Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:45 pm
While talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump dissed Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell by not even mentioning their names while talking up his deal with Schumer and Pelosi.
Transcript via The White House as provided to PoliticusUSA:
THE PRESIDENT: We had a very good conversation with President Xi of China. It lasted for about 45 minutes. He’s very much in favor of the denuke of North Korea, and we’re talking about different things. We have some things — we’re going to be talking again soon, and we’ll see how that works out.
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We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important — always we’ll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it.
Also on the CRs and also on Harvey, which now we’re going to be adding something because of what’s going on in Florida — but we had a very good meeting. We essentially came to a deal, and I think the deal will be very good. We had a very, very cordial and professional meeting.
So we have an extension, which will go out to December 15th. That will include the debt ceiling, that will include the CRs, and it will include Harvey — the amount of money to be determined, but it will include — because everyone is in favor obviously of taking care of that situation. So we all very much agree.
Q Mr. President, what do you say to those who say there are mixed signals coming from the White House over DACA?
THE PRESIDENT: No mixed signal at all. Congress, I really believe, wants to take care of this situation. I really believe it — even very conservative members of Congress. I’ve seen it firsthand. If they don’t, we’re going to see what we’re going to do.
But I will tell you, I really believe Congress wants to take care of it. We discussed that also today, and Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I. And I said if we can get something to happen, we’re going to sign it and we’re going to make a lot of happy people.
The worst nightmare of Republicans who are skeptical of Trump has always been that the easily persuadable president would decide to start making deals with Democrats if he felt that Republicans were not doing what he wanted. Trump wants tax cuts, and he was willing to sell out his own party because what Trump wants is always going to get placed ahead of what the Republican Party wants. Trump doesn’t care about the Republican Party, and his deal with Democrats illustrates, there are two Republican Parties at war with each other.
The Trump Republicans only care about the President’s goals, whims, and wishes. Republicans in Congress are a second Republican Party that is at war with itself and in a fight over their agenda.
Pelosi and Schumer were able to divide and conqueror by giving Trump the opening that he wanted for tax reform in exchange for a devastating defeat for the rest of his party.
If Trump ever figures out that he can cut deals with Democrats, and pick up enough Republicans in the House and Senate to pass legislation, Ryan and McConnell will be trapped.
It was no accident that Trump dissed the Republican Congressional leadership. The war for the soul of the Republican Party has taken a suprising turn and the big winners are Democrats.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
