President Donald Trump has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the performance of House Speaker Paul Ryan and, to a greater degree, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In setting a six-month deadline to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, Trump has thrown the issue — thorny for conservatives — straight back at Ryan and McConnell.

DACA offered those who had illegally entered the country as minors a two-year stay from deportation and eligibility for work permits. It polls well among both Democrats and Republicans.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions characterized DACA as a “circumvention of immigration laws” and said it denies jobs to Americans.

To hear the counterargument, consider what someone named Donald Trump had to say about it.

Trump, in an interview with CNBC before he became president, outlined the argument against throwing such people out: “They’ve done wonderfully, they’ve gone to school, they’ve gotten good marks, they’re productive, now we’re supposed to send them out of the country?” Trump asked, adding, “I don’t believe in that.”

As president, though, Trump has made a slew of decisions aimed at pleasing his base, narrow though it may be. Trump’s move gives Congress a deadline to act, with the deportation of some 800,000 individuals hanging in the balance.

The politics of DACA are different from those surrounding other hot-button issues, such as the attempted repeal of Obamacare. Unlike the effort to repeal that signature health law, DACA or some near-replica would have overwhelming support from congressional Democrats.

That means that Ryan — who explicitly endorsed DACA — and McConnell wouldn’t have to appease the farthest-right segments of their party to get a bill through.

But to preserve their own leadership positions, they would need to win the support of a substantial portion of Republicans. And with aggressive opposition from former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and others on what could be called the Breitbart Right, such support won’t be easy to garner.

It’s easy to understand why Ryan didn’t want to handle the issue — and, indeed, why President Barack Obama had to craft a DACA program in the first place.

It’s impossible to know whether Trump would have thrown this grenade at Ryan and McConnell had they been able to get health-care reform through. But their failure to do so certainly left Trump less inhibited.