Trump's Brilliant Pelosi Deal

Mr. Trump continues to shock, awe, and amaze.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

President Donald Trump stunned Republicans on Wednesday when he overrode pleas from GOP congressional leaders and sided with Democrats on a proposal to attach emergency aid for Hurricane Harvey victims to measures to keep the government funded and its borrowing limit suspended until mid-December.

What a totally brilliant move!  The WSJ doesn't seem to understand what happened.  They said that his deal with the Democrats "is likely to inflame tensions between the president and his fellow Republicans."  [emphasis added]

The Journal has overlooked the obvious fact that Mr. Trump is not a Republican, never has been, and never will be.  He's the founder and charter member of the Party of Trump, whose agenda is quite distinct from that of the Republican elites.  If the Republicans won't help him make America great again, he'll deal with someone else.

Journal writers aren't the only ones who don't get it.

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said it was "terrible" for Mr. Trump to undercut his fellow Republicans, particularly when their partisan adversaries were witnesses to it. "The president should not do that," Mr. Lott, a Republican, said. "It is embarrassing to Republican leadership and it shows a split."

Mr. Lott has clearly taken leave of his senses.  Mr. Trump's dealing with the Democrats "shows a split"?  Republican leadership should be embarassed - they voted to repeal Obamacare countless times so long as Mr. Obama was in the White House to veto it, but once they had someone in the White House who was eager to sign, they voted against it!  What could be more of a "split" than that?  That's another demonstration of the total fecklessness that disgusted voters to the point of giving the Republican nomination to Mr. Trump, who was about as non-Republican as it's possible to be.

In three-fourths of a year, the Republican majority hasn't said or done anything sensible about immigration, dreamers, tax reform, infrastructure, fixing the VA, the opioid crisis, the high price of college, or anything else either.  Who needs them?

One of the key tenets of Mr. Trump's "Art of the Deal" is that you must, simply must, show the other side that you can and will walk away from a deal if they push you too far.  So far, the Republicans haven't passed anything Mr. Tump wants despite their majorities.  They can't even approve his appointments.  This deal demonstrates to the entire world that Mr. Trump will deal with Democrats if the Republicans either won't or can't.

Brilliant!

And what did it cost him, or the American people?  Nothing.

Hurricane relief was going to be passed no matter how the anti-deficit crowd whined and moaned.  The debt ceiling was going to be raised one way or another.  There is no way America would tolerate a government shutdown with a major city or two literally underwater.  Political neophyte Trump knows this; why don't the Republican elites, with their centuries of experience?

No, President Trump gave up nothing and he guaranteed that the debt ceiling cost-cutting opportunity will come again pretty soon but at a hopefully more-convenient time.  Even better, depending on how stupid the Republican party insists on being, he may have taught them a valuable lesson.

This makes us wonder how he's going to convince the North Koreans that he can walk away from a deal with them...