President Donald Trump might have once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for Senate Republicans when it comes to winning the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
As the crash at LaGuardia International Airport that killed two Air Canada pilots caused further flight delays in the New York metro region Monday, Trump proceeded to escalate the showdown in two ways: First, he announced that he would send ICE agents to airports to full in for unpaid TSA agents who have been calling out sick in droves. Initially, Republicans seemed gleeful at the slap at Democrats.
“I think it’s justice,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn told The Independent. “Democrats don’t like ICE. So they got more ICE.”
Cornyn is facing a bruising primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton. He needs Trump’s endorsement for the win. Many Republicans just hope and pray that Trump will endorse Cornyn so the GOP does not have to spend millions to prop Paxton and all his baggage up against Democratic primary winner James Talarico.
That aside, videos have already made the rounds of people struggling against ICE agents at airports. ICE’s popularity is already far underwater in the United States, and these headlines will certainly hurt its popularity.
How did we get here? To recap, a little more than a month ago, the Department of Homeland Security was shut down after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on certain guardrails for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection. This came after federal agents under DHS killed US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. But so far, neither side has come to an agreement and the ripple effect has been glaring.
But Trump also threw a wrench in Republican plans to turn the screws on Democrats when he wrote on Truth Social: “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.’”
Republicans in the House and Trump have pushed for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship when registering the vote. But the legislation cannot overcome the legislative filibuster since Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of it.
That led Trump to tell Republicans, “Kill the Filibuster, and stay in D.C. for Easter, if necessary.”
In response, Senate Majority Leader John Thune seemed perturbed on Monday.
“Today is kind of a day where we're sorting some things out, but hopefully as the week wears on, we'll find a path forward to get this done,” Thune told The Independent.
Sen. Andy Kim, the New Jersey Democrat who serves on the Homeland Security Committee, pushed back on the idea.
“They don't want to have TSA held hostage because Trump tried to push this insane bill about supposed voter fraud,” Kim told The Independent.
Kim also pushed back on the idea of using ICE officials in airports.
“It's absolutely ridiculous that he's he's tried to push this and again, holding Americans at the airport hostage for this and preventing us from being able to come up with real fixes,” he said.
But Trump’s jamming the calendar might be making matters worse for himself.
Cancelling the Easter recess means Republicans like John Husted of Ohio and Susan Collins can’t go back home to campaign, imperilling his Senate majority and opening the possibility for an impeachment in the next Congress.
Leaving Homeland Security closed until the Senate engages on a quixotic campaign to pass the SAVE America Act and somehow get around the the legislative filibuster will make life harder for his next Homeland Security secretary, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
And Trump’s obsession with SAVE America and ICE makes it look like he is divorced from the real need to lower gas prices amid his self-inflicted war with Iran.
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