On Feb. 19, President Donald Trump signaled his intention to soon meet with top Democrats for lunch, expressing his hopes that they could work together. Speaking at a Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute summit in Miami, the chief executive seemed hopeful that his olive branch to Democrats might lead to some bipartisan progress in Washington, DC, but he also gave the opposition party an ultimatum, of sorts. Democrats have marked the first month of the new administration with a stream of complaints, legal threats, and in a few cases what could reasonably be described as physical threats.
After his address to the summit, Trump took questions – to which he gave long answers, meandering from one subject to another in a frank and casual tone, almost as if he were thinking out aloud. During the answers to one of these questions, the 47th president turned his attention briefly to his Democrat opponents. “[T]hey’re the party of some real bad things,” he remarked, “and I think they’ll change – I think they’ll have to change. It will be wonderful.” And then he either revealed something that has already been at least tentatively arranged, or he slipped in a subliminal invite to Democrat leaders to come and parlay with him. “I’m going to be having lunch with some of the Democrats next week and it would be wonderful if we could work together. I think working together would be great.”
This particular olive branch is going to come with some strings attached, it seems. President Trump continued, “But they have to change. You can’t get elected on the programs that they want – and that’s really what America wants to see.”
Answering reporters’ questions later, Trump declined to say which Democrats would be attending the lunch. “You’ll see when I do it. Some good ones. Some biggies,” he said.
This leaves some tantalizing questions. Has President Trump already made overtures to senior Democrats? If so, have any accepted the invitation? Or is he testing the waters to see who, if any, among his political opponents would be willing to sit down with him?
Perhaps the president is setting the Democrats up so he can say, look at that. I reached out to them, and they were not interested in compromise or bipartisanship. To date, as far as anyone knows, only Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has been willing to meet with President Trump, traveling to his Mar-a-Lago residence before the inauguration.
From the Democrats’ perspective, would it help or hurt them to break bread with Trump? Given the new commander-in-chief’s high approval ratings, would it not benefit Democrats to accept the president’s invitation, or would Democrat voters be disgusted if they dine with the man they have been calling a tyrant and a fascist for the past eight years?
Deliberately or not, Trump may have put his political foes in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. How they respond – and what comes out of this lunch, should it happen – could give the nation a good idea of how things are going to shake out in Washington over the next four years.