Thursday morning, Trump disputed that account on Twitter—sort of. In a series of tweets, he claimed there had been no deal, but what he described confirmed the outlines of an understanding as Pelosi and Schumer stated them:

No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

Other than stating there was no deal, Trump seemed to be on the same page as the Democrats: The tradeoff would be for border security; obviously there would have to be a vote, since that’s how Congress works; and the wall was separate. Later, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, he confirmed all of this.

"We're working on a plan—subject to getting massive border controls. We're working on a plan for DACA. People want to see that happen. You have 800,000 young people, brought here, no fault of their own,” he said. “The wall will come later.”

Trump’s next tweets were even more remarkable:

Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

...They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own - brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

These are all the same arguments that Barack Obama (among many others) made in favor of the DREAM Act and later, when that failed, in favor of DACA, Obama’s executive patch. However Trump describes it, that’s a shocking turnaround for a president who made hardline immigration policies—often delivered in demagogic fashion—the center of his campaign.

Trump’s position on DACA has been softening for some time, but his apparent deal with Pelosi and Schumer, and his tweeted support for allowing Dreamers to stay, cement a monumental shift. During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to end DACA immediately upon taking office, part of his suite of hard-edged immigration proposals.

His rhetoric scandalized the press and even his Republican rivals, but many voters delighted in his bluntness. Time and again, Trump supporters told me that they sometimes winced at the way the candidate spoke, but that they were willing to forgive it because they appreciated that he said what he meant. For years, Republican candidates have been running on platforms of controlling immigration, and for years, they have betrayed their core voters’ wishes once they made it into office, deciding—whether out of a better sense of the issue, soft-heartedness, or surrender to elite consensus—that wide-scale deportations were unfeasible and that some form of amnesty, for at least some unauthorized immigrants, was a worthy goal. (It was Ronald Reagan, after all, who oversaw the largest amnesty in U.S. history.)