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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2111410/he-likes-us-democrat-senator-schumer-touts-trumps
World/ United States & Canada

‘He likes us’: Democrat Senator Schumer touts Trump’s affection for him and Pelosi

President struck a bargain last week with Democratic leader to raise the debt ceiling and is working to grant long-term deportation protection to recipients of the DACA programme

President Trump meets with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Vice-President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Photo: Washington Post/Bill O'Leary

What could be behind President Donald Trump’s recent deal making with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi? Maybe something as simple as personal affection.

“He likes us,” Schumer, of the Democrats, told a colleague on Thursday, an private exchange that was picked up by a microphone and aired by C-SPAN2.

Though the full conversation could not be heard on the broadcast, “us” was undoubtedly a reference to the Democratic leaders, with whom Trump struck a bargain last week to raise the debt ceiling and with whom he is working on a plan to grant long-term deportation protection to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

President Donald Trump on Air Force One as a news report plays about his relationship with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Photo: Reuters
President Donald Trump on Air Force One as a news report plays about his relationship with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Photo: Reuters

The Washington Post previously reported that Trump and Schumer had reached a “gentleman’s agreement” to pursue legislation that would permanently remove the requirement that Congress repeatedly raise the debt ceiling.

Schumer suggested in the comments caught on the microphone that his connection with the president is particularly strong.

“He likes me, anyway,” Schumer said of Trump.

“Here’s what I told him,” Schumer continued, recounting a Wednesday-night conversation in which he, Trump and Pelosi discussed immigration. “I said, ‘Mr President, you’re much better off if you can sometimes step right and sometimes step left. If you have to step just to one direction, you’re boxed.’ He gets that.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Photo: AP
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Photo: AP

“It’s going to work out,” Schumer said. “And it’ll make us more productive, too.”

The Drudge Report highlighted Schumer’s remarks in a cluster of headlines about Trump’s sudden cooperation with Democrats and splashed a banner that read “DREAM TEAM” under side-by-side photographs of the president and Pelosi.

On a day when conservative commentators were lamenting what many interpreted as Trump’s ideological betrayal – he made the case for allowing DACA recipients to remain in the United States and told reporters that “the wall will come later”. Schumer’s comments were salt in the wound. They suggested Trump is so capricious that major policy actions could be decided not by what the president believes in but rather by whose company he enjoys.