Story highlights Errol Louis: No surprise that Schumer and Trump made deal on debt ceiling. The two go back -- are dyed-in-wool NY dealmakers

Louis: Republicans who expected Trump to box out Democrats just got a wake-up call

Errol Louis is the host of "Inside City Hall," a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) President Trump's abrupt and unexpected decision to cut a deal with Democratic legislative leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California -- an agreement to fund disaster relief and avoid a showdown by increasing the national debt limit -- shocked Republican leaders.

But the deal should have come as no surprise, particularly to those who know something about Trump and Schumer: the two have a relationship that goes back decades. And despite their occasional political differences, the Republican President and the Democratic senator have a lot in common.

Both are dyed-in-the-wool big-city operators who came of age in the hothouse of New York politics, a place where trading favors and making, breaking and cutting deals -- the bigger, the better -- is all in a day's work.

The two men, born five years apart, were both raised in New York City, and both made their names in politics early on.

JUST WATCHED Schumer on working with Trump Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Schumer on working with Trump 00:23

Schumer attended James Madison High School, the same remarkable public school as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sen. Bernie Sanders and ex-Sen. Norm Coleman. Immediately after graduating from Harvard Law, Schumer ran for a seat in the state legislature and won at age 23.