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Why Trump’s immigration compromise is a shrewd move

For the past month, Democrats have insisted they will not negotiate with President Trump while the government remains in partial shutdown. The president has spent most of that time insisting he will not negotiate on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for the border wall. As a result, the shutdown broke the previous service-gap record without so much as a vote on alternatives.

This week, however, the logjam may be slowly unwinding, and Trump might be able to take credit for ending the stalemate.

It began with a surprising concession from the man who wrote The Art of the Deal and who warned against making the first move in a negotiation. “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal,” Trump wrote at the time, “is seem desperate to make it.” Any show of needing the deal more than one’s opponents necessarily surrenders leverage, Trump explained in his book.

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