How Trump Could Have Used Democrats to Crush the Establishment GOP

In a normal Republican White House, it would be unnecessary for the press secretary to state, on multiple occasions, within a single briefing, that “The president is a Republican.” But this is not a normal Republican White House, so that is the position in which Sarah Huckabee Sanders found herself on Wednesday.

The need for such clarity follows from recent developments. First, Donald Trump gave House minority leader Nancy Pelosi the debt-ceiling deal she wanted, with no concessions, and then—at Pelosi’s request—reassured Dreamers that they aren’t being deported.

Since then, President Trump has hinted that he would work with Democrats on a permanent solution for DACA without seeking concessions on border security. And then he had Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for dinner on Wednesday night.

As usual there’s dissonance among some Trump boosters. Take Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter, who was incensed about Republicans raising the debt ceiling in 2011, but now says there’s no reason to care about Trump raising it over the objections of Republicans. And then there are the Republicans who have argued that provoking liberals like Nancy Pelosi is its own reward and that conservatives who strike bargains with them are RINOs or squishes or cucks or whatnot, because you simply can’t work with the modern left. The only thing you can do is fight them.

Now many of those same people are saying that it’s the height of wisdom for Trump to be creating a coalition by wooing Pelosi and Schumer.