The president, in a Cabinet meeting at the White House, said he'd been nearing a deal with Democrats in November to protect DACA legislatively in exchange for heightened border security. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo White House Trump blames court ruling for preventing DACA deal

President Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed a federal court for killing a nascent deal last year between Republicans and Democrats to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but he expressed confidence that talks will resume if the Supreme Court rules in his favor.

The president, in a Cabinet meeting at the White House, said he'd been nearing a deal with Democrats in November to protect DACA legislatively in exchange for heightened border security — but that Democrats walked away after a federal appeals court ruled in their favor. Attorney General Jeff Sessions initiated a phaseout of DACA in September 2017, but that action was later blocked, first by three district court judges and eventually by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.


“We had a deal pretty close to being done, and a lot of people say I backed away from that deal. I didn’t back away,” Trump said. “The minute the judge overruled the case and they allowed DACA, they didn’t talk to us — and I don’t blame them — they didn’t answer the calls.”

Responding to a Trump tweet along similar lines last week, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler noted that Trump, bowing to pressure from immigration hard-liners, backed out of an earlier September 2017 deal with Democrats on DACA, and that this occurred long before the 9th Circuit ruled on the matter. Trump's earlier retreat also occurred before the three district court judges ruled to block the Trump administration's phaseout of DACA.

Trump said Wednesday that Democrats will return to the table if the Supreme Court rules in his favor.

“If we win that case — and I say this for all to hear — we’ll easily be able to make a deal on DACA and the wall as a combination,” Trump said. “But until we win that case, they don’t really want to talk about DACA.”