(USNewsMag.com) – Former President Donald Trump is continuing his call to GOP lawmakers to reject any compromise on a border security package, and this time he’s targeting the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and the leadership team surrounding McConnell.
As Trump inches closer to the GOP nomination, he has some advice for his party about how the border security package tied to foreign aid should be handled, calling on his party members in Congress to reject compromising on the border and to reject any deal that is less than “perfect.” Any deal that doesn’t include “everything needed” to secure the border and stop the influx of illegal immigration shouldn’t even be considered, according to the former president.
Trump made the declaration on Wednesday, Jan. 18, on his Truth Social page, and described the situation at the southern border as an “invasion of millions and millions of people” and that many are coming “from parts unknown” into the US. The message was also meant to push Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who’s been under pressure from both the White House and his Republican conference to settle on a Senate deal lumping the border budget together with aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Johnson has the power to stop any funding package that passes the Senate in its tracks. He says that Trump “is not wrong” and that he’s been talking with the former president “frequently” about this issue.
One of McConnell’s leadership team members, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said Trump’s comments are “not helpful,” arguing that the best chance the GOP has to slow illegal immigration is the Ukraine package in the Senate. Thune said the package could pass some “conservative border policies” the GOP have “been trying to get done for years.”
Another one of McConnell’s guys, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, also disagreed with Trump’s strategy, which he said he would “love” to be possible, but that it simply isn’t “the reality” of the situation. He said the only way to “get enough votes” in the Senate, the House, and then a signature from President Joe Biden is to compromise with Democrats. Some senators believe Trump may be trying to kill the deal to stop Biden from achieving a bipartisan policy victory just before the 2024 presidential election.
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