Conservative pundits like Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro are up in arms about Trump making a deal with the Democrats to extend the debt ceiling by three months and to provide aid for areas affected by Harvey. They cannot fathom why Trump is giving away all of his leverage and cannot see a reason as to why he is doing this. Make no mistake the conservatives have a right to be upset and it is a very dangerous time for the Republican party. But they are wrong to think there is no reason Trump is doing this.

I will try to explain as best I can why this happened and what it means for the nationalists on the Team Trump.

Before we begin the first thing you have to do to understand what happened is to forget about the Harvey relief bill. That was always going to happen no matter what. Neither party can afford to be seen holding that up. Focus exclusively on the debt ceiling.

Democrats

I will start with them because they are only marginally involved in this. Our biased media is playing this up as a huge win for Democrats. It is not. What have they actually gotten? Have any major policies they want been included in the debt ceiling increase? Has their position improved at all? All that happened is that they will have another negotiation three months down the line. The only benefit that they got from this negotiation is that Trump agreed with them and not the Republican leadership. This was done deliberately by Trump.

Trump

To understand why Trump did this we have to understand the position he is in. Congressional Republicans have proven to be very ineffective at pushing his agenda while Democrats refuse to work with him. In a situation where one side has been useless you try to motivate them by working with other parties. In this meeting Trump provided the Democrats with a taste of the benefits of working with him.

In addition to siding with them in the meeting Trump also tweeted something at the request of Pelosi and brought the Heitkamp to his rally in North Dakota.

Trump can see that the GOP is not pushing his agenda properly. He wants to show them that he has an alternative party to work with.

GOP

The GOP is the big loser in this meeting. The debt ceiling is only a minor thing. With his recent actions Trump has shown them that he can really hurt the GOP where it counts. If you were to believe our media the GOP is about to be routed from all halls of power because of the unpopularity of Trump. The reality is that after the 2018 elections it is very possible that the Republicans will have a 60 seat super majority in the senate. By taking Heitkamp to North Dakota with him, which is one of the prime seats the GOP want to take, Trump is showing that he can throw a monkey wrench in their plans. The Washington Post ran an article saying that this guaranteed the reelection of Heitkamp which is laughably naive. We are one year from the elections. Trump can easily turn on her if the situation requires it.

The Republican political establishment thought that they could force Trump to bend to their will because he had no other options. If they did not they thought there would be no consequences except for a lame duck Presidency. Trump is showing that that is not necessarily the case and he has other options.

3 Months

Has anyone considered why this particular move was done in this deal? Raising the debt ceiling for 3 months is really insignificant. Both sides will be back at it again come December so why? These 3 months are what the Republican establishment has to show that they can be of some value to Trump so that he will work with them. If not then Trump will move to align himself further with the Democrats.

Nationalists

What does this mean for us? Obviously the best result that can come from this is that the Republican establishment realizes it needs Trump and unifies to pass the things he needs in his agenda. In this case we get most of what Trump campaigned for.

We have to be prepared for the other scenario though. What if Trump is forced to align himself more fully with the Democrats to get things passed?

First of any immigration reform goes out the window. Democrats will never agree to it and there would be no scenario where we get anything meaningful done in that regard.

The other things could still be done though. Withdrawing from onerous international agreements is something both Sanders and Trump agree on and could still pass. Raising the standardized deduction for income taxes could also be done as it would mean that more low to mid income people would be exempt from tax. Legislation to return jobs to America would be done as well. Both parties want it they just don’t want the other party to get credit for it.

I could provide more specifics but to cut everything short think of everything that Bernie Sanders and Trump agree on. That would be our best case scenario for a Trump presidency that is allied with Democrats.

Pivotal Moment

We are at a pivotal moment in the Trump presidency. Conservative pundits are condemning Trump for caring more about TV ratings than his agenda. To those people I would like to ask what has Trump actually gotten for working with Republicans in congress? With the exception of the Supreme Court nomination every other achievement of the Trump administration has been done using the powers of the executive branch.

The next three months and whatever Ryan and Mcconell get done in them will determine whether Trump governs like a Republican or Democrat.

At this point I would like to remind nationalists that while we are more closely aligned with Republicans the party itself does not matter to us. What matters is getting things we approve of passed.