Seth Meyers is as confused about Trump's DACA policy as Trump appears to be


President Trump has been flailing as he tries to strike the right tone on the hurricanes battering the U.S., but he's also creating his own disasters, Seth Meyers said on Thursday's Late Night. Mostly, Meyers was talking about Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program, effective in six months, probably. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) did not want the DACA hot potato and said Trump shouldn't end the program last week — then, after Trump decided to end it, said the president had done the right thing. Meyers sighed. "Paul Ryan flips so much he should be at Sea World," he said.
So once again, Ryan and other GOP leaders "traded in their dignity and changed their minds to line up behind Trump," Meyers said, "and instead of rewarding them for their loyalty, just hours later Trump threw all of them under the bus out of nowhere by saying he might change his mind on DACA." Now it's unclear what Trump wants, except for Congress to fix the problem. "Trump's 'Pottery Barn rule' is: If I break it, Paul Ryan buys it," Meyers said. After sowing DACA confusion, Trump tweeted a message to DREAMers on Thursday telling them not to worry, at the suggestion of his new pal Nancy Pelosi. Meyers congratulated Pelosi on her obviously strong Jedi mind-trick powers.
Trump's DACA confusion is par for the course for a president with a shaky-at-best grasp of policy, Meyers said. When it comes to tax policy, for example, Trump "sounds like a regional theater actor who blanked on his lines." Meyers acted that out using Hamlet's famous speech. He ended with a disturbing guess as to what is going through Trump's mind, and you can watch below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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