WSJ Reporter: Trump May Have Reneged On Border Wall Deal To Hold On To Campaign Issue

Maybe what he really wants is to attack Democrats about not having a wall.

Wall Street Journal White House reporter Eli Stokols has a possible theory about why Donald Trump reportedly accepted a border wall offering from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — then reneged. Trump may want to use the missing wall against Democrats in his re-election campaign.

The New York Times reported Friday that Schumer tentatively agreed to consider fully funding Trump’s $20 billion Mexican border wall. In exchange, the GOP would agree to protect the so-called Dreamers who came to the U.S. with their parents as children, according to the Times. Then both sides could agree to a spending package to keep the government running.

But Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, called Schumer later to say the Dreamers deal was too liberal. The deal was off.

Schumer complained later that dealing with the president was like “negotiating with jello.”

The possible $20 billion for a border wall is “a lot of money,” Stokols told Kasie Hunt on MSNBC Sunday. “So, why doesn’t he [Trump] want that?”

“You have to step back and look at the inaction from the White House and conclude ... If Schumer put $20 billion on the table and they said no, does this president really want to build the wall? Or do they want to retain that issue and run, and say [that] Democrats wouldn’t let us build this wall?”

Check out the video above.

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