Trump Could Play Spoiler In US-Mexico Border Deal

Senate negotiators are cautiously optimistic that they can release a final text of their US-Mexico border deal this week. There is also caveated optimism that the deal can unlock a vote on President Biden’s USD$106 billion supplemental funding request.

• If a deal is struck, the final legislative text could come on Tuesday, at the earliest, with the Senate likely to stay in session until the bill is passed.
• Although Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said last week that the deal is, “by far, the most conservative border security bill in four decades,” passage through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is uncertain.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) position is opaque - vacillating between a hardline position on border security and conditioned acceptance that aid to Ukraine is in the national security interests of the United States. A position which is likely complicated by the prospect that former President Donald Trump could lobby House Republicans to block the bill.
• Punchbowl News: “With the New Hampshire presidential primary on Tuesday, the pressure is growing to find something to pass before former President Donald Trump decides it’s in his best interest to sink a potential agreement.”
• The New York Times reports: "On one side are the right-wing MAGA allies of former President Donald J. Trump, an America First isolationist who instituted draconian immigration policies while in office. On the other is a dwindling group of more mainstream traditionalists who believe the United States should play an assertive role defending democracy on the world stage."