ArcaMax

Message: Just play along, folks, and nobody gets hurt.

Here we see Trump as the Transactional President, the former Democrat and real estate developer whose ideology is best summed up as "Let's make a deal."

His lack of firm ideological beliefs has freed him, in essence, to give the customer what he or she wants. He has won more than 80 percent support from self-identified evangelical Christians for his conservative judicial appointments, among other policy decisions, despite his reputation for having violated an eye-popping number of the Ten Commandments.

And there are areas on which both parties have shown enough agreement to begin fruitful negotiations. Both Pelosi and Trump have spoken of making infrastructure repair a top priority, as well as lowering prescription drug prices.

One presumes there also are tantalizing possibilities for reforms to save insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, for people with pre-existing conditions. Focusing on that issue at Pelosi's insistence provided so much high-octane power to Democratic congressional campaigns that Trump and other Republicans began to claim they were the true champions for saving the coverage, even after they voted repeatedly to abolish Obamacare or gradually defund it.

It remains to be seen whether Pelosi will receive as much pushback from her party's left wing as Trump and other Grand Old Party leaders have received from the GOP's congressional right-wingers. Pelosi herself had been demonized by progressive and populist Democrats calling for fresh blood almost as much as Republican candidates made her a target of right-wing wrath.

But I wouldn't count Pelosi out. So far, no other House Democrat has come close to matching her ability to raise campaign dollars for House Dems or navigate legislation. The party does need to develop new talent, as Republicans have done over the past two decades, at the state and local level. But for now, Pelosi is well-prepared for what she, too, has called a "transition" period to her party's full recovery.

"No permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests." So goes an old, much-repeated slogan of pragmatic politicians. Voters have shown a preference for divided government in this midterm, but they also want to see real problem-solving through compromise. Now is the time for President Trump and his top adversaries to show they can make that work.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.