OPINION:
President Donald Trump reportedly has struck a DACA deal with Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. And already, the left is crowing, the right is gasping, and the media is spinning madly.
But let’s lower the eyebrows for a moment and take a breath. Since when do Schumer and Pelosi tell the truth?
Since when is a president of one party who sits down with congressional leadership of another party committing a cardinal political sin?
Under a different president, it’d be praised as bipartisanship.
But if media headlines are correct, the deal the trio forged goes like this: Trump will protect the 800,000 or so DACA illegals currently in-country — and, in return, Schumer and Pelosi will not fund the border wall.
Really? That hardly seems Trump-like to give away the baby with the bathwater.
As the New York Daily News noted: “The top House and Senate Democrats announced an immigration reform package Wednesday that will protect Dreamers and provide border security. … The agreement does not include funding for Trump’s long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It doesn’t protect 800,000 immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children.”
Quick sidenote: They’re only called Dreamers by the amnesty-loving crowd. The rest of America calls them illegals — which, of course, they are. They came to America on the pen- and phone-backed arrogance of the former president, Barack Obama, who bypassed Congress to create an amnesty door — a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals measure — for supposed little innocent children who didn’t even know they were illegals. It’s their parents’ fault — so why should they see their lives upended? That’s the logic of the left, anyway.
And here’s the logical answer of the sane: Because they’re illegal. Because they have no right to citizenship or citizenship privileges. Because granting amnesty to those who are here illegally only sends the message to those who seek to come here illegally, and it’s one that goes like this: Come on in, we won’t deport.
But back to the deal.
So did Trump actually agree to sign away the border wall — to usher in a new administration approach to border security that begins with amnesty?
Schumer and Pelosi are crowing.
“We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” the two said in a joint statement.
Reportedly, the legislation will include a pathway to eventual citizenship for the 800,000, the Associated Press reported.
And now headlines are rocking.
“Did Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi Roll Donald Trump on DACA?” blasted MSNBC.
Politico’s Rachel Bade, meanwhile, cited a Republican source denouncing the fact GOP leaders — Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Mitch McConnell — “were blindsided again” on the announced deal.
Well, here’s a thought: Let’s wait and see. Trump, after all, is the art of the deal guy.
He’s been trying for months to pass certain promised measures through his Republican-dominated Congress — only to be stymied time and again by these same Republicans. What’s more, some of these same Republicans who’ve stalled, say, on Obamacare repeal actually campaigned themselves on repealing Obamacare.
So why wouldn’t Trump instead turn to Democratic leadership? It’s the only way he’s going to get anything accomplished, it seems.
Now for Point B: Schumer and Pelosi aren’t exactly friends with this president — and moreover, they’re not exactly the up-front-and-honest type of people with the American voters. They’ve been in office for years; they know how to spin a good yarn.
So just because they put forth a narrative on their meeting with Trump doesn’t mean that narrative is 100 percent accurate. Of course they’re going to spin their meeting with Trump to their political advantage.
Of course they’re going to try to make Trump look the loser, the caver, the weak-kneed. Schumer and Pelosi have as their top priorities Schumer and Pelosi. Their second priority? Take down Trump. Wasn’t it just yesterday they were symbolically calling for Trump’s impeached head on a platter?
There are already hints the Schumer-Pelosi political machine has been steamrolling the American people, showcasing their meeting as something it was not.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted, post-meeting: “Excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.”
News watchers will also note that four companies were just awarded grants to create prototypes of a wall, as well.
Here’s a headline from The Washington Post in August: “Trump officials pick four companies to build prototypes of border wall.”
Hmm. A clue? Could be.
So here are the big takeaways from this White House meeting: Just because Pelosi and Schumer say something doesn’t make it true. Just because Trump has a sit-down with Democratic leadership doesn’t make him a traitor to his party, a caver to the people. And most importantly, just because politicians talk a talk, doesn’t mean they’ll walk a certain walk. Anything Schumer and Pelosi bring to the table by way of a DACA and border deal has to eventually make it into written legislation. If Republicans don’t like it, they can vote against it, pure and simple.
Trump’s meeting with Dems, at this point, was more a message to Republicans — get it together and work with me, or I’ll work around you. It’s not cause for conservative concern — yet. Of course, that will all change if he signs a bill granting amnesty to the 800,000 illegals — if he turns his back on the long-promised border wall. Then, there will be plenty of cause for outrage, and anger, and voter backlash come 2018 and beyond.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.