Trump Takes the TSA Hostage in Gambit to Pass the SAVE Act

Trump makes unexpected choice to take full ownership of airport chaos

Senate Democrats and the Trump White House have been trading proposals on ICE reform for months, without much progress. Negotiations have continued since Democrats in February began refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security without significant reforms to the practices and conduct of ICE and CBP agents. It was this standoff that contributed to the chaos at airports, with TSA staff missing paychecks, and it was against this backdrop that Trump, apparently inspired by a speaker on a right-wing radio show, ordered ICE agents to deploy to support them on Sunday.

As negotiations continue, in recent weeks, Democrats in both chambers have repeatedly tried to get Republicans to sign on to a bill that would fund all other agencies under the DHS umbrella — including the TSA, Secret Service, FEMA and the Coast Guard. The bill would notably help reduce long queues at airports. Each time, the effort was blocked by Republicans.

In recent days, negotiations have resumed and Senate Republicans were apparently more open to funding all of DHS except ICE – essentially accepting the Democrats’ deal. Republicans could then address ICE funding later in a cross-party reconciliation bill, which requires only 50 votes in the Senate, not the 60 that most other legislation requires.

But overnight, President Donald Trump blew up that plan. He is holding DHS funding hostage to meet another of his priorities.

In an escalation of his campaign to pressure senators in his own party to pass the SAVE Act — which the Senate is currently debating with little hope of passing — Trump announced on social media that Republicans should not make a deal with Democrats to end the current DHS-specific government shutdown until Democrats agree to pass the voting requirements legislation.

“I don’t think we should make a deal with the crazy, country-destroying, left-wing radical Democrats unless and until they vote with the Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,'” Trump said in a Truth Social article Sunday night. “This is far more important than anything we do in the Senate…”

Of course, there is almost no chance that Democrats will support the SAVE Act, a bill aimed at voter suppression, in sufficient numbers to surpass the 60-vote threshold set by the Senate. Trump’s strategy has the effect of further increasing pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and other Republican senators to change filibuster rules to pass the SAVE Act — and, potentially, defund DHS as well.

All this happened hours after Trump offered his own solution to TSA agents who weren’t getting paid: ICE would help! Photos and videos showed immigration officers moving through airports across the country on Monday.

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) explained everything in a social media post on Monday.

“After blocking it seven times, Senate Republicans agree that we should defund TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard, and put ICE aside while we negotiate reforms,” Slotkin said. “President Trump is holding DHS funding hostage to protect ICE.”

-Emine Yucel

War, at market time

Some are beginning to see a pattern that could not better illustrate Trump II: the president timing his announcements or major actions in the war with the opening and closing of the stock market.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) backed this up Monday in an article on » Bloomberg reported Monday that Trump entered into negotiations with Iran in part out of a desire to calm markets.

There is precedent for this: the start of COVID. At this point it’s ancient history, but in March 2020 the stock market was in free fall. This deeply worried Trump, who would hold news conferences Friday afternoon, hours before the market closed. At one point, he reportedly sent his supporters a signed chart of the rising Dow Jones around the time he was beginning a news conference in which he declared a national emergency over the pandemic.

Along with Iran, Trump on Saturday threatened to bomb Iranian power plants. So no trading. He announced that he would cancel the strikes he had announced and that negotiations were well underway Monday morning, before the markets opened.

It’s all staged, an even more worrying consequence of having a reality TV star running the country. In the context of COVID, like today, the reality has proven far bleaker than any show the president could put on. Around 20 million jobs were lost in 2020; the stock market continued to fall until the Fed intervened. Iran is just getting started.

—Josh Kovensky

Trump’s notorious hatred of windmills comes at a price

This runs into the billions, as the Interior Ministry negotiates deals with wind farms whose construction it has ordered to stop. From the Washington Post, which reports that the operations have been labeled a security threat by the DoD:

The Trump administration has reached a deal to pay French energy company TotalEnergies $1 billion to stop developing two offshore wind farms off the coasts of New York and North Carolina, and instead direct its investments toward oil and gas projects.

[…]

The company’s two offshore wind projects – called Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay – were still in the planning stages, having not yet been fully permitted and far from being built. Last year, the Interior Department suspended all additional federal permits for renewable energy projects, leaving the vast majority of offshore wind projects dead in the water.

The department based these stop-work orders on national security concerns, noted in a classified Department of Defense report that has not been made public.

-John Light

In case you missed it

New from David Kurtz: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Confirms 91 Wrongful Expulsions of Asylum Seekers

Today’s Supreme Court Dispatch from Kate Riga: SCOTUS, plundered by Fox News, invents far-fetched hypotheses to justify reducing the right to vote by mail

The rear channel: Iran sets the tone; Trump reacts.

TPM Coffee: I Homeschool My Kids, But I’m Repulsed by the Parental Rights Movement

Read more about the administration’s ramshackle affordability campaign from Layla A. Jones: Trump says he is concerned about access to housing. His policies are only making things worse.

Pictures: Air travelers encounter armed ICE agents at airports across the country

Morning memo: Trump DOJ continues to charge first and investigate later

Yesterday’s most read story

Trump walks away from his promise of support from the Texas Senate – Kate Riga, Emine Yucel And Khaya Himmelman

What we read

Democratic States Seek to Block Massive TV Merger – Dave Dayen, American Prospect

Trump arrested the parents of more than 11,000 U.S. citizen children — Jeff Ernsthausen, Mario Ariza, McKenzie Funk, Mica Rosenberg and Gabriel Sandoval, ProPublica

The rise of the Ray-Ban Meta Creep — Miles Klee, Wired

“Going to the Führer” as political coordination: the Trumpist administrative style – Henry Farrell, Programmable Matter