Opinion: Ben Domenech Says Trump Should Embrace a 'Pen and Phone' Era After the Midterms Instead of Working With Democrats on Immigration
The Daily Wire columnist argues the president should govern by executive action, as Obama did after 2014, and not cut deals with a Democratic Congress he expects to go after his Cabinet and family. He cites Trump's election-night remark about working on immigration. The views are his.
This is a Daily Wire opinion column by Ben Domenech. The views are his, not ours.
The argument. Domenech writes that after Tuesday's losses on Capitol Hill, "we're fully in President Trump's pen and phone era," and that Trump should embrace it. He points to Trump's election-night call to Fox News, when asked whether he could work with the new opposition majority. Trump said he could "work with them on a lot of things," and named immigration. Domenech says the president can go that way, but that the lessons of his predecessors favor a different path.
The Obama example. After Republicans won the Senate and their largest House majority since 1928 in 2014, Domenech writes, Obama "essentially said: Who cares?" and used executive action. He lists DACA and DAPA extensions that protected 4.5 million illegal immigrants from deportation, the Clean Power Plan, steps to prop up Obamacare, federal pay raises and executive orders on "all manner of leftist priorities." The media praised the approach, he says, because it was Obama.
Why not deal. Domenech says the new Democratic Congress "shows all the signs of going on a vengeance tour" against Trump's Cabinet, his family and his friends outside government. He asks what kind of deal Trump could cut with people "who don't believe the border should even exist." He also says Trump's frustrations with Senate Leader John Thune meant little got done in the past year, and that gridlock is normal in Washington.
His conclusion. Trump "shouldn't fall for the temptation of a legacy-making step that undermines the whole reason voters sent him back to the White House."
Why it matters here. We have reported the White House saying Trump will never allow mass amnesty after floating an immigration deal with Democrats, and Democrats' pledges of investigations. Domenech's column takes a side in the argument over whether to bargain or to act alone.
What we could not check. This is opinion. We did not verify the DACA and DAPA figures, the 1928 comparison or his account of Trump's dealings with Thune. Orders signed without Congress can be challenged in court or reversed by a later president, a limit the column does not discuss.