Urged on by fellow Republicans in the chamber and even some White House aides – according to Punchbowl News – Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Sunday approached convicted felon President Trump with a new plan to break the Homeland Security funding with Democrats, funding the whole department except for ICE, which Thune said could be taken care of in a party-line reconciliation bill in which the Dems would be denied their main goals of banning masks, requiring judicial warrants, et cetera to rein in the violent white nationalist schutzstaffel korps.
Trump said no and then posted “I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.’ It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate, and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding, a deal which, even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people – UNLESS it includes their approval of Voter ID, (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our precious children. Put it all together, and also, let Leader Thune clearly identify those few ‘Republicans’ that are Voting against AMERICA. They will never be elected again! In other words, lump everything together as one, and VOTE!!! Kill the Filibuster, and stay in DC for Easter, if necessary,” all of it very specific to Thune’s asks.
Punchbowl writes that Trump warned Thune “he’d publicly slam Senate Republicans if they left town for the upcoming recess. Trump also said he’d invite all the GOP senators and their families for Easter dinner at the White House. Some Republicans took that as a threat, not a reward.”
The upshot of all this being that now Trump owns the TSA shutdown because he’s unwilling to let go of his stupid, unpassable SAVE Act and Republicans REALLY don’t like the idea of ICE at airports (nor do ICE themselves, who – Surprise! – CBS News reports were not given the heads-up about Trump’s order). Dems are “giddy over” it, “believing it will cause even more problems,” per Punchbowl.
“It’s a mess,” said an anonymous Republican Senator. “No one is quite sure what’s going on.”