Donald Trump, Master Negotiator, Is Asking for a Re-Do on His Wall Deal
Just eight days into Donald Trump’s presidency, those in the White House were forced to contend with the possibility that his reputation as a dealmaker had been vastly inflated. During a January 2017 call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the president bungled the basic details of a refugee deal, ultimately failing to understand its premise entirely. Things have not improved in the intervening months, as Trump has struggled to reconcile lawmakers over spending bills, complicating the situation to the point that government funds briefly ran dry. One of the most egregious examples of Trump’s deal-making prowess was his rejection of an agreement that would have funded his chief campaign promise—a decision he has reportedly come to regret.
In January, as a government shutdown loomed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made a staggering concession: in exchange for permanent protections for DACA recipients, he offered Trump $25 billion to fund his “great, great” wall along the Mexican border. Trump rejected the offer, but now, with Congress preparing to pass its final major spending bill before 2018 midterms, he appears to be having second thoughts. According to The Washington Post, the White House is telling G.O.P. leaders that the president is open to a short-term deal that would extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in exchange for wall funding, marking a significant shift away from Trump’s earlier proposals for legal-immigration curbs. Per the Post:
One idea under consideration is a three-year extension of the DACA program in exchange for three years of wall funding, a G.O.P. official said. This official said the talks, which are being led by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and legislative affairs head Marc Short, were fluid.
Unfortunately for the dealmaker in chief, such a bill would need both Republican and Democratic support, and so far neither side seems particularly inclined to go along with it. As Democrats eye the possibility of retaking the House in November, they don’t see the point in a temporary reprieve; instead of giving into a short-term deal this year that would give DACA recipients protection, they’d likely prefer to wait until next year to try for complete reform, when they have more leverage and when Trump is less likely to be able to successfully demand wall funding. “I’m not thrilled about including anything for a temporary fix,” Democratic Senator Robert Menendez told the Post. Conservatives in Congress are equally displeased at the prospect. “It would jeopardize the stability of leadership,” Republican Rep. Steve King told Politico. “Forcing amnesty into a must-pass bill? That’s beyond the toleration level [of] conservatives in this conference.”
With Congress more than a little skeptical, Trump has made increasingly incredible claims about alternative sources of wall funding. Over time and with a reality check from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is none too keen about his country footing the bill for a border wall it never requested, the president has walked back his promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, instead claiming that taxpayers would front the cash and Mexico would reimburse them. Then he claimed that Mexico would pay for the wall through import tariffs, and later, that it would “pay . . . indirectly through NAFTA.” And on Tuesday, as he examined prototypes in San Diego, he made his most audacious assertion yet. “It will save thousands and thousands of lives, save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing crime, drug flow, welfare fraud, and burdens on schools and hospitals,” he said. “The wall will save hundreds of billions of dollars—many, many times what it’s going to cost.” That’s right: much like his tax plan, the wall will pay for itself—that is, as soon as the White House finds some way to strong-arm Congress into bankrolling its construction.
