How do "despite" and "rather than" work with each other at here?

Question

I read an article from Wall Street Journal by chance this morning. There was a sentence in it, "When an agreement to protect the Dreamers is reached, it will be despite this president rather than with his leadership." (by Andrew Ackerman)I didn't get it from the first sight. I know "A rather than B" means "A but not B", so this sentence's meaning should be "When an agreement to protect the Dreamers is reached, it will be despite this president but not with his leadership." I am not sure how I should translate "it will be despite this president" to another expression.Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

In this sentence "rather than" is more closely interpreted as "instead of."

The word "despite" can also be translated as "regardless of."