Trump rejected an off-ramp to the DHS shutdown – for now

By Lauren Fox, Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump was presented Sunday with a potential off-ramp to the more than month-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown: fund every part of the department except enforcement operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke with Trump right after staff presented the idea to the president, but Trump rejected the idea as he took to Truth Social to attack Democrats for not backing the “SAVE America Act,” a federal elections overhaul bill that faces near-impossible odds in the Senate, the sources said.

“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’” Trump posted on Truth Social, echoing a threat he first made in a phone interview with NewsNation earlier Sunday evening.

“It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate, and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding, a deal which, even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people,” the president added.

But the funding idea marked a major reversal for Republicans who have blocked similar proposals from Democrats for weeks and reflected the shifting political dynamics as security lines grow across the country at understaffed airports.

It also reflects a growing sentiment among some in the GOP, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose state has been badly hit by TSA lines in recent days.

Democrats have long argued that they’d be willing to fund everything except ICE as negotiations over reining in Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have stalled in the Senate.

Despite lawmakers having multiple meetings with White House border czar Tom Homan in recent days, aides warn progress has been tedious and slow. And there is little sign negotiators could break the logjam by week’s end by solely continuing to search for a middle ground on the complicated immigration enforcement policies that Democrats have attacked for months.

As part of the plan, Trump was told lawmakers could fund immigration pieces of ICE using reconciliation – the arcane budget process that allows Senate Republicans to pass bills with just 51 votes, the sources said. That process last summer allowed the GOP to inject billions into immigration enforcement last summer without Democratic support.

Thune on Monday called Trump’s tying of the passage of his voter ID bill to DHS funding unrealistic.

“I think it’s pretty clear, my views about the SAVE Act — the SAVE America Act,” said Thune, who has repeatedly emphasized that Republicans don’t have the Democratic support needed to pass the package or the GOP support to change the filibuster.

“It’s something that I think there’s almost unanimous agreement in the conference on the policy, but, you know, the idea that we would have to guarantee its passage in order to open up the government, I think we all know that’s not realistic,” he added.

And it’s a nonstarter for Democrats, especially with the White House demanding it include controversial provisions ending the widespread practice of no-excuse mail voting and targeting transgender policies.

“Democrats are going to keep working in good faith. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is trying to sabotage negotiations, demanding that talks stop entirely until Congress passes the Save Act, a bill that has nothing, nothing to do with paying TSA workers and nothing to do with ending the shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Even before the Sunday night missive, Republicans — who’d been waiting for Democrats to respond to the latest White House offer in DHS talks — suggested negotiations had slowed.

“We’re hitting pause for a minute, and everyone’s collecting themselves and figuring out where they want to be,” Thune said Sunday afternoon.

Democrats believed they were making progress in meetings with Homan, but a source familiar with the negotiations told CNN that Democrats were told Homan was not available to meet this morning with Democratic appropriators.

Republicans had agreed to infuse $100 million for body cameras. Democrats also believed they were making progress in training standards and barring enforcement in sensitive areas like hospitals, schools and churches.

The White House said that it is waiting until Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin is confirmed as Department of Homeland Security secretary to continue negotiating with Democrats.

“Given that Democrats turned down a previous meeting and that Mullin is likely to be confirmed tonight, it seemed appropriate to wait until after his confirmation to allow him to be a full participant in ongoing conversations,” a White House official told CNN.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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CNN’s Kit Maher, Nicky Robertson, Alison Main and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.