For the second time in the span of a week, President Trump on Thursday went on Twitter to contradict the very deal his own White House was trying to sell to Capitol Hill.
In the latest case, Mr. Trump complained about including a long-term extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in a short-term spending bill. Republican leaders attached the CHIP extension to entice Democrats to back the bill, but Mr. Trump tweeted that he didn’t see the need for a long-term solution right now.
The White House scrambled to clarify, saying the president definitely wanted Congress to pass the bill — CHIP included — anyway.
Lawmakers said they also are getting mixed signals from Mr. Trump on the border wall, immigration policy and a host of other big issues they are trying to solve.
Republicans in Congress say they are increasingly having to interpret the president for constituents and one another. Democrats, meanwhile, have thrown up their hands, saying Mr. Trump has become a liability in negotiations.
“The one thing standing in our way is the unrelenting flow of chaos from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said as he kicked off another floor session Thursday, with a shutdown deadline looming at midnight Friday.
In addition to questioning the funding deal, Mr. Trump on Thursday used Twitter to say his trip later in the day to Pennsylvania was a campaign stop to support a Republican running in a special election for the U.S. House. The White House later put out a statement saying the trip was intended to tout the soaring U.S. economy.
Mr. Trump also used Twitter to contradict his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, who reportedly told a meeting of Hispanic Democrats a day earlier that the president was “not fully informed” about the wall during his campaign and had slimmed down his plans.
“The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,” the president declared. He then again promised that Mexico will end up footing the bill somehow.
The president’s tweets about political opponents and the press have long been criticized, but it’s his postings about policy that are now getting him unwanted attention.
Last week, Mr. Trump took to Twitter to blast the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, just hours before the House was set to vote to extend a key portion of the law. The president tried to clear up the matter hours later with another tweet.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, insisted last week that Mr. Trump knew what he was doing and wasn’t trying to undercut the FISA vote. This week, Mr. Ryan again assured reporters that the president supported the CHIP deal.
Asked directly if the president was helpful in legislating, Mr. Ryan said he was.
“The president likes to do things in an unconventional way. He does it with his phone. But it does actually help us with our members,” Mr. Ryan said.
Other Republicans were less certain.
“The president’s tweet this morning was very confusing,” said Sen. Susan M. Collins, Maine Republican. “I think we just need to proceed as we were going to proceed.”
Ms. Collins said she wasn’t suggesting that lawmakers ignore Mr. Trump’s tweets and statements. But at least with the spending bill, she said, Republicans should forge ahead irrespective of the president’s Twitter missives.
“I just think we need to do what we think is the right way to proceed,” said Ms. Collins.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, seemed to suggest that Mr. Trump was the holdup with immigration negotiations, saying Congress could act “as soon as we figure out what he is for.”
A senior White House official said Mr. McConnell’s comment was disappointing and that Mr. Trump had been clear on the four parts of a deal.
Administration officials, including Mr. Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, are assisting the negotiations, but they are still expecting the agreement to be written by Capitol Hill, not the White House.
“What we’re waiting for is Congress to come to us with their proposal,” the senior official said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, and Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, noted that they had worked out an agreement with four other senators that touched on all four of the president’s priority areas. Their plan included a generous amnesty for Dreamers, about 10 percent of Mr. Trump’s border wall funding, a small tweak to future chain migration and yet another amnesty to replace the Diversity Visa Lottery program.
The two senators said they took Mr. Trump at his word when he said in a meeting with dozens of lawmakers last week that he would sign whatever deal negotiators reached.
The White House, though, pointed to other comments Mr. Trump made in that meeting, saying he wanted a deal that was bipartisan and bicameral, meaning broader buy-in than just the small Gang of Six senators.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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