Trump reaches across the aisle to make more deals with congressional Democrats

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pursued his newfound alignment with congressional Democrats on Thursday as he called the party’s leaders in hopes of striking more deals and even complied with a request to publicly reassure younger immigrants brought to the country illegally not to worry about imminent deportation.

A day after reaching a fiscal agreement with Democrats over the objections of his own Treasury secretary and party leaders, Trump called Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California to reinforce his willingness to keep working across party lines. He was effusive about their consensus.

“The press has been incredible,” he told Pelosi, according to a person briefed on the call.

Pelosi took the opportunity to ask Trump to send out a message on Twitter emphasizing that the 800,000 immigrants enrolled in a program that he canceled this week can keep their protection from deportation and work permits over the next six months as it phases out. The president, who has called on Congress to pass legislation that would renew the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, agreed to do so.

“For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about — No action!” Trump wrote.

Trump told reporters after the calls that the deal may signal a new era of bipartisanship.

“I think we will have a different relationship than we’ve been watching over the last number of years. I hope so,” he said. “I think that’s a great thing for our country. And I think that’s what the people of the United States want to see.”

Schumer, who has had little contact with Trump before now, said he raised the issue of cooperating on saving the DACA program through legislation known as the DREAM Act and that Trump seemed amenable.

“We’ll see,” Schumer said. “I think it would be much better for the country and much better for Donald Trump if he was much more in the middle and bipartisan rather than siding with the hard right. I think he got a taste of it yesterday. We’ll see if it continues. I hope it does.”