Opinion: Liberal readers to Trump: Congratulations for starting to act like a president

We’ve heard it repeated so often in our politically polarized time, it’s become a cliché: Donald Trump’s critics (especially those who write letters to the Los Angeles Times) are so deranged by the president that they will criticize him no matter what, and his hard-core backers are so enamored of him that — as Trump himself has quipped — he could shoot someone in public without losing their support.

That assertion was put to the test this week after Trump cut a deal with congressional Democrats to lift the debt ceiling temporarily (a plan House Speaker Paul Ryan had called “disgraceful”), fund hurricane relief and avert a federal government shutdown.

Since the deal was announced Wednesday, Trump has gotten positive reviews from letter writers who have denounced him in the past, and negative ones from some who’d been his fans. So much for Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Santa Monica resident Ron Lowe hopes Trump’s deal with the Democrats signals more to come:

Trump overruled congressional Republicans and cut a deal with Democrats to fund the government and raise the federal borrowing limit for three months, all part of an agreement to speed money for Hurricane Harvey relief.

Good move, Mr. President; that’s what we call “reaching across the aisle.”

Could it be Trump is not owned by antiabortion Republicans?

Nelson Marans of New York, who has expressed conservative opinions in previous letters to the editor, spots a RINO:

Just because Trump labeled himself a Republican to get elected president does not mean that he is an actual Republican who supports the Republican agenda. He may be described as an independent, a maverick or an opportunist, but certainly his actions are not representative of his party.

Trump’s recent decisions, including the one on shutting down the government, are not what the Republican Party expected.

Patrick Sullivan of Reseda says Trump’s dealing with Democrats does not bode well for the Republican Party:

This week Trump took quite a verbal lashing from congressional Republicans for his attempt to get the Democratic leadership in Congress to sign on to his agenda.

Congratulations to Trump. It’s about time that he started to act like a president.

Any political party that generates such an obviously incapable candidate and then president like Trump is doomed to mediocrity.

Ken Artingstall of Glendale likes what he sees from the man who wrote “The Art of the Deal”:

Has Trump ever grown in office!

By striking a bipartisan deal with Democrats on the debt ceiling and disaster relief, Trump has at last demonstrated the deal-making skills for which he is famous.

Redondo Beach resident Richard Morse puts Trump’s deal-making in a much less flattering light:

Who knew the “art of the deal” was so simple? Just agree to the other party’s opening bid.

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