Why can't Trump make deals? No one trusts him anymore
WASHINGTON - Sen. Mitch McConnell was jolted with a fresh reminder of President Donald Trump's capriciousness last month: The majority leader persuaded Republican colleagues to take a politically difficult vote to temporarily fund the government, but not a border wall, only to see Trump withdraw support - initiating the longest shutdown in history.
House Republicans learned the same lesson early in Trump's presidency when he rallied them to repeal Obamacare, then described their effort as "mean."
As Trump reaches the halfway mark of his term on Sunday, he has left a trail of negotiating partners from both chambers of Congress, both political parties and countries around the world feeling double-crossed and even lied to.
The result is that the president who campaigned as the world's best deal-maker, vowing that he alone could fix Washington's dysfunction, has been stymied as he looks for achievements before facing the voters again. Two years in, the man who built a political reputation as a guy who tells it like it is has lost the essential ingredients to
