Senate Republicans’ hopes for a low-fanfare week capped off with a major policy victory have been quickly unraveled by a series of setbacks stretching from the campaign trail to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.Republican leaders are facing curveballs from Trump in his bid to oust their colleagues Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) amid unrelenting GOP heartburn over hundreds of millions of dollars in security upgrades for his ballroom tucked into the party’s $70 billion immigration enforcement bill.For now, Republicans are urging unity in the coming days as they search for a path forward in the Senate on the so-called reconciliation bill to fund immigration agencies that will only require a simple majority to pass.
“My goal, as always, is going to be to make sure we are as united as possible, working together with our colleagues in the House and with the White House on an agenda that will help us not only succeed as a country but hopefully prepare and ensure that our incumbents are in the best possible position to win their elections,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters.
But Trump’s thumb on the scales to boost primary challengers to Cassidy and Cornyn is doing him no favors when the party appears to lack enough votes on the reconciliation legislation in its current form. Several rank-and-file members, including Cassidy, are thumbing their noses at the more than $1 billion in White House security funding, $220 million of which is earmarked for ballroom-related security despite longtime promises from Trump that the $400 million project would be entirely donor-funded.
