The White House walked back a comment President Trump made earlier Friday that threatened to deal a devastating blow to House GOP efforts to pass an immigration bill next week.
Officials now say Trump would sign the leadership-backed immigration measure if it reached his desk.
In an whirlwind interview Friday morning, Trump told Fox News he was reviewing two proposals, but said he “certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”
“I need a bill that gives this country tremendous border security. I have to have that,” he said during a rare appearance from the White House North Lawn.
The “moderate” bill was thought to be a reference to the legislation House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is trying to develop with Trump. If Trump is suddenly opposed to that effort, it’s unlikely House Republican leaders can get far with it.
A White House official told the Hill that Trump “misunderstood the question this morning on Fox News” and is fully supportive of both legislation, after it became unclear what kind of role he would play in trying to get either bill passed.
“We fully support both the Goodlatte bill and the Leadership bill,” the official said, adding that Trump “was commenting on the discharge petition/dreamers bill — not the new package. He would 100 percent sign either Goodlatte or the other bill.”
It wasn’t clear Friday if Trump had been briefed on the details of a 293-page bill circulated by GOP leaders to House Republicans on Thursday before he spoke with Fox News.
That legislation, which aimed to please both the GOP’s conservative flank and moderate wing, contained $25 billion in wall funding and enhanced border security technology, and a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who were granted reprieve from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The bill would also link the issuance of some visas to ongoing funding for a wall along the southwest border, according to reports.
Trump’s initial comment might have signaled that what he really wants is a bill being put together by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. His legislation is expected to be tougher on the border, and should draw support from Capitol Hill’s immigration hard-liners.
The legislation received Trump’s endorsement in its previous form, when it included nationwide employment verification requirements and met each of the four “pillars” laid out by the administration: border wall funding, eliminating the visa lottery program and replacing it with a merit-based system, limiting family-based chain migration, and providing a path to permanent residency or citizenship for so-called “Dreamers.”
“The White House is supportive of efforts to advance unifying legislation that builds a wall, closes ‘catch-and-release’ loopholes, and creates lasting reform to our legal immigration system to promote higher wages and protect the middle class,” deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley told the Washington Examiner when asked about both bills.
A senior White House official had previously said the president would have to see the revised Goodlatte bill before making a final determination to support either piece of legislation. This official suggested that White House involvement in negotiations over the so-called compromise bill has been nominal, despite recent reports claiming otherwise.
“From what I understand, not really,” the official said when asked if the White House had been in close contact with Ryan, ahead of the draft immigration bill’s release. “They know and understand what the administration wants, but it is a congressional fix at the end of the day. Has to be.”
But Ryan has made it clear that satisfying Trump is a core condition of the bill he’s working on. “The last thing I want to do is bring a bill out of here that I know the president won’t support,” Ryan told reporters on Wednesday, two days before the president’s controversial comments, and hours after he reportedly expressed support for the compromise bill during a phone call with Ryan.
House Republicans canceled their announcement of next week’s schedule shortly after Trump’s comments on Friday, leaving the immigration effort in limbo as leadership works to determine whether the president plans to veto its bill. But one former administration official compared the president’s remarks during his “Fox and Friends” interview to a veto threat he made in March against a $1.3 trillion federal spending measure that he eventually signed albeit begrudgingly.
That last-minute veto threat, which came just hours before the bill landed on his desk, undercut White House aides who had worked closely with congressional leaders on the legislation and were as surprised as anyone by Trump’s reaction, which he attributed to frustrations over the bill’s lack of sufficient wall funding and protections for undocumented youth. Trump was also accused of sapping enthusiasm out of Obamacare repeal efforts last spring when he described a House-passed healthcare bill as “mean” just days after celebrating its passage in the White House Rose Garden.
One House GOP aide suggested congressional leaders have learned that Trump’s mercurial approach limits the promises they can make to their conference ahead of high-stakes votes, pointing to Ryan’s refusal to say whether either immigration measure can attract the support of 218 members.
Had he declined to support the compromise legislation, which seeks to end family separation at the border, Trump likely would have been subjected to even greater criticism for a policy that he has said is the Democrats’ fault.
“Democrats forced that law on the nation,” Trump told reporters Friday morning. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May as described the separations as a deterrent to illegal border crossings. This has contributed to a surge in the number of migrant children being separated from their parents at the border while facing prosecution.
“I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. That’s their law,” he added, suggesting congressional Democrats should support the Republican immigration proposals.
