The president schooled

President Donald Trump may not realize how he’s been played by the two most powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill. During a White House meeting last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California convinced the president to take their side in a debate over raising the debt ceiling and ignore objections from top Republican leaders.

The deal humiliated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., whose well-founded concerns went ignored by Trump. They had argued that an 18-month extension to the debt limit would ensure greater financial stability and avert repeated, divisive debates over the topic ahead of the 2018 elections.

Schumer and Pelosi exploited the president’s lingering frustration over McConnell’s failure to pass an Obamacare repeal-and-replacement bill and Ryan’s seeming disloyalty for having criticized Trump publicly in recent weeks.

The two Democrats appealed to Trump’s emotions. The two Republican leaders appealed to his sense of logic. Emotion prevailed.

The deal that Schumer and Pelosi struck with Trump ensures that debate will play out repeatedly over the coming year. Democrats tend not to argue about the issue, but Republicans do. Every time the debate plays out, the party’s internal rift deepens.

Schumer and Pelosi correctly recognized the advantages their party gains when Republicans feud. Trump gave the Democrats exactly what they wanted.