WASHINGTON WATCHER Not (Particularly) Worried But BORED By Latest DACA Lovefest

01/09/2018

Washington Watcher is off watching Washington this afternoon and can’t blog, but in a phone call he tells me he is not (particularly) worried by the latest DACA lovefest (In extraordinary public negotiation with Congress, Trump promises to sign DACA bill, by Gregory Korte, Deirdre Shesgreen and Eliza Collins, USA TODAY, January 9, 2018). "He’s always like this when he gets around Democrats," Washington Watcher said. "Then he gets back to the White House and talks to Stephen Miller or someone, and his instincts kick in."

This is exactly what happened after the last DACA lovefest in September, when Trump tweeted an afterthought introducing the concept of ending chain migration to an astonished and appalled Political Class. As I wrote at that time, Now Is The Winter Of Our DACAntent: VDARE.com Counsels Patience (And, Of Course, Vigilance) On Trump — which also contains a useful list of previous Amnesty euphorias.

Even the great Ann Coulter, who is less noted for for patience than I am (but she’s so much younger), just tweeted

After agreeing with DiFi that stand-alone DACA will come FIRST, Trump’s muscle memory kicks in & he cites Israel, saying NOTHING BUT A WALL WILL WORK.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 9, 2018

Two additional thoughts:

Apparently "moderate" a.k.a. squishy Republicans are desperate for a DACA deal because they (foolishly) think it will help them in close races. Trump has shown surprising and unfortunate deference to Congressional GOP conventional wisdom and may feel the need to make a gesture.
If the Evil Party gets control of the House of Representatives, Trump was always going to be impeached — Democrats were working themselves up to it before he was even nominated. (Conviction, which requires 67 Senate votes, might be more difficult — although Democrats probably assume (wrongly in Trump’s case) that any Republican President could be guilted into capitulation, like Richard Nixon, unlike Bill Clinton). We can assume Trump’s instincts tell him that a DACA capitulation will end like George Bush’s Read My Lips betrayal.

Washington Watcher stands by his assessment: the most likely (but by no means certain) outcome is nothing. Of course, this may mean no positive legislation on e.g. the RAISE Act either.

And he wants to say he’s getting BORED with this never-ending Amnesty roundabout.

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