Trump Slams Border Deal As Death Wish

Former President Donald Trump blasted the bipartisan border security bill some members of the Senate unveiled over the weekend.

The bill, negotiated in part by Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, would actually let as many as 8,500 illegal immigrants enter the U.S. on a daily basis before the border is shut.

Under terms of the bill, triggers would be in place that, if tripped, would automatically shut down the border. However, that wouldn’t happen unless the number of Border Patrol agent encounters with illegal immigrants were either 8,500 in one single day or averaged 5,000 per day over a week.

Not long after the details of the bill were released, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform:

“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. This Bill is a great gift to Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.”

Trump added that the bill would take the “horrible job” that the Biden administration has done in regard to immigration and place it “squarely on the shoulders of Republicans.”

In addition to putting these automatic triggers in place, the proposed bill also includes billions of dollars in military aid to both Israel and Ukraine, as well as billions more for humanitarian aid in Ukraine and Gaza.

Perhaps influenced by Trump’s words, Republicans in Congress have already lined up to shoot down the border bill before it can even come for a full vote in the upper chamber.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said recently that if the bill were to make its way to his chamber, it would be “dead on arrival.”

That’s something that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to indicate on Tuesday, when he said:

“We had a very robust discussion about whether or not this product could ever become law. And it’s been made pretty clear to us by the speaker that it will not become law.

“So, I want to congratulate Senator Lankford on a remarkable job of negotiating with the other side, getting the support of the Border Council. But, it looks to me, and to most of our members, as if we have no real chance here to make a law.”

Even in the Senate, it seems unlikely that the bill would receive the support of 60 members, which would be necessary to avoid the filibuster.

Even Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut, who was one of the negotiators on the bill, flatly said there was no chance of it passing.

He blasted Republicans on Tuesday for what he believed was a “180” that the GOP conference pulled. He said:

“We crafted a bill that was too effective. We reached a compromise that would actually fix the problem.

“As it turns out, Republicans don’t want to fix the problem. They want to leave the issue of immigration open as a political agenda item to exploit.”