WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump prepared for the pivotal meeting with congressional leaders by huddling with his senior team – his chief of staff, his legislative director and the heads of Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget – to game out various scenarios on how to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and provide Hurricane Harvey relief.

But one option they never considered was the that one the president ultimately chose: cutting a deal with Democratic lawmakers, to the shock and ire of his own party.

In agreeing to tie Harvey aid to a three-month extension of the debt ceiling and government funding, Trump burned the people who are ostensibly his allies. The president was an unpredictable – and, some would say, untrustworthy – negotiating partner with not only congressional Republicans but also with his Cabinet members and top aides. Trump saw a deal that he thought was good for him – and he seized it.

The move should come as no surprise to students of Trump’s history of broken alliances and agreements. In business, his personal life, his campaign and his presidency, Trump has sprung surprises with gusto. His dealings are frequently defined by freewheeling spontaneity, impulsive decisions and a desire to keep everyone guessing – especially those who assume they can control him.

He also repeatedly demonstrates that, while he demands absolute loyalty from others, he is ultimately loyal to no one but himself.

“It makes all of their normalizing and ‘Trumpsplaining’ look silly and hollow,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist sharply critical of Trump, referring to his party’s congressional leaders. “Trump betrays everyone: wives, business associates, contractors, bankers and now, the leaders of the House and Senate in his own party. They can’t explain this away as [a] 15-dimensional Trump chess game. It’s a dishonest person behaving according to his long-established pattern.”

But what many Republicans saw as betrayal was, in the view of some Trump advisers, an exciting return to his campaign promise of being a populist dealmaker able to cut through the mores of Washington to get things done.

In that Wednesday morning Oval Office meeting, Trump was impressed with the energy and vigor of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., relative to the more subdued Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Far from fretting over the prospect of alienating McConnell and Ryan or members of his administration, he relished the opportunity for a bipartisan agreement and the praise he anticipated it would bring, according to people close to the president.

On Thursday, he called Pelosi and Schumer to crow about coverage of the deal – “The press has been incredible,” he told Pelosi, according to someone familiar with the call – and point out that it had been especially positive for the Democratic leaders.

At the White House later that day, Trump asked Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., how he thought the deal was playing. “I told him I thought it was great, and a gateway project to show there could be bipartisan progress.”

In some ways, White House officials said, Trump is as comfortable working with Democrats to achieve policy goals, complete with the sheen of bipartisan luster, as he is with Republicans. Though he did not partner with Democrats to spite McConnell and Ryan, aides said, he has long felt frustrated with them for what he perceives as their inability to help shepherd his agenda through Congress, most notably their stalled efforts to undo President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law.

Ari Fleischer, press secretary under President George W. Bush, said Trump deserves credit for staving off, at least for now, a possible default and government shutdown.

“It’s going to internally hurt him that he didn’t work with Republicans on this one, but by avoiding a mess, he likely saved Republicans from themselves. I consider it a small victory that congressional Republicans didn’t once again trip themselves up over this issue. At least for now.”

Democrats remain skeptical about just how long their newfound working relationship with Trump will last. But for Republicans, the turnabout was yet another reminder of what many of them have long known but refused to openly admit: Trump is a fickle ally and partner, liable to turn on them much in the same way he has turned on his business associates and foreign allies.

These golfers in Washington state give new meaning to the term “playing through.” (Photo from Beacon Rock Golf Course Facebook page)