside of his own self interest. He is The Emperor With No Clothes -- the cautionary tale told to children. In that tale only a child was able to see the emperor's nakedness---all the adults pretended that he was dressed.
Ah, the truth in fairy tales.
8
As the saying goes, there's a sucker born every minute. Trump had tens of millions of them on election day. "Drain the swamp," of Wall Street, especially Goldman Sachs and the corporate world, well we have his Treasury Secretary and chief economic adviser coming from Goldman Sachs and the head of the Environmental Destruction Agency as the biggest shill for the oil and gas industry. Jobs? Moving along same as Obama- if you looked at a graph for the last few years without dates, you wouldn't know where Trump took over. Muslim immigration (more accurately, hatred of "them"), okay he tried but the courts stopped him. Stopping Mexicans from coming here (though more are going than coming), well the wall was always a symbolic fantasy, probably even to his supporters, a wall of venting against another "them." DACA? Seems like he agrees with Obama but just wants to make it permanent, probably because he knows deporting all these people will really hurt the rich, corporate leaders seeking workers and nannies. ObamaCare? Please.
But do his followers care? Mainly not. It's easy to psychologize about Trump, the narcissistic, needy for attention, petulant, 4 year old bully. What we really need to understand is his voters. Not that they are the same, but Germany, the most educated nation of its time, elected Hitler, democratically.
31
“No promise is credible” -Steven King said of the president
I would write that anyone who knew the liar in chief. like New Yorkers, realized that his word was worthless and that his contracts were not necessarily honored in full. In a mere sixteen hours there has been more than enough muddying of where he stands over DACA, over taxes and over his wall.
The conman in chief has two goals: winning at something and reversing his declining popularity. However, such a win might come at the cost of support from his base. He had said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and he would not lose support. His calculus must be over whether his supporters could tolerate abandoning his wall.
14
One of the attributes that so worries Liberals and Moderates about Trump is that he appears to have no moral universe let alone a compass.
It was only a matter of time before his Conservative and alt-right base became acquainted with this fact as well.
We all now know with certainty that what he says can change in an instant and that what he ultimately does is as predictable as any other random event.
Do we know what he believes? No. He has no belief system. He has no set of criteria with which to filter: right from wrong, good from evil, left from right, principle from rhetoric,friend from enemy,fact from fiction and truth from lie.
273
Yes. And we need to use that to best advantage.
7
Speaking as a New Yorker who has witnessed the full 40+ years of the carnival barker called "Donnie", one would be tempted to say "We told you so".
We told you so.
11
You are right. In a curious way this "trait" can be used to our advantage. If he has no set beliefs we can determine how his decisions get made. I suspect they are made by a combination of who talks to him last and how much money is in it for him.
Oddly, Bernie Madoff still has his supporters, sure that some day, they'll get everything they were promised.
But I am happy to see the shabby likes of Ann Coulter being galled to discover that what we commies and rational conservatives such as Charlie Sykes told them was, of course, absolutely true.
38
I remember when George W. Bush was president, who got along great with Mexicans; the GOP was even talking about giving voting privileges to non-citizens who had been living in the US a certain number of years. The Obama got elected president and the moment it was clear that Mexicans preferred him to McCain, kicking Mexicans out of the country was suddenly in the GOP mission statement.
25
I can't stop laughing. Republicans wanted consistency? A deep ideology? Which Republicans were those... there are so many factions and cliques to choose from, all claiming to have deep principled conservative ideology.
Lol. When it comes to any of these republican extremists' hopes, karma is eating their dogma. Trump apparently sees one reality: ratings. And way of doing deals: partnership. The republican congress has failed to hand him any wins all year, and looks incapable of doing so ever again, so hamstrung are they by their long lists of People We Don't Work With At All, Ever. So now he's shopping for deals with Democrats and the right-wing and right-right-wing and right-right-right-wing are all OMG. Color me ROFL.
88
To the Conservative Trump Basers who now feel betrayed, it gives me no pleasure at all to exclaim, "I told you so!"
And just because you may now see him as your enemy doesn't make him my friend.
Trump cannot be trusted to help anyone but HIMSELF, period.
I'm a registered Independent who tends to vote just left of center, and I sincerely hope the day will come again when I can engage in reasonable debate about what's best for our country. But first, we will need to have a president who has a brain and a conscience before that day will come.
I oppose illegal entry into our country. I support better immigration reform, which is attainable. But I welcome newcomers to our great country. And I strongly oppose deporting Dreamers.
And the idea of building an entire border wall, well that's just plain STUPID.
30
If trump passes legislation that is good for this country I will be the first to applaud him, but I will never vote for him.
4
As somebody said: "Show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder".
Sorry, I don't remember the author. But so, so true.
6
Cykler, Steve King is so hyperventilated, I'd love to see the canteloupe calved Mexican flinging 60 lb. bales of marijuana over the 50 foot wall (and other Republicant delusions)
2
“He’s going to get creamed for this,” [Laura Ingraham] said, reminding her audience of all the times during the campaign that Mr. Trump chanted — and his crowds repeated — “Build the Wall!” ...“I don’t remember,” Ms. Ingraham said, “hearing ‘Repair the fence! Repair the fence! Repair the fence!’”
She's right, except what I remember the crowds chanting was, "Build the Wall! Kill them all!"
21
Why don't we carve out a few red states where republicans can build their wall and revel in racism, misogyny, and hypocrisy? Perhaps re-brand the US as the "Adjacent States of America"?
69
We are certainly not the "United" States of America; haven't been for a long time. Perhaps a renaming to "States of America" would be more appropriate?
4
Eh, you can still travel from state to state without papers. You can still pay for things with us currency, pretty much everywhere within our borders. We all have to file taxes with the same federal government. Our civil rights do seem to very from state to state, though.
2
There's a vocal group bashing him for this but the millions upon millions who voted for Trump and who have stuck with him through what has been a nightmarish 8 months there is probably more a sigh of relief. A significant portion of those people want above all to see this president begin to act like a president and to begin to show that he can accomplish something. The Republican establishment as represented in Congress is I'm sure baffled and torn on this particular deal. On the one hand, they too would like to see something done that moves DACA-negativity safely away from their party, but they are now in full panic mode that Trump is creating a pattern of striking deals with "Chuck and Nancy." Interestingly, on the other side, the LA Times is reporting today that a sampling of San Francisco area residents (20 out of 20 surveyed) support Pelosi and Schumer making deals with Trump. That's a real surprise that cuts against the conventional talk that the resist movement would prevent any Democratic dealmaking with Trump. I guess there's hope after all.
12
FYI, I am a member of the "Resistance" and I have no problem with them cutting deals with DT so long as the deal achieves goals with which I agree like DACA legislation, keeping us from defaulting and making a down payment on hurricane relief. Resist "yes". But don't do like Republicans did for eight years and obstruct just for the sake of obstruction.
5
I always thought his supporters were chanting "Build the Mall! Build the Mall!", about some 80s style development scheme Trump had going, putting his name on a building somewhere.
57
Such reversals can be a danger for a president who is an opportunist. Presidents Roosevelt and Nixon were opportunists in the sense that when conditions changed, they changed their political views. Neither had strong moral or political views.
But Trump has taken opportunism to a new level, changing his mind within the space of one day or one string of tweets.
Like all politicians, Mr. Trump wants to improve his poll numbers. But his sharp and rapid twists and turns will impress neither his supporters nor his natural opponents. As a pretty good politician once said: "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."
97
Both his staunch opponents and the most vocal of his supporters combined represent just a sliver of the country. Most accepted a long time ago that politicians lie every day and fail to deliver on their promises. Most also would love to see the government work in a bipartisan manner for the good of the country.
Honestly, we had a fine president for 8 years who checked all the boxes in terms of personal integrity and political right-mindedness and he was very effectively opposed for the most part by the Republicans in Congress.
Had we elected Clinton we would have been guaranteed to have more of the same. Had we elected a conventional Republican we would have had the granny starvers in charge of our government.
Here we have a guy who was always a Democrat but who went outside the norms, to say the least, to get into office. He's made a lot of enemies on both sides of the aisle and fomented a lot of enmity on the progressive side.
But in the end (at least for the moment) where does this appear to be going? As the NY Times headline blared last week, (well, paraphrasing here) Trump Veers Left. Right now, this guy is, as you point out, worried about his poll numbers. That's not a bad thing. Do what the people of this country would like to see you do and watch the numbers go up.
We can only hope that will be followed by Rinse and Repeat.
5
I don' think that really matters, I don't believe he wants to win re-election in 2020. He just wants some approval and acceptance now.
2
Churchill observed that some men change their party for the sake of their principles: others, their principles for the sake of their party.
2
This is what happens when you hand over your country to a person who has no known philosophy or political strategy beyond his own enrichment.
204
What is really appalling is how after his discussion with Schumer and Pelosi was disclosed, he has been lying to his followers that the WALL(all caps, no less!) is already under construction! I can see it now-a new reality show called "Americas's Great WALL" produced by his people all about the brave Americans building his wall. Of course it is a fake styrofoam wall on a remote set in the desert with wannabe actors in hard hats pretending his jobs changed their lives. Those actors will speak on his campaign trail, crying tears of joy when they think of how great America finally is.
7
The nature of Trump's egotism is likely to impact the GOP as a whole, crack up his base, and cause spalling from the solid rock of Democrats. In business we would call him a disruptive technology.
5
Surprise!!
The President is unreliable, a con man, a liar, and is mostly concerned with his ego being bolstered by any means possible. There are no "principles"---something that has been obvious to most of us all along.
Welcome to the crazy house, Conservatives. This is what you get with an empty vessel in charge.
241
I guess Trump supporters didn't realize (or mind) that Trump is a con man until now, when they're somehow surprised that he's been conning them, too.
331
Trump is a narcissist. so he doesn't care about his own promises or his supporters' feelings. Talk-radio, Fox, Breitbart, and others are getting what they deserve. When would Trump get what he deserves? Impeachment.
70
President Trump has changed course since General Kelly became his Chief of Staff. The Far Right and the Resistance are both outraged. This is becoming an interesting presidency.
30
I believe that there's a fabled Chinese curse that has to do with living in interesting times.
9
Interesting the way a car crash is interesting?
14
@Mike
Is it interesting seeing America become a banana Republic?
2
Republicans confused that deal making requires another partner! Presumably they assumed one hand would continue to serve them just fine...
21
He's setting the stage for his impeachment argument: "Would you rather have Pence?"
15
Democratic Ninja move: After the Republicans impeach him, and conduct the trial, 34 $enate Democrats refuse to convict him, creating a Republicant Civil War...
1
Dear Ms. Coulter, Ms. Ingraham and Mr. King....et al...Welcome to the our, the liberal, world. The charlatan in chief has shown his true colors...
43
Many say the potus implosion was inevitable. He just took an unanticipated route.
57