WASHINGTON _ As negotiations to end a federal government shutdown dragged on Sunday, there was one pressing question no one seemed to have an answer for: What is President Donald Trump's price for protecting young immigrants and ending the stalemate?
Trump rejected two potential deals designed to avert the government shutdown before it began. One was with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and another with Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, who said he even accepted a multibillion-dollar proposal that would have included funding for Trump's proposed wall along the Mexican border.
"Our parties are very close on all the issues we have been debating for months now, so close I believed we might have a deal twice only for the president to change his mind and walk away," Schumer said Sunday on the Senate floor. "The president must take yes for an answer."
The White House rejected Schumer's criticism.
"Sen. Schumer's memory is hazy because his account of Friday's meeting is false," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "And the president's position is clear: We will not negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants while Sen. Schumer and the Democrats hold the government for millions of Americans and our troops hostage."
Still, Trump's flip-flopping negotiation style has Democrats expressing pity to the Republican Senate majority leader, who also admits to not understanding what the president will actually support to protect immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children. Resolving their plight would help secure Democratic support to end the shutdown.
Trump's shifting positions have confused both Democrats and Republicans, a conundrum exacerbated by his lack of ideological markers and the fact that his inner circle is filled with warring factions of moderates and hard-liners who can't agree on what immigration policy to pursue.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina criticized the White House Sunday for its lack of leadership and urged Senate leaders to take over. He said the two parties could reach an agreement on a proposal that would fund the government through Feb. 8 with a commitment to continue talks on immigration and other major issues.
"The Senate needs to lead, because no one else is," Graham said.
White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short insisted Sunday that Trump has been upfront about his priorities, which include helping the young immigrant population, increased border security and ending chain migration and the visa lottery program.
"President Trump is being crystal clear on what he wants and he has not wavered in that," Short said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
But even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans are unsure what Trump wants in a deal to protect the young immigrants. Until lawmakers know what the president will support, a deal cannot be made, he said.
"As soon as we figure out what he is for, then I would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels," McConnell said last week.
Schumer said on Saturday that working with Trump is like "negotiating with Jell-O."
"Not only do they not consult us, they can't even get on the same page with their president, the president from their own party," Schumer said over the weekend. "The congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with President Trump. President Trump tells me to figure it out with congressional leaders. This political Catch-22, never seen before, has driven our government to dysfunction."
Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats have negotiated with Trump before only to see him change his mind and side with the "most extreme person" he speaks to.
"I don't think anyone knows what the president wants," he said.
On Sunday, however, McConnell again blamed the shutdown on Democrats and said he'd hold a vote to break the Democratic filibuster on the short-term spending bill by 1 a.m. Monday.
"This shutdown could get a lot worse tomorrow, a lot worse," McConnell said from the Senate floor. "Today would be a good day to end it all."
Trump struck a tentative agreement last year with Pelosi and Schumer to protect immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in exchange for increased security at the Mexican border, but not necessarily a wall. Democrats say Trump immediately backed out, insisting on a larger immigration package.
Republican negotiators say Trump aides like Stephen Miller are standing in the way of an immigration deal. Miller has been among the leaders in the White House who has guided the president to push for ending chain migration and curb the diversity visa lottery program. Trump has since turned to chief of staff John Kelly to quell lawmakers' complaints about the White House in immigration negotiations.
