'Negotiating with Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O' says, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer
'Negotiating with Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O' says, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer has branded United States President Donald Trump as an unreliable negotiating partner, stating that working with him is "like negotiating with Jell-O."
According to the Hill, Schumer drew a comparison to the wobbly gelatin dessert, saying, "Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jello."
"It's next to impossible. As soon as you take one step forward, the hard-right forces the president three steps back," Schumer added.
According to the report, Schumer explained that Trump concurred to try for a four- or five-day government stopgap spending measure to give him and congressional leaders just enough time to reach a deal.
But then, Schumer said, the President changed his mind.
"Several hours later he called back. He said, 'So, I hear we have a three-week deal.' I said, 'No, Mr. President, no one is even talking about a three-week deal,' " Schumer recounted.
"Then a few hours later they called back again, 'Well we're going to need this, this, this in addition,' " Schumer said. "Things they knew were far, far right and off the table," the Hill reported.
On that note, Trump had met with Schumer at the White House just hours ahead of the deadline for a government shutdown.
While Schumer expressed his displeasure over the meeting, the President called it an "excellent" one.
"We discussed all of the major outstanding issues. We made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements. The discussions will continue," Schumer said on his return to the US Capitol after the approximately 90-minute meeting.
However, contrary to Schumer's sentiments, Trump hailed the meeting with the Democratic leader and had tweeted, "Excellent preliminary meeting in Oval with @SenSchumer - working on solutions for Security and our great Military together with @SenateMajLdr McConnell and @SpeakerRyan."
The chiefs of staff for each man - John Kelly for Trump and Mike Lynch for Schumer had also attended the meeting.
-ANI