President Donald Trump wants Democrats punished at the ballot box as his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown runs into its second month and airport misery mounts.
With the impasse showing no sign of coming to an end, the U.S. president, 79, unloaded on Truth Social on Wednesday. He accused Democrats of causing “chaos at the airports” and branded them “Lunatics” over their “Radical Left asks.”
He then turned the standoff into an explicit electoral threat, declaring Democrats were “FULLY TO BLAME” and “must pay a big price” in the midterm elections.
Trump’s outburst came as his own administration remained stuck in negotiations over funding the DHS.
In a March 17 letter to Capitol Hill, the White House offered a package it cast as compromise. It pledged more body cameras for DHS agents, limits on some civil immigration actions at sensitive locations, visible officer identification, and compliance reviews involving the DHS inspector general.
But the offer still ducked the biggest Democratic demands, including judicial warrants before entering private homes and a ban on masks that hide agents’ identities.
With the partisan disagreement ongoing, the White House is now trying to turn the fallout into political leverage.
Democrats are demanding tighter guardrails after two U.S. citizens were killed in Minnesota during DHS’ Operation Metro Surge. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats were “trying to move a little bit,” but also said the White House had not budged on the key issues and has “got to get serious.”
The administration’s strangest concession was a pledge not to deport U.S. citizens, and that it would codify a policy against knowingly detaining one except where that person is otherwise subject to arrest under state or federal law.
Yet federal immigration law makes clear that deportation proceedings apply to “aliens,” not U.S. citizens.
With no agreement to end the shutdown in place, the real-world effects are piling up.
Reuters reported that about 50,000 TSA officers have been working without pay for more than a month, 366 have quit, and absenteeism hit 10.2 percent nationally on Monday, with some large airports posting far worse numbers.
The Daily Beast contacted the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded to a request for comment by railing against Democrats and accusing the Daily Beast of “churning out Democrat propaganda.”
