On Tuesday, the Trump administration signaled that its willingness to legislatively reinstate President Obama’s executive amnesty was deeply serious. In fact, the administration is so serious about reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Trump won’t even insist on Democrats giving him funding for his proposed border wall in exchange for DACA’s revivification.
White House legislative director Marc Short spilled the beans in a speech before reporters at a Christian Science Monitor event. He stated, “Whether or not that is specifically part of a DACA package or a different legislative package, I am not going to prejudge here today.” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a radical leftist, immediately praised the Trump administration’s willingness to surrender on its signature issue: “That’s an important position because we cannot make a 2,200 mile wall a condition for passing the DREAM Act and we’ve been very clear from the start.”
That means that the grand strategic move supposedly undergirding Trump’s support for DACA was never a grand strategic move: Trump wants Obama’s executive amnesty in place, and the wall simply isn’t a priority.
That’s a far cry from Trump’s campaign rallies, where he pledged over and over again to “BUILD THAT WALL.” Now, it’s “LEGALIZE THOSE DREAMERS,” the exact Jeb! Bush position.
Democrats understand that they now have almost complete leverage over Trump. Thanks to Trump’s unilateral decision to cave to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over the debt ceiling and the budget, Trump has set up a fiscal cliff scenario for the end of December — which means that Democrats will use all of their leverage in order to prevent Trump from achieving his most popular objectives with his base. In other words, the chances of a wall are growing ever more slim. No wonder Mickey Kaus tweeted:
Mickey Kaus
@kausmickey
Can't wait for next Trump rally: "And we amnestied the DREAMERs!
And we may get lower corporate taxes!"
Is there someone else he can pardon?
1:34 PM - Sep 8, 2017
But coverage of Trump’s willingness to trade away the border wall for amnesty for DREAMers is significantly lacking on Trump-friendly outlets. Perhaps that’s because it’s becoming more and more clear that allegiance to Trump has little to do with his policy prescriptions, and more to do with his general anti-establishment attitude. The problem is that without any guiding principles, that attitude will lead Trump and his followers wherever Trump sees fit to go. And right now, Trump sees fit to swivel dramatically to the Left.
