DAILYMAIL
Donald Trump‘s multi-billion dollar deportation plan was plunged into doubt over the weekend as 38 Republican rebels defied his demands on the government funding bill.
The president-elect faced the first major test of his influence over Republicans in the House in a chaotic few days that narrowly avoided a government shutdown.
But it was not a test that Trump passed with flying colors.
Although he was handed a resounding mandate by voters on November 5 – ultra-conservative Republicans rejected his Elon Musk-backed demand to lift the debt ceiling.
Thirty-eight fiscal conservatives – including Kentucky ‘s Thomas Massie and South Carolina’s Nancy Mace – defected on Thursday night despite Trump’s loud protestations on his social media platform, TruthSocial.
Then, hours before the deadline on Saturday morning, Congress passed a deal to keep the government funded through February – without lifting the debt ceiling.
Marc Short, Trump’s ex-legislative affairs director, warned that the rebellion ‘did not portend well’ for the president-elect’s bold strategy at the border. Trump’s mass deportation plan is estimated to cost north of $80 billion per year.
The president-elect previously pledged that the cost of his plans for the border are ‘not a question of a price tag.’
Donald Trump may face opposition on his mass deportation program from his own party over his demands to spend big on the border
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., left, and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, leave a meeting to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday. Van Duyne was one of 38 Republicans who defied the president-elect on Thursday
Congresswoman Nancy Mace was among the other GOP rebels before the compromise was passed
A report by the pro-migrant American Immigration Council estimated that deporting one million migrants per year would cost $88 billion.
Republicans by and large support Trump’s plan to secure the border but many are wedded to cutting fiscal spending and not adding to the trillions of dollars of debt the United States has built.
The interest payments on the country’s debts now exceed the entire defense budget.
Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, is one of the members of Trump’s party who refused the spending deal.
‘My position is simple — I am not going to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (racking up more debt) without significant & real spending cuts attached to it. I’ve been negotiating to that end. No apologies,’ he wrote.
Roy has been an outspoken critic of Johnson and compared the original deal to a ‘crap sandwich.’
‘We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich,’ he said. ‘It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.’
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