The Senate’s top Democrat has withdrawn an offer he made Donald Trump on Friday to boost funding for the president’s long-promised border wall as part of a broader immigration deal.
Trump tweeted Tuesday night: ‘Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!’
An aide to Chuck Schumer told the White House on Monday that Trump will only get $1.6 billion in funding this year for the massive construction project.
The New York Democrat had said he pledged to increase that amount significantly.
But Schumer ‘took it off’ the table after the Senate voted to reopen the government on Monday, Illinois Democratic sen. Dick Durbin told Politico. ‘He called the White House yesterday and said it’s over.’
Trump tweeted Tuesday night: ‘Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has pulled back an offer he made Friday to dramatically increase the money going this year toward construction of President Trump’s promised border wall
Trump and Schumer met as last week’s government shutdown was looming, and the Democrat said he would secure more than the $1.6 billion the White House asked for, if a DACA fix were to become law at the same time
The president has ordered the construction of prototypes (pictured) that could serve as a wall along much of the nearly 2,000 miles where Mexico meets the United States
The about-face means Senate Democrats are prepared to dig in and deny Trump the extra money as negotiations proceed toward an immigration bill that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to bring up by February 8.
The president has ‘missed an opportunity to get the wall,’ a Democratic aide said.
Schumer’s offer on Friday was a deal trading the extra wall funding for a legal path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of so-called ‘DREAMers.’
The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is protecting hundreds of thousands of the illegal immigrants from deportation because they were brought into the United States as minors.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer called Schumer ‘a sore loser’ on Tuesday
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, told Politico that he doubted Schumer and Trump had reached any sort of agreement at all.
‘They claim that some crazy deal was made,’ Cotton said, talking about his Democratic adversaries.
‘And then when we say no deal was made, they accuse Republicans and the president of reneging.’
Schumer himself told reporters on Friday after his 90-minute Oval Office sit-down that he and trump ‘made some progress but we still have a good number of disagreements. The discussion will continue.’
Senate Republicans want to appropriate significantly more than $1.6 billion this year for building Trump’s wall.
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said he doubted Schumer reached any deal with Trump, whether or not it included a boost in wall funding
That, they believe, would attract the support of conservatives who would otherwise balk at a bill that granted amnesty to DACA beneficiaries.
But liberal Democrats could run away if the number were to grow.
Many of them view the 16 days before the next shutdown deadline as a chance to clean the negotiating slate and start over.
‘Discussions were had coming up to Friday night are interesting for context,” said Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz. But after Monday’s compromise, ‘we start from a blank sheet of paper.’
Senate Democrats angered their liberal, activist political base Monday by yielding on GOP demands to reopen the government without an immigration deal in place.
President Trump tweeted Tuesday that ‘nobody knows’ whether a deal can be achieved in time to keep DACA from withering on the vine.