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WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a private GOP meeting Wednesday that his conference is in "a quandary" with the proposed supplemental funding that links foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel with border security.
Neither House Republicans nor former President Donald Trump, who is the likely GOP presidential nominee after his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, back the border reforms negotiated in the last few months. McConnell's suggested solution? Split up the two funding agendas.
But this proposition has fueled infighting among Republicans who want stricter border reform versus those who want to stick to the $1.66 trillion deal congressional leaders shook hands on earlier in January. Sen. Mitt Romney falls in the latter camp.
What did Romney say about Trump and the border deal?
After the closed-door meeting, Romney, a Utah Republican, blamed Trump for dividing Republicans.
"I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn't want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling," he told reporters, as posted on X by CNN's Manu Raju.
"But the reality is that we have a crisis at the border, the American people are suffering as a result of what's happening at the border," he said, adding that Trump's strategy is to allow the Republicans to "save that problem," and let him "take credit for solving it later."
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Politico that this issue is "all about politics and not having the courage to respectfully disagree with President Trump."
"I didn't come here to have a president as a boss or a candidate as a boss," he added.
Will Trump not support the border deal?
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, said he and Trump have been talking about the deal "pretty frequently," and "it doesn't sound good at the outset."
Meanwhile, Trump did not hold back in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. He said he is against the package "unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION," while giving Johnson a shout-out for only making "a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER."
Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, reportedly appealed to his backers, asking those who endorsed Trump to ask him to not slash the deal, per The Hill.
But more conservative lawmakers, like Utah Sen. Mike Lee, point fingers at McConnell, and not Trump, for agreeing to the deal in the first place when all it did was "sharply divide Republicans while uniting Democrats."
