“I think he feels he got burned so bad in the first seven months by the Republican leadership and their inability to do anything that if he wants to get accomplishments on infrastructure or taxes or DACA, that the only way to do it is to work with the leaders of the Democratic Party,” said Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman and transportation secretary under President Barack Obama, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has let young illegal immigrants avoid deportation. “The first seven months were just simply a joke.”…

“It’s always risky imputing strategy or a change in interest in policy with Trump,” said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the new book, “One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate and the Not-Yet Deported.” “My guess is that he didn’t like the vibes about a first year empty of accomplishments and decided Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell had led him astray. So he’s rolling the dice, making nice with Chuck and Nancy, hoping to bag a deal or two, shake things up, change the media narrative, get attention away from the Russia investigation. But he hasn’t thought anything through to the next steps. He’s improvising as he goes, relying on his gut, looking for emotionally satisfying cable news coverage.”