The Dealmaker in Chief is riding high now. We hear there was a new bounce in his step. He finally made a deal, seven months into his presidency. He skirted the GOP leadership in Congress, basically ambushing them in an Oval office meeting with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. With Mike Pence grinning at his side, he jumped into bed with the Democrats and threw the GOP leadership under the bus. It seemed like a snap decision made mid-meeting. Some have hinted that 45 just got bored, given his limp attention span. Apparently what clinched it for the Donald was that the Democrats had the votes for their proposal, a sure thing, while the Republicans were still fumbling with theirs, an outcome yet to be determined, with Democrats aligned against it and some Tea Partyers unenthusiastic.

The end result, a deal to pass legislation providing relief for Hurricane Harvey victims combined with raising the debt ceiling for the next 3 months, pulled the rug out from under Tea Partyers who were drooling to have a debate that would scold the legislature for excessive spending. That’s part of the lyrics for their sing-along song “mortgaging our grandchildren’s future”. Threatening government shutdown, they would hold Congress hostage in exchange for some pledge to make even more draconian cuts in the upcoming budget than are already requested. Damn human suffering; as one conservative said, he was looking forward to the day when every emergency didn’t become a federal one, even as Houston was drowning in the waters of Hurricane Harvey and Irma was in the wings.

In Schumer’s version of the meeting, related in an interview for the New York Times The Daily podcast, Paul Ryan kept accusing the Democrats of playing politics. Schumer’s response was to quote Ryan’s remarks during the 2 previous debt ceiling debates, essentially doing that politic playing thing. Mnuchin’s contribution was to repeat that the markets would crash in the continued uncertainty, which of course did not happen during the two previous government shutdowns.

Moments before attending the meeting, Paul Ryan was rehearsing his demonizing the Democrats for playing politics with disaster relief remarks in front of the press after flatly rejecting the Democratic proposal to extend the debt ceiling for 3 months earlier in the day. The GOP wanted to extend the debt ceiling for 18 months, until after the midterm elections, not wanting to fight over the debt ceiling or play the government shutdown card just before Christmas. And before that, there are the thorny issues of tax reform and the budget, briar patches where the chances of emerging unscarred are still iffy. After the meeting, Mitch McConnell’s chin would have quivered if he had one, as he remarked that the president could speak for himself.

As budget director Mick Mulvaney and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to drum up support for the legislation, before the vote, among Republicans who sat in stunned disbelief, they were rumored to have booed Mnuchin, called by some the “Democratic donor Treasury Secretary”. On the other hand, Mulvaney is one of their own, a former Tea Party fiscal conservative, no doubt lured to the Dark Side by the CelebrityPresident’s charisma.

Lawmakers went on to approve $15 billion in hurricane relief as part of a short-term measure that increases the nation’s debt ceiling and keeps the government funded until December. The measure was opposed by more than one third of Republican Representatives.

Trump was over the moon with the favorable feedback he got from MSNBC of all places; so happy that he called Chuck and Nancy to tell him that Fox, Trump’s cable TV station was praising them. That was a homerun for Trump, he flipped the liberal cable coverage with the right wing cable coverage. The consummate showman, the RealityPresident was toying with the Republican Party. He was driving it home to his TrumpPack and the softer edges of support that are beginning to fray that he is 1) the one and only consummate deal closer; 2), that he can manage an inept Congress to get his agenda accomplished; and 3) that he is outside the party, soaring over its head. He wasn’t going to let Congress screw him over again and let down the people of Texas and Louisiana. Think back to his nomination acceptance speech where he extolled, “I am the only one who can!”

As for the Democrats, the detente would give them more leverage in upcoming bills like the DACA reboot (which 45 says he wants), the budget (which they don’t want) and maybe even tax reform; the legislative agenda for the next 6 months. The Democrats may have drawn some hope on DACA as Trump tweeted reassurances to Dreamers that they didn’t have to worry in the next 6 months about deportation, at the urging of his new best bud, Nancy. Never mind the 12 months after that. Still, 45 can be fickle and ICE could be moving on the Dreamers while he was tweeting. Next week brings a new day, when a new whim could emerges from under his freshly colored mop top. And he’s talking to Schumer, a fellow New Yorker from way back, about a plan to eliminate the debt ceiling revisits entirely.

To add insult to injury, 45’s Twitter feed lit up with criticism of the party. He insisted that he had to collaborate with the Democrats, contending that they held the power to block legislation. As he has done in the past, he pointed to the way out, that is to change the Senate Filibuster rule to cut the Democrats out of decision making. 45 went on to thrust his tax reform in their faces as urgent, his urgency stimulated by the need for a legislative win after his climax over Repeal Obamacare fizzled.

PresidentDealmaker went further when he championed a Democratic Senator whom he took with him to his North Dakota rally, calling her out as one of the good guys. He’s letting the GOP know that he has options to get done what he wants and he’s willing to do whatever. That comes as no surprise, of course, from a president without ideology or party loyalty or morals. His only creed is get what he wants when he wants it, damn the consequences. His desires can shift from moment to moment, as evidenced by his Twitter feed. By empowering the Democrats he may be advancing his own agenda, hoping to supplement the 51 GOP Senate votes since a couple of GOP defectors united with the Democrats can sink any Trump inspired legislation, a la the healthcare debacle. Or he may be applying the screws to McConnell to move to change Senate rules.

And low and behold, after the initial grumbling, more and more Republicans, nose rings securely clipped through their nostrils, have been falling in line behind their fearless leader, in the days since The Deal. Just as 45 knew they would. They can’t let go of those coat tails until they’ve finished making the rich richer and the poor poorer.