President Trump, a man of few allegiances who seized control of the Republican Party in a hostile takeover, suddenly aligned himself with Democrats Wednesday on a series of key fiscal issues — and even gave a lift to North Dakota’s embattled Democratic U.S. senator.

Trump confounded his own party’s leaders when he cut a deal with Democratic congressional leaders — “Chuck and Nancy,” as the president informally referred to them — on a short-term plan to fund the government and raise its borrowing limit this month.

Trump’s surprise stance upended sensitive negotiations over the debt ceiling and other crucial policy areas this fall and further imperiled his already tenuous relationships with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

The episode is the latest turn in Trump’s extraordinary separation from his own party, as he distances himself to deflect blame for what has been a year of gridlock and missed opportunities for Republicans on Capitol Hill. It follows a summer of presidential stewing over McConnell and Ryan, both of whom Trump views as insufficiently loyal and weak in executing his agenda, according to his advisers.

Trump made his position clear at a White House meeting with both parties’ congressional leaders, agreeing with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on plans for a bill to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling for three months.

That effectively postpones until December a divisive fight over fiscal matters, including whether to fund construction of Trump’s long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Trump told reporters Wednesday aboard Air Force One as he traveled to North Dakota. “We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important — always we’ll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it.”

In siding with Democrats, Trump overruled his own Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who was in the middle of an explanation backing a longer-term increase when the president interrupted him and disagreed, according to a person briefed on the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Trump was “in deal-cutting mode,” the person said.

[Schumer, Pelosi offer Democratic votes for Harvey aid if paired with short-term debt-limit hike]

After the gathering, McConnell said he would add provisions extending government funding and the debt limit through mid-December to legislation passed by the House on Wednesday providing $7.85 billion in Hurricane Harvey relief.

“The president agreed with Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Pelosi to do a three-month [funding extension] and a debt ceiling into December, and that’s what I will be offering, based on the president’s decision, to the bill,” McConnell told reporters. “The president can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis.”

Trump also threw tacit support behind the Democrats’ push for a “dreamers” bill that would effectively formalize an Obama-era program shielding undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation.

Trump on Tuesday began phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which GOP hard-liners regard as illegal amnesty, but suggested Wednesday that if Congress passed a dreamers bill he might sign it.

“Chuck and Nancy want to see something happen — and so do I,” Trump said.

Later in the day Wednesday, Trump brought a special guest with him to an oil refinery in Mandan, N.D., to pitch his tax-cuts plan: Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat facing a tough reelection in a solidly Republican state Trump carried in 2016 by 36 percentage points. He welcomed Heitkamp into his traveling delegation, affording her the chance to appear bipartisan by appearing alongside a president popular with North Dakotans.

As Heitkamp stepped onto an outdoor catwalk at the Mandan refinery to join him on stage, Trump delivered play-by-play commentary: “Everybody’s saying, ‘What’s she doing up here?’ But I’ll tell you what: Good woman.”

Trump opened his speech by recounting his “great bipartisan meeting” at the White House. “I’m committed to working with both parties to deliver for our wonderful, wonderful citizens,” Trump said, singling out Schumer and Pelosi by name before mentioning the Republicans who were in attendance.

“Everybody was happy,” Trump said of the meeting. “Not too happy, because you can never be too happy, but they were happy enough.”

By setting up another debt ceiling vote in December — a vote in which Republicans will almost certainly need Democratic help to avoid default — Democrats keep their seat at the table in this fall’s key policy debates.

[Trump administration announces end of immigration protection program for ‘dreamers’]

Had Republicans followed through with their original plan, Democrats would have been stuck trying to extract concessions ahead of debt ceiling votes this week using an empty threat: voting against a legislative package that includes the politically sensitive Harvey aid. Democrats believe pushing the debt-limit debate into December will increase their leverage on several issues, including protection of dreamers and securing funds to help stabilize health-care markets.

Schumer and Pelosi also gained an edge by giving Democrats an aura of strategic command they have lacked since Trump’s election. Instead of McConnell claiming victory, it was Schumer who told reporters, “The nation can breathe a sigh of relief.”

The deal may also benefit Trump by allowing him to revive his threat to shut down the government over wall funding.

At the White House, Republican leaders pushed for an 18-month debt-limit hike, then floated doing a six-month extension, according to two aides briefed on the meeting. But Pelosi and Schumer dismissed the six-month proposal, and Trump then agreed to the three-month hike that Democrats put on the table.

McConnell and Ryan came out of the White House meeting in the weakest position — losing an opportunity to neutralize the debt-ceiling issue before the 2018 midterm elections and to exclude Democrats from major policy debates this fall.

The president’s decision came barely an hour after Ryan panned the idea of a short-term debt hike, accusing Democrats of “playing politics” with much-needed aid for Hurricane Harvey victims.

“I think that’s ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we have fellow citizens in need, to respond to these hurricanes so we do not strand them,” Ryan told reporters.

Trump apparently disagreed.

“We essentially came to a deal, and I think the deal will be very good,” Trump said. “We had a very, very cordial and professional meeting.”

Not all Democrats were so thrilled with the deal. Some were upset it did not include protections for the estimated 800,000 Dreamers.

[Trump administration announces end of immigration protection program for ‘dreamers’]

“So Trump attacks our dreamers and the next day the Democrats walk in there and say, ‘Oh, let’s just have a nice time-out,’ while they’re all suffering?” said Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.). “That is what is wrong with Democrats. They don’t stand up.”

Schumer said he was not finished advocating for Dreamers. “This is not a trade-off for us,” he said. “This is a very important issue that we’re going to fight hard for until we get it done.”

The fiscal agreement would likely force Congress to vote on the debt ceiling by Dec. 15. Negotiators were still working out details late Wednesday, and it is unclear whether the Treasury Department would have flexibility to avoid default after that date. Typically, the department can use emergency steps to avoid default for several months past any debt-ceiling deadline.

The short-term extensions for the debt ceiling and government funding are also expected to further cloud the prospects for enacting major tax cuts, Trump’s top domestic priority. They effectively mean spending and budget fights will continue for months, just as the GOP was hoping to coalesce around a plan to cut taxes.

Trump tried to rally support for his tax plan in North Dakota.

“Anybody that’s going to vote against tax cuts and tax reforms — whether it’s in North Dakota or anybody else or any place else — you’ve gotta vote against them and get them out of office, because it’s so, it is so bad,” Trump said, pausing so that the crowd could cheer. “This is not a close one.”

The White House meeting took place just as the House approved the Harvey aid package, its first major order of business after the August recess.

The measure — providing $7.4 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $450 million for a disaster loan program for small businesses — passed 419 to 3, with 12 members not voting. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) voted no. It now moves to the Senate, where leaders plan to hold a vote by the end of the week.

[Recovering from Harvey when ‘you already live a disaster every day of your life’]

Top House Republicans barely veiled their frustration with Trump’s decision to side with Democrats on the debt ceiling. House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said he “would have not tied the knot so tight” for December, saying an extension till at least February would have been better, but he carefully avoided criticizing Trump.

“We all do it differently,” Sessions said. “I think it was an overly generous answer that he gave our friends the Democrats. But I’m not going to be critical of my president. I support my president.”

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was among those who warned that Democrats’ short-term debt-limit request could threaten GOP efforts to cut spending.

“Obviously getting a [continuing resolution] and the debt ceiling to not come due at the same time would be the most prudent fiscal decision we could make,” Meadows told reporters.

Rucker reported from Mandan, N.D. Damian Paletta, Abby Phillip, Paul Kane and Jenna Johnson in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

KEY WEST, Fla. — Hurricane Irma barreled toward the U.S. mainland Wednesday, prompting counties in Florida to begin evacuations while the “potentially catastrophic Category 5” storm menaced Puerto Rico and battered a wide swath of the Caribbean.

Forecasters said Irma posed an increasing threat to South Florida, a sprawling and densely populated mass of cities and suburbs hugging the coastline. As dire warnings mounted, schools and offices across the state began to shut down, grocery store shelves were wiped clean and authorities ordered evacuations with more to follow.

The most powerful hurricane to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade, Irma has swelled into a monster force with maximum sustained winds near 185 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The center said Wednesday afternoon that Irma’s “extremely dangerous core” was moving over the Virgin Islands and would “pass near or just north of Puerto Rico” later in the day.

[‘May God protect us all’: Puerto Rico and tiny islands in Irma’s path fear for the worst]

Throughout the American territories and other Caribbean islands in Irma’s path, residents watched the storm with fear, wondering whether they would emerge with destroyed homes or no electricity for months. Irma’s eye passed over Barbuda at around 1:47 a.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service said, while on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, residents were ordered to remain indoors.

According to the Capital Weather Gang, Barbuda took a direct hit and the weather station there registered a wind gust of 155 mph before going offline, while the storm surge on the island — or the swell of water above normally dry land — reached at least eight feet. By Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said Irma’s eye had passed over St. Martin and warned that the storm could bring dangers including life-threatening storm surges, destructive winds, flash floods and mud slides to Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and beyond.

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, people in the Hato Rey neighborhood prepared for the storm under unusually calm, cool weather Wednesday morning that gave way to a light drizzle. People expect to lose power, which is nothing unusual for the neighborhood, where power often goes out for a few hours after a heavy rainstorm.

The power, in fact, went out at about 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Even though her house was boarded up, Rita Hernandez could hear the sing-song calls of “Yucca! Platanos!” from a pregonero — a roaming fruit and vegetable vendor — as he made what was likely his last run before the storm truly arrived.

Expectations that the storm would by this weekend make its way to Florida sent people in that state scrambling to stock up on food and water, and in many cases get out of the state. Monroe County, the southernmost county in Florida and home to the Keys, began mandatory evacuations of tourists and visitors on Wednesday. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued further north, in parts of populous Broward County. And in Miami-Dade, a county of 2.7 million, officials said they may order residents to leave coastal areas, including Miami Beach.

[Category 5 Hurricane Irma slams Lesser Antilles, and is targeting Florida]

In Key West, hotels closed down ahead of the evacuation order, and the airport was scheduled to halt operations later Wednesday. Gas stations reported low fuel stocks and grocery stores ran out of bottled water. Residents and business owners boarded up windows and hauled boats out of the water, while tourists and residents had already begun crowding up the single highway that snakes through the 120-mile island chain and into the Florida mainland.

Many businesses on Key West’s famed Duval Street were shuttered Tuesday — with the exception of a few bars and restaurants — and many residents were streaming to the mainland by car on Route A1A.

“We’re emphatically telling people you must evacuate,” said the director of Monroe County’s Emergency Operations Center, Martin Senterfitt. “You cannot afford to stay on an island with a Category 5 hurricane coming at you.”

There are two nuclear sites in Florida — 45-year-old Turkey Point 25 miles south of Miami and 41-year-old St. Lucie further north along the coast. They belong to NextEra, a utility with about 5 million electricity customers in Florida. NextEra said that it will shut down its four nuclear reactors before Hurricane Irma arrives. That will reduce the heat in the reactors and the need for electricity.

NextEra also said that its reactors could weather a loss of electricity of the sort that caused a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi reactors after the tsunami there in 2011. A NextEra spokesman Peter Robbins said that the nuclear plants have diesel generators located 20 feet above sea level inside reinforced concrete structures.

Carolyn Boutte, 44, said she and her husband moved to a house in Key West four years ago from Gloucester, Mass., and they have never been through a hurricane threat like this. They searched for gas on Tuesday so they could escape, but the first three stations already had run out of fuel, and lines were long everywhere else. She finally ran into some luck — at a station where she had to wait 45 minutes for a fill.

“My husband and I are packing up the dog and our Harley Davidson,” said Boutte, a marine biologist. “Unless the hurricane changes paths, we are getting out of here in the next couple of days.”

Please do not ignore evacuation orders. Remember, we can rebuild your home, not your life.

— Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) September 6, 2017

Even as the full devastation from Hurricane Harvey was still being tallied in Texas and along the Gulf Coast, authorities have shifted their attention to Florida, with a particular unease in South Florida, home to 6 million people across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — many of whom vividly remember Hurricane Andrew’s onslaught a quarter-century ago.

Hundreds of thousands of people scrambled to get out of South Florida as the storm loomed, while airlines began canceling flights and issuing fee waivers to travelers.

Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief said mandatory evacuations would begin Thursday at noon for people in the eastern portion of the county that runs alongside the Atlantic Ocean. The National Weather Service said Wednesday that the threat to South Florida “continues to increase,” with concerns about what could happen between Friday night and Monday.

“This storm is bigger, faster and stronger than Hurricane Andrew,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said Wednesday of Irma.

Scott stressed that even with Irma’s uncertain trajectory, officials were preparing for a direct impact from the hurricane.

“Do not sit and wait for the storm to come,” he said. “It is extremely dangerous and deadly and will cause devastation. Get prepared right now.”

President Trump on Tuesday evening declared an emergency in Florida as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and Scott activated 100 members of the Florida National Guard and said he has directed all 7,000 members to report for duty on Friday.

The Pentagon approved the use of two ships — originally deployed for Hurricane Harvey relief — to assist in Florida as needed. William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that incident management assistance personnel already are on the ground in vulnerable areas.

“Just like in Texas, the response to Irma is going to take all levels of government and the whole community,” Long said in a statement. “This has the potential to be a catastrophic storm.”

Officials across Florida responded to the dire forecasts by slowly shutting down the contours of daily life. Monroe County canceled classes for the rest of the week, while school districts in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — three of the country’s largest, with a combined enrollment north of 800,000 students — said they were canceling classes on Thursday and Friday. On the western edge of the state, officials in Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, also canceled classes on Thursday and Friday.

The NFL said Wednesday that the Miami Dolphins’ season opener scheduled for Sunday afternoon against Tampa Bay would be postponed to November. The University of Central Florida in Orlando, which could face punishing weather if Irma crawls up the coastline, moved a football game to Friday night. And the University of Miami announced it was canceling its football game set for this Saturday in Arkansas so the team doesn’t have to travel.

[What’s in the path of Hurricane Irma]

Scott, who earlier this week declared a statewide emergency, has warned that Irma could require large-scale evacuations and may severely impact areas battered last year by Hurricane Matthew, which sent punishing flooding into parts of the state.

“If you’re told to evacuate, get out quickly,” Scott said at a news briefing Wednesday. He added: “I cannot stress this enough: Do not ignore evacuation orders. Remember, we can rebuild your home but we cannot rebuild your life.”

But it was still not clear Wednesday how much of the state could be imperiled by Irma. The uncertainty of Irma’s track and the geography of the Florida peninsula combined to create an unusually broad, essentially statewide sense of emergency in a place where most of the population lives along the coasts. Irma could potentially ride up either side of Florida or track farther west into the Gulf of Mexico and endanger the state’s panhandle.

In Estero, on the state’s Gulf Coast, residents were either hunkering down or starting to flee. Stocks of water and flashlights at grocery stores were wiped out, and gas was becoming scarce. A sign on the door of a Speedway gas station warned customers: “No gas, no propane, no water, sorry.”

“We’ve never been this worried in our entire lives,” said Jose Torres, 25, who plans to evacuate to Georgia on Wednesday.

Workers install hurricane shutters on the Puerto Villarta restaurant on Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys. (Marc Serota/Getty Images)

The main routes out of South Florida are Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike, which can be prone to heavy traffic on the best of days. In an effort to smooth travel, Scott on Tuesday ordered that no tolls be collected.

Recovering from Harvey when ‘you already live a disaster every day of your life’

Hurricane Irma just slammed into Trump’s Caribbean estate — and is headed toward his Florida properties