Some conservative commentators sounded off on Wednesday night about President Donald Trump’s latest deal with Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced their agreement with Trump that would protect certain unauthorized immigrants as part of a broader border security plan.
Shortly after, Breitbart News featured a splash on its website that read, ‘Amnesty Don,’ with an article titled, “Trump Caves In on DACA,” referring to the preliminary bipartisan agreement to codify protections outlined in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and address border-security issues.
Citing its own conversations with what it called “immigration patriots,” Breitbart said “any immigration deal on DACA that includes amnesty would be an ‘outrageous selling out of the [Trump] base.'”
Trump campaigned heavily on a hard-line approach to illegal immigration, promising a wall along the US-Mexico border and vowing to deport millions of people living in the US illegally.
Some conservative commentators made clear they are not happy with Trump’s bipartisan pivot:
- Fox Business personality Lou Dobbs tweeted, “Deep State Wins, Huge Loss for
#MAGA No Countrvailing WH Force to Globalists Gary Cohn, Dina Powell, Gen. Kelly, Mark Short POTUS Betrayed.” - Fox News host and Trump supporter Sean Hannity said he blames Republicans: “They caused this. They wanted him to fail and now pushed him into arms of political suicide.”
- Author and commentator Ann Coulter appeared to push back on Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi’s statement announcing the deal that they said excluded funding for a border wall: “Trump tells his audience what they want to hear. He told 63 million who voted for him he’d build a wall. Get used to it, Chuck & Nancy.”
- Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, said “THE ART OF THE STEAL: Let’s hope that Pelosi & Schumer misrepresented the
#DACA deal.” - Former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson wrote: “Yawn! Listening to members complain abt POTUS w/D’s b/c R leadership is inept. How about choosing NEW leaders? You voted for them not us!”
- Former GOP congressman Joe Walsh, who served one term in the House of Representatives, said “Trump just screwed his base.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that “excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.”
DACA is the Obama-era program that protects some 800,000 people living in the US illegally from being deported and allows them to work legally. Many in the program were brought to the US as young children. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had announced last week that the program would be phased out within six months, giving Congress time to act on the issue.
A White House official said the trio also discussed tax reform, infrastructure, and trade issues. A ;separate statement from the White House called the deal “a positive step toward the President’s strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans.”
