DACA tantrum is typical of Trump

President Trump has announced in a tweet (of course) that "DACA is dead." Only a few months ago, Trump was virtually commanding Congress to send him a bill that makes the Obama administration's DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) policy a permanent program, allowing immigrants who came here as small children with their illegal-immigrant parents to remain. But a short while later, Trump was demanding that a DACA fix must include billions of dollars for a border wall (an idea that obsesses him). The dysfunctional Congress could not find the votes to put a DACA fix in the same bill with border wall appropriations, so both DACA and the border wall went unfixed.

This episode is typical of many elements of the Trump presidency. Trump says something extraordinary, then he changes his mind just days later and reneges on the entire promise. We saw it in his reaction to the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, negotiations with North Korea and tariffs. Swept up in sympathy for the surviving Parkland students, Trump seemed to endorse long-sought restrictions on gun purchases, including universal background checks of gun buyers. Then he backed away. He tried bullying North Korea and its dynastic leader, Kim Jong Un, calling him "Little Rocket Man," but then he declared his willingness to negotiate directly with Kim with no limits on discussion topics. He has also announced tariffs on international trade and then backed off the tariffs for select countries. 

The president's reversals must be leaving America's allies' heads spinning.

DACA would seem to be an easy compromise. Large majorities of Americans support legislation allowing persons who came here illegally in the custody of their parents to remain in this country, where they have grown up and attended school. These children were too young to form a criminal intent to violate immigration law and should, essentially, receive forgiveness under these circumstances.

You can agree with Republicans' criticism of Obama's executive order creating DACA, that it over-stretched a president's authority to change immigration policy through an executive order, and still be willing to give the million or fewer DACA applicants forgiveness for their parents' actions. You can also agree with Trump that Mexico should have done more and should do more to prevent illegal entry into the United States from Mexico but also agree that punishing DACA recipients is the wrong way to get Mexico's help.

Trump seems to believe that international diplomacy is just like a business negotiation. It's not. International disputes can lead to war. A wrong turn in trade negotiations can lead to a collapse of carefully structured trade agreements with catastrophic worldwide economic consequences.

The president is right about one thing: DACA is dead, and he's the one who killed it.