President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would likely not be happy with any deal struck on Capitol Hill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
When asked if he would sign a deal that would fund most of the DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation operations, Trump told reporters he would be “pretty much not happy with” any deal Republicans make with Democrats.
“I guess they’re getting fairly close,” Trump said in the Oval Office after the swearing-in of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “But I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it. These guys came in, they wouldn’t pay people, you know, they had a deal to pay. They had to break their deal. The Democrats broke the deal that we had.”
Trump, over the weekend, threw a wrench into negotiations by demanding that any deal to fund the DHS include the SAVE America Act. The legislation would require a photo ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship to register to vote. Trump has also called for a ban on biological males playing in women’s sports and gender transition surgery for children to be attached to the SAVE America Act.
Earlier in the press conference, Trump told reporters he would “take a good, hard look” at a deal sent to him to fund the DHS.
“I want to support Republicans,” Trump said. “And, you know, sometimes it’s awfully hard to get votes when you have Democrats that don’t want to have voter ID, they don’t want to have proof of citizenship, they don’t want to do anything about men playing in women’s sports.”
Republicans are weighing using a party-line budget process known as reconciliation to both fund ICE’s deportation operations and get elements of the SAVE America Act signed into law.
TRUMP SWEARS IN MARKWAYNE MULLIN AS HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY
Mullin told reporters that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has already committed to getting a reconciliation bill through Congress.
“There is nothing more important than SAVE American Act,” Mullin said. “I mean, that is what, that is what the American people want. There is 80% of the population say they want only Americans voting — citizens that are registered to vote, citizens that have done it the right way. And I believe that everybody wants election integrity.”