WaPo Opinion: “Trump Shows Leadership While Democrats Pander to the Resistance”

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Here's the text of the WaPo opinion article:

Last week, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia offered President Trump some advice on how to end the current border wall standoff.

“Always try to find a solution in which both sides come out ahead,” Warner told the president.

It’s good advice. Trump is taking it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are not.

On Jan. 19, Trump did exactly what Warner suggested, offering Democrats a win-win compromise. In addition to his 230-mile physical barrier, Trump said he would support three years of legislative relief for 700,000 recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, as well as a three-year extension for 300,000 other immigrants whose temporary protected status is expiring — 1 million people in all.

These extensions, Trump said, would give Congress time to “work on a larger immigration deal, which everybody wants — Republicans and Democrats.” His offer, Trump said, was “straightforward, fair, reasonable and common sense, with lots of compromise,” adding that “both sides in Washington must simply come together … and find solutions.”

The Democrats’ response? Pelosi called the offer a “non-starter” even before Trump delivered his speech. Schumer declared it “one-sided and ineffective.” That’s ridiculous.

Obviously, Trump’s proposal is only an opening bid. But instead of making a counteroffer and negotiating in good faith, Democrats are demanding unconditional surrender. That extremism is playing politics with not only the lives of the DACA and TPS recipients, who would benefit under Trump’s plan, but also the lives of the 800,000 federal government workers who are about to miss their second paycheck.

Trump is being the adult in the room. He has stopped talking about invoking a national emergency. He’s showing flexibility on the definition of a wall, the number of miles, the amount of money — and adding immigration sweeteners. To demonstrate his support for immigration, he even held a naturalization ceremony in the Oval Office to personally swear in new citizens from Iraq, Bolivia, Jamaica, the United Kingdom and South Korea, telling them “our whole nation embraces you with open arms and joyful hearts.”

But it seems the  Democrats’ objective is not to find a way out of the stalemate; it is to humiliate the president. Since Trump heeded Warner’s advice, maybe the senator should go to his own leadership and tell them the same thing: The only way this standoff ends is with a win-win solution. Trump is willing to let Democrats claim victory, as long as he can, too. 

Indeed, he is offering Democrats what should be a tantalizing possibility — that a small deal on the wall now could pave the way to a big deal on immigration. As Trump said in his speech: “If we are successful in this effort, we will then have the best chance in a very long time at real, bipartisan immigration reform. And it won’t stop here. It will keep going until we do it all.”

Such a deal, Trump made clear, would include amnesty and a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Indeed, Trump took heat from the right for his offer, with immigration restrictionists attacking him for supporting amnesty.

NATIONAL POLL: Do You Still Have Trump's Back 100%?

Trump didn’t flinch at the criticism. To the contrary, he declared: “Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal.”

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Wow, I have to say, that's well said!

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