Playbook: “Capitol Hill has reached a budget deal. We say it like that because we do not yet have definitive evidence that President Trump is supporting this agreement. He tweeted that he was ‘pleased to announce that a deal has been struck’ and said it was a ‘real compromise in order to give another big victory to our Great Military and Vets!'”
“But the tweets from Trump did not explicitly say he supported it — and in this era of governing, that matters, because one person speaks for the president, and that’s him. (You might notice that press releases from folks like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not say they would support the bill — a nod to the fact that Trump could change his mind.) The leadership in both parties had expected a more forceful endorsement from Trump, several sources told us.”
“We asked the White House for clarification Monday — was the president in favor of this bill? They didn’t answer, but many others in the White House conceded to us that, indeed, the president needed to see how this all played in the public sphere.”
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