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TRUMP REACHES OUT TO MAKE MORE DEALS WITH CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS
By PETER BAKER and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, SEPT. 7, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Trump pursued his newfound alignment with congressional Democrats on Thursday as he called the party’s leaders in hopes of striking more deals and even complied with a request to publicly reassure younger immigrants brought to the country illegally not to worry about imminent deportation.

A day after reaching a fiscal agreement with Democrats over the objections of his own Treasury secretary and party leaders, Mr. Trump called Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California to reinforce his willingness to keep working across party lines. He was effusive about their consensus. “The press has been incredible,” he told Ms. Pelosi, according to a person briefed on the call.

Ms. Pelosi took the opportunity to ask Mr. Trump to send out a message on Twitter emphasizing that the 800,000 immigrants enrolled in a program that he canceled this week can keep their protection from deportation and work permits over the next six months as it phases out. The president, who has called on Congress to pass legislation that would renew the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, agreed to do so.

Mr. Trump told reporters afterward that he saw other opportunities for bipartisan agreements. “The people of the United States want to see a coming together,” he said. One area could be a proposal to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, a perennial point of division in Washington. “It could be discussed,” he said. “There are a lot of good reasons to do that.”

Donald J. Trump ? @realDonaldTrump
For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about - No action!
9:42 AM - Sep 7, 2017

For their part, Democrats expressed cautious optimism about Mr. Trump’s turnabout on Thursday, saying they hoped it would open the door to a more bipartisan political landscape, including on immigration. But Mr. Schumer offered uncertainty as well. “Seeing is believing,” he said in an interview with The New York Times.

Mr. Schumer, who has had little contact with Mr. Trump before now, said he raised the issue of cooperating on saving the DACA program through legislation known as the Dream Act and that Mr. Trump seemed amenable.

“We’ll see,” Mr. Schumer said. “I think it would be much better for the country and much better for Donald Trump if he was much more in the middle and bipartisan rather than siding with the hard right. I think he got a taste of it yesterday. We’ll see if it continues. I hope it does.”

As for the Republican leaders who felt blindsided by Mr. Trump on Thursday, they tried to smooth over the rift and attributed it to a desire by the president to forge unity as Hurricane Irma threatens Florida just days after Hurricane Harvey ravaged Texas and Louisiana.

“What the president didn’t want to do is have some partisan fight in the middle of the response to this,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said in a separate interview with The Times. “He wanted to make sure we had a bipartisan moment.”

Mr. Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, were caught off guard at a White House meeting on Wednesday when Mr. Trump accepted the Democrats’ proposal to finance the government and extend the nation’s debt ceiling for three months while financing relief efforts for Harvey. Just before arriving at the White House for the meeting, Mr. Ryan had publicly rejected the Democratic plan, calling it “ridiculous and disgraceful.”

Mr. Trump has expressed aggravation with Mr. McConnell and Mr. Ryan over the failure to pass major legislation, especially a bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care program. In addition to the fiscal deal, Mr. Trump also told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted to work with “Chuck and Nancy” to fashion a law that would preserve the DACA program, which was first enacted by Mr. Obama in 2012 through his executive power.

Mr. Trump canceled it on Tuesday in response to conservative complaints that it exceeded a president’s authority, but by providing a six-month delay before the decision fully takes effect, he gave Congress a chance to pass legislation that would re-enact it on firmer legal footing.

Mr. Trump did not get the language of his Twitter post exactly as Ms. Pelosi had wanted. Still, the situation is somewhat more complicated than the president allowed. Those currently enrolled in the DACA program have until Oct. 5 to renew their two-year work permits if they expire on or before March 5. If they do not renew those permits by then, they could be subject to deportation as soon as Oct. 6.

Aides to Mr. Trump suggested that the collaboration with Democrats might go beyond the momentary alignment. “The president is committed to working across the aisle and doing what is needed to best serve the American people,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.

Administration officials argued that the three-month fiscal deal would make it easier for the president to focus this fall on overhauling the tax code, his top legislative priority.

“The best part about this is this clears out the next 90 days for us to focus on important things,” Mr. Mnuchin told the Fox Business Network, sidestepping his own opposition to the president’s decision.

As he reached out to Democrats again on Thursday morning, Mr. Trump also worked to keep the lines of communication open with Republicans. He called Mr. Ryan and Mr. McConnell and planned to host the House speaker for dinner at the White House on Thursday night.

The rapprochement between Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer brought back together two New Yorkers who have long known each even though they have been at odds over the last seven months. Mr. Trump once held a fund-raiser for Mr. Schumer at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida retreat. But Wednesday’s meeting at the White House was the first time the two had seen each other in person since shortly after Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January. Since then, they have spoken by phone only once or twice before Thursday’s call, Mr. Schumer said.

On Thursday, they will see one another again, when Mr. Schumer goes to the White House to talk about an issue of local interest to him as New York’s senator: the Gateway Program, a rail expansion project that calls for two new tunnels to be built under the Hudson River.

Their relations have often been harsh and combative. Mr. Trump has ridiculed Mr. Schumer on Twitter as “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer,” and Mr. Schumer has responded in kind. When the president convened his first full Cabinet meeting in June, and members of the Cabinet went around the table praising the president, Mr. Schumer mocked the president on Twitter by releasing a parody video of the meeting.

Over a breakfast interview Thursday morning in the senator’s dining room, Mr. Schumer said he was surprised that Mr. Trump sided with him and Ms. Pelosi on their fiscal plan. Going forward, Mr. Schumer said he could envision a scenario where Mr. Trump worked with Democrats, bypassing Republican conservatives, on other issues, including trade and infrastructure improvements. But he said “the next big test” will be whether Mr. Trump takes a leadership role in helping to pass the Dream Act.

Democrats will be tested too. Officials in the White House have indicated that they will insist any immigration legislation also include elements to strengthen enforcement, including, presumably, money for the wall along the Mexican border that Mr. Trump has made a centerpiece of his presidency. Mr. Schumer said money for some type of border security might be acceptable to Democrats, but under no circumstances would Democrats agree to pay for a border wall.
-NY TIMES, September 7, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/politics/trump-pelosi-daca.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0