President Trump claimed Sunday evening that he has no interest in any agreement to reopen the Department of Homeland Security that also does not include passage of the SAVE America Act to tighten requirements to vote in federal elections.
“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,’” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“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 I.D., (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION [sic] of our precious children … In other words, lump everything together as one, and VOTE!!! “
With the House and Senate due to leave DC after this week for the Easter and Passover holidays, Trump implored Senate Republicans to override the 60-vote legislative filibuster and “stay in D.C. for Easter, if necessary.”
Trump, 79, spoke out as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were set to be deployed to roughly a dozen airports across America to assist Transportation Security Administration agents who have been working without pay since the DHS shutdown began Feb. 14.
In a brief phone interview with NewsNation Sunday afternoon, Trump said he was willing to keep ICE agents in America’s air travel hubs “for as long as it takes.”
“Now that I did this, the Democrats want to make a deal,” he claimed to correspondent Hannah Brandt. “And I don’t think any deal should be made on this until they approve SAVE America. OK? So, you have a scoop.”
Negotiations are underway on Capitol Hill to try and hammer out an agreement to reopen DHS and prevent the shutdown from extending past the two-month mark, but little progress had been made before Trump’s Sunday comments.
“We’ll see if they can land something,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Politico Sunday morning. “I think the clock’s ticking. If we’re going to get this done, we’ve got to get moving pretty quickly here.”
On the House side, Republican leadership plans to hold at least one more vote to reopen DHS this week, but they have made no plans to cut their break short to wait for any potential deal.
The SAVE America Act would require photo ID when casting ballots and proof of citizenship when registering to vote. It is expected to fail in the Senate due to united Democratic opposition.
