Trump Ratchets Up Pressure on GOP Senators To Tie SAVE America Act to Homeland Security, TSA Funding

President Trump is ratcheting up pressure on the Senate majority leader, Senator John Thune, to pair funding for the Department of Homeland Security with his election bill, the SAVE America Act. Mr. Thune has called the proposal unrealistic. Mr. Trump, still convinced he lost the 2020 election to fraud, has been pushing senators for months to get the bill passed by any means necessary. He has said the filibuster should be scrapped, that the Senate should use a “talking filibuster,” and has gone so far as to say he will not sign any legislation until that bill comes to his desk. During an event in Tennessee on Monday, Mr. Trump said senators should stay in town for as long as possible to get the SAVE America Act passed. “I’m tying homeland security into voter identification with [a] picture and proof of citizenship in order to vote, and those two items are the most important thing having to do with homeland security,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m requesting that the Republican senators do that immediately.”“Don’t worry about Easter,” the president told senators, urging them to cancel any recess. “In fact, make this one for Jesus.”“It would be a damn good thing,” he added. Mr. Thune told reporters that the president’s plan would not have the support of his Republican colleagues. “I think you all know that’s not realistic,” Mr. Thune said Monday. Mr. Trump threatened in the past to not sign a single piece of legislation except for DHS funding until the SAVE America Act came to his desk. His new posture signals an even more aggressive stance against his own allies in the Senate, nearly all of whom agree that this bill is not going to pass due to the 60-vote threshold in the chamber. The president’s insistence that the SAVE America Act be included in the DHS funding bill has thrown a wrench into ongoing negotiations around reforms at ICE and Border Patrol and the worsening chaos at American airports. Senator Chuck Schumer said Monday that Mr. Trump was attempting to “sabotage” those negotiations. “He doesn’t give a damn about the American people,” Mr. Schumer said. “He thinks this SAVE Act, which isn’t gonna pass, will change how the [midterm] election comes out.”“This morning, unfortunately, Trump doubled down,” the Senate minority leader said. There was due to be a meeting between Democrats and White House officials on Monday to negotiate a solution, though that was cancelled after Mr. Trump began making his threats. “We’re ready to meet with the White House today to keep talking. In fact, we were going to meet this morning with [border tsar] Tom Homan, but apparently the White House pulled that meeting because of Donald Trump’s temper tantrum,” Mr. Schumer said. “They’re all scrambling around there in the White House. They don’t know what to do! Their boss, the president, comes out with these idiotic statements every day.”“We hope Donald Trump will stop derailing these talks and let negotiations continue,” he added. On Monday night, the Senate confirmed Senator Markwayne Mullin as the new Secretary of Homeland Security. Mr. Mullin will replace outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem, who has been accused of improperly using more than $200 million to run television ads prominently featuring herself and then later lying to Congress about the president’s approval for that expenditure. During his confirmation hearing last week, Mr. Mullin promised to work with Democrats in order to craft legislation in order to bring about a “better approach” to deportations. He says one idea would be to use ICE as more of a transportation force for those being deported, rather than as a “front line” agency conducting raids across the country.

Trump Ratchets Up Pressure on GOP Senators To Tie SAVE America Act to Homeland Security, TSA Funding

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