Amended White House transcript reveals Trump showed brief interest in 'clean' DACA deal

The White House on Wednesday released a corrected transcript of President Donald Trump's meeting Tuesday with lawmakers that showed he briefly seemed to endorse a Democratic plan to strike a deal on protections for young undocumented immigrants without funding for a border wall with Mexico.

In an exchange during a White House summit on immigration Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed an agreement on the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, known as DACA, without provisions such as increased border security measures that Republicans want.


"What about a clean DACA bill now, with a commitment that we go into a comprehensive immigration reform procedure?" the Democratic lawmaker asked Trump.

"I have no problem," Trump said during the back and forth.

Pressed further by Feinstein on whether he'd be "agreeable" to the proposal, Trump replied: "Yeah, I would like — I would like to do that. Go ahead."

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The latter remarks, which prompted Republican lawmakers to jump in and stress to the president that the proposal did not align with their plans, were initially omitted from an official White House transcript of the meeting sent out Tuesday. But an amended record distributed by Wednesday included the comment by Trump.

Later at the meeting and on Twitter, Trump reiterated his stance that any deal on DACA needed to include additional funding for border security, including construction of the wall.

"As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval," Trump tweeted Tuesday night.

Trump's meeting with lawmakers was marked by shifting policy stances from the president, who at times strongly urged Congress to curb issues of chain migration while at others giving blanket assurances that he'd sign any bill on immigration reform passed by the House and Senate.

“My positions are going to be what the people in the room come up with," Trump said. "If they come to me with things I’m not in love with, I’m going to do it."

