Trump Double Down On Mission To Sink Border Bill

Donald Trump is doing everything he can to sink the bipartisan bill that’s currently being negotiated by senators over border security, and he doesn’t care if people blame him for it.

During a rally full of his supporters in Las Vegas recently, the former president admitted that if the bill ends up failing, many people could end up blaming him for it. That’s because he’s been trying to persuade fellow congressional Republicans to make sure the bill doesn’t move forward.

As Trump said at the rally on Saturday:

“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America. I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s OK. Please blame it on me. Please.”

On Friday, President Joe Biden issued a statement that said he would end up shutting down the country’s border with Mexico when it “becomes overwhelmed.” That would only happen, he said, if Congress ends up passing legislation about border security on a bipartisan basis.

That has led many people, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to slam the president for his words.

In the statement, Biden said:

“Let’s be clear. What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country. It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed.

“And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”

Trump doesn’t agree with what Biden said, though, saying on Truth Social, his social media platform, that the bill was a “catastrophe waiting to happen.”

The Senate is currently negotiating the border security bill. Even if it somehow finds its way out of the upper chamber, though, it likely would have a tough time passing through the House.

In fact, Johnson sent a letter to GOP members of the House, writing that the bill would be “dead” from the moment that it arrived in the lower chamber — if the terms that are apparently going to be included in the bill are actually in there.

Trump told his supporters at the Nevada rally that if Biden indeed wanted to “secure” the southern border, he could do it on his own, without having to have Congress pass legislation first.

He told his supporters that he was able to do it on his own without needing a bill to give him the authority to do so.

Johnson basically said the same thing, saying that Biden could use an executive action now to reduce the number of encounters with illegal immigrants at the border with Mexico.

That number went above 300,000 in December alone, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

As Johnson said:

“As I explained to [Biden] in a letter late last year, and have specifically reiterated to him on multiple occasions since, he can and must take executive action immediately to reverse the catastrophe he has created.”