Just one day after Donald Trump sided with top Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on Harvey relief and the raising of the debt ceiling Paul Ryan will sit and have dinner with him. Now, this meeting will likely be a war due to the fact both have not been fans of each other since the beginning of Trump’s political career. Ryan attacked Trump even while he was the Republican’s candidate against Hillary and told senators to prepare to block Hillary rather than support Donald Trump. That relationship hasn’t gotten any better since Trump was elected. Ryan’s failures on health care, border wall funding and coming to Trump’s defense when the media is attacking him has made Trump infuriated. The only thing Trump wants is his agenda to get passed. Republicans are doing nothing but stonewalling it.
Now, many Presidents would cave to their party and go along with what the Republicans are looking to push. Not Trump. Trump decided to send a message to establishment Republicans and met with two of his biggest enemies in Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. This has done two things.
1. Shows Trump’s willingness to work with Democrats to push his agenda
A lot of strong conservatives don’t like Trump because they don’t think Trump is a true conservative. Many recognize that he is a conservative in many ways but can lean more liberal then many might like as it pertains to certain policy ideas. Here is Conservative Ben Shapiro on Trump.
In last 48 hours, Trump sided with Schumer and Pelosi on debt ceiling increase and called for Congress to enshrine DACA. So much winning!
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 6, 2017
Combine Trump’s frustration with the day-to-day grind with his frustration with Republicans’ ineffectiveness — and then combine those with the fact that Trump doesn’t care about policy. That’s a recipe for Trump to look to greener pastures. That’s precisely what Trump is doing.
Finally, Trump’s frustration with inaction could lead him down the primrose path to pandering to Democrats. Let’s say that 61% of the Republican base will follow Trump no matter what (that’s the poll number from CNN). And let’s say that Democrats are willing to work with Trump in order to push their priorities … at least until we near 2020 and they move to stab him in the back. Trump can easily grab majority support for Left-leaning policies.
All of which means that Ryan and McConnell are now on the hook: they’d better start passing conservative legislation themselves. They can’t rely on Trump for leadership or support. But if they don’t begin putting conservative legislation on his desk to sign, he’ll continue to hobnob with Schumer and Pelosi.
Trump may not be the most conservative President we have ever had in terms of policy but he is dedicated to his agenda. If he needs to give the Democrats a few wins in order to get his Tax Reform, Border Wall Funding and a good healthcare bill passed he will.
2. Forces establishment Republicans to do something:
Many Presidental candidates feel like they owe their party something. Members of the parties establishment helped them get where they are. Trump’s only loyalty is to his voters. Because of this, the establishment hates him. They realize they have no control over what he does or who he works with. The meeting with Pelosi and Schumer is likely the establishment Republicans worst nightmare. As we pointed out above Trump will do whatever it takes to push his agenda. Party title means nothing to Trump. Republicans hold a majority in the House, Senate and own the Executive Branch how they can do nothing is ridiculous. Hopefully, this move by Trump makes them wake up and start pushing the agenda the American people voted for.
This dinner might be a turning point in the Trump Presidency. It just might be the dinner where Trump and Ryan came together to start pushing his agenda. I doubt they’ll ever like each other but them coming together for a common goal is not a stretch. This could also be the dinner that ends it all. If they can’t come together on a common goal then Ryan could see himself losing his speaker of the house title. He likely will also be on the losing end in 2018. This is your last chance establishment Republican’s, don’t mess it up.
