President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that “many Republicans” agree with his newfound strategy of negotiating with Democrats about policy. Members of his own conference have vocally criticized the results of Trump’s new approach.
“What do you say to Republicans who are looking at your outreach to Democrats and saying, what’s going on here?” a reporter asked Trump during a brief press availability on Air Force One.
“Well, many Republicans really like it,” Trump said. “Look, my relationship with the Republicans is excellent. Many of them agree with what I’m doing.”
The President claimed he is “a Republican through and through” but said he has discovered that isn’t always an effective way to pass policy.
“I’m also finding that sometimes to get things through it’s not working that way,” he said. “We have to get things passed, and if we can’t get things passed, then we have to go a different route, but we have to get things passed.”
Members of the far-right, anti-immigration wing of the Republican Party had a rough morning on Thursday after news broke that Trump had tentatively promised top Democrats that he would work on a plan to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program without tying it to funding for his proposed border wall.
Many did not, in fact, seem to agree with Trump’s negotiation tactics.
“If you do the amnesty part first, that’s instant, and then conservatives will never get what they want,” Rep. David Brat (R-VA) complained.
And Rep. Steve King (R-IA) warned that the “only” thing that could splinter Trump’s base was “if he cracks on immigration.”
