Is there a passage in "The Art of the Deal" which states, "Give your final, best offer first. Then, when it's rejected, start negotiating from there with your opponent to give him everything he wants."? No? Because that's the strategy employed by President Trump in dealing with Chuck Schumer.

The White House is offering Democrats a dollar-for-dollar deal to fund Obamacare subsidies and the border wall in the upcoming spending bill, according to budget director Mick Mulvaney, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer shot it down, with snark.

Mulvaney told Bloomberg Live on Friday that White House officials have told Democrats they're willing to fund $1 in Obamacare subsidies for every $1 that’s provided for the border wall as both parties look to avert a government shutdown next Friday.

Schumer’s office quickly threw cold water on the proposal, with spokesman Matt House saying Democrats thought Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall.

“The White House gambit to hold hostage health care for millions of Americans, in order to force American taxpayers to foot the bill for a wall that the president said would be paid for by Mexico is a complete nonstarter,” he said. “If the administration would drop their eleventh-hour demand for a wall that Democrats, and a good number of Republicans, oppose, congressional leaders could quickly reach a deal.”

President Trump offered to keep funding Obamacare in return for getting funding for his border wall. Schumer's response was to pocket the concession and to laugh in the president's face. Now that he knows that Trump, in his opening negotiation, will agree to continue funding Obamacare, Schumer has what he wants, pockets the concession, and realizes he doesn't need to negotiate.

You might think, by the way that Schumer and Trump are acting, that it is Democrats who control the presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, and Republicans are in the minority. But Democrats, who are in the minority, are the ones calling the shots on Obamacare and refusing to fund the border wall.

What a smart negotiator (not President Trump) might have done is first demand the border wall be funded, and offer no concessions. See what the other side says. If Schumer does not concede, and won't agree to a funding bill which funds the border wall, then let Schumer be responsible for shutting the government down, all over the issue of border security. Let the voters see that Schumer would rather shut down the government than let the country have a secure southern border. With such a strategy Trump would be negotiating from strength.

Instead he chooses to negotiate from weakness, even though his party controls the Congress and the presidency. Rather than agreeing to fund Obamacare as a last resort, he does it in his opening gambit.  Well, at least we know now where Trump stands on Obamacare!

This is not the act of a skilled negotiator, but rather a dilettante. It's great to be born already rich.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.