Former President Donald Trump blasted the Senate’s border legislation released on Sunday night, calling it a “death wish” for the Republican Party.
Trump has voiced his opposition to any border bill many times to Republicans in public and in private, calling on members to refuse any deal that does not follow the “all-or-nothing” approach favored by the GOP. In a post to Truth Social on Monday, the former president echoed his calls for rejection and told Republicans, “Don’t be STUPID!!!”
“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump wrote. “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.”
Trump’s reasons for refusal are also self-serving, as he reportedly lobbied Republicans to refuse any border deal because he wants to campaign on the matter this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to have a victory to boost his chances at the ballot boxes. The former president continued to blame Democrats on Monday for the crisis at the southern border, which has seen unprecedented levels of migrant encounters over the past year.
“It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans. Don’t be STUPID!!!” Trump said. “We need a separate Border and Immigration Bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape, or form! The Democrats broke Immigration and the Border. They should fix it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Despite Trump’s repeated interjections when it comes to the border deal, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has dismissed that the former president is “calling the shots” on how the House responds to the legislation.
“He’s not calling the shots. I am calling the shots for the House. That’s our responsibility. And I have been saying this far longer than President Trump has,” Johnson has said. “I have been saying what the requirements are to fix the problem.”
Several House Republicans, including Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), have expressed their opposition to the legislation. House Republican leaders vowed the bill would be dead on arrival in the lower chamber, throwing a wrench into the work that took Senate Republicans and Democrats months to agree on.
Some Senate GOP members, such as Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), are adamantly against the bill. Rubio said the legislation “reads like a parody of an actual border security bill” on X.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who helped lead negotiations on the border deal, called on Republicans who are critical of the bill to understand that given the circumstances, this bill could be as close as the party gets to enacting positive change to the border crisis.
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“At the end of the day, let’s do everything we can. We do have a Democratic president. We have a Democrat Senate. We have a Republican House. This is a moment to solve as many things as we can and then keep working on the next thing,” Lankford said.
On the Democratic side, the bill faces a reckoning from progressives and Hispanic members in both chambers who have felt left out of negotiations on the border deal and oppose enhanced restrictions on immigrants. Sens. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), two Hispanic Democrats, separately blasted the deal for enforcing several Trump-era policies they believe target immigrants.
