Trump's credibility crisis on Capitol Hill

Lawmakers find it difficult or impossible to negotiate when the president can't seem to stick to a position for more than a few hours.

By JOHN BRESNAHAN and BURGESS EVERETT 01/17/2018 10:42 AM EST

Donald Trump ran for president as a bipartisan deal-maker. But if there's one thing he's proven after a year in office, he’s better at killing bipartisan deals than clinching them.

On the cusp of a deal for the second time with Democrats to enshrine protections for 700,000 young undocumented immigrants, Trump once again destroyed the underpinnings of the potential agreement. After nixing any potential Dreamers deal last fall with “Chuck and Nancy” — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — this time Trump blew up a tentative agreement during a meeting in the Oval Office. He used racially charged language and later publicly mocked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who had said Trump told him just hours earlier they had an agreement.

So now, instead of securing a bipartisan deal to fund the government and help a large group of immigrants that Trump said deserve compassion, the president and Republican Congress are scrambling, yet again, just to keep the government open. Trump abruptly changed course and sided with the hawkish anti-immigration wing inside his White House, rejecting bipartisan Senate agreement to protect the Dreamers. The now-weeklong “shithole” countries controversy is more than another Trump flap blown out proportion by cable TV and the Trump-obsessed press corps.

It demonstrates once again to Democrats — and Republicans — that Trump is an unpredictable, unreliable partner who cannot be trusted to keep his word. To lawmakers on Capitol Hill, there may be no greater crime, since all members and senators know their word is their bond. Once you lose that credibility, you’re done as a deal-maker.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/17/trump-credibility-capitol-hill-lawmakers-negotiating-342989