Democrats give up hope on striking a deal with Trump

Congressional Democrats see no hope of compromise with the president and look to obstruct any progress on his agenda.

By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE 04/30/17 07:05 AM EDT

Democrats couldn’t be less interested in the whole Jared Kushner versus Steve Bannon drama, and they have given up on the idea that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law will push him to work across the aisle on tax reform or anything else.

The crisis of confidence they felt after Trump’s shocking win has faded and his record-low poll numbers have killed any incentive in their minds to suck it up and compromise with him.

“There is zero chance of any of this working out that way, and it doesn’t matter who you’re changing,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who notes that many of his colleagues who once decried his absolute opposition to Trump now agree with him. “At the end of the day,” he added, “this is Donald Trump, and we don’t want to work with him.”

As far as Democrats are concerned, the idea of a moderate, post-partisan staff rising to guide Trump into building bridges with them—even for the sake of building actual bridges as part of infrastructure investments Trump talks about and they agree are needed—has now entered the realm of complete fantasy.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/30/democrats-trump-no-compromise-237791