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Democratic Minority Leader Senator Charles Schumer told The Washington Post that “negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O. It’s next to impossible.” Given the President’s fondness for fake tans, we assume that he’s the orange flavor, but Senator Schumer expressed the frustration that both Democrats and members of Trump’s own party have experienced with the administration’s complete lack of competence in trying to avert the government shutdown they bungled their way into as of midnight last night.
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Perhaps the most telling example of the lack of direction and leadership in the disastrous negotiations comes from another story recounted in The Washington Post about what happened after the media left the room in the bi-partisan negotiating session that the President convened earlier this month to hash out the contentious issues over immigration policy.
Once the cameras left the room, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen handed out to the assembled group of legislators from both parties a four-page policy document outlining the administration’s essential elements for inclusion in any immigration compromise they would negotiate.
It was a list that would please any of the extremists in the right wing House Freedom Caucus including all the talking points that Trump and his cronies have been pushing all year, money for the border wall, ending the diversity visa lottery, ending “chain migration”, and the rest of their anti-immigrant agenda.
The problem is that the president had never seen the document before – and he was furious that it hadn’t been vetted by him before being handed out.
As the White House raced to avert a shutdown, Trump’s DHS chief passed out a memo outlining the White House position. The only problem: Trump had never seen it — and disagreed with its contents. https://t.co/OyBhjYHgy9 pic.twitter.com/zrKGoB69OW
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) January 20, 2018
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Trump declared the document as not representative of all of his positions (which frankly have been fairly contradictory) and told the Congressional negotiators to ignore it.
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One anonymous lawmaker who attended the meeting said that:
“It’s like the wedding where someone actually stands up and objects to the wedding. It was that moment.”
This is the third time in barely a week that the President’s desires have been overridden by the conservative goons around him. At the preliminary meeting last week, Trump agreed to a clean DACA bill before being quickly informed by his subordinates that in fact was not the position the Republican Party wanted him to take.
Last night, it was reported that it was Chief of Staff John Kelly, the supposed “adult” in the room, who rejected the deal on behalf of the President even though Trump wanted to agree with it.
Source confirms it was John Kelly who phoned Schumer and rejected the deal he discussed with Trump, even though president seemed amenable https://t.co/MsbJfBJUv1https://t.co/nWMKV3YI8n
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 20, 2018
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Today, they’re handing out memos without consulting the President.
It’s becoming very clear that the career racists in the White House are battling with the President’s desire to end the shutdown as quickly as possible so that he can fly to Mar-a-Lago for his big inauguration anniversary party.
With luck, the President’s displeasure with being overruled by his subordinates and his desire to be a lazy socialite will overcome his desire for giving Democrats the worst deal they could ask for – which wouldn’t be hard, since the Democrats are unfortunately already making it obvious they’re willing to give up too much.
Source says Schumer didn’t just offer Trump border wall. He also agreed to full NDAA numbers, "far above” what White House requested as part of deal on defense caps.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 20, 2018
