Apr 2, 2018 - Politics & Policy

Trump on border control: "Our country is being stolen"

President Trump started off his Monday morning with a tweetstorm about illegal immigration and border control, adding to a trio of Sunday tweets on the same topic:

What spurred his tweets: Trump's tweets closely aligned with a Fox & Friends segment this morning that used the same "caravan" phrasing, according to MMFA's Matthew Gertz. Yesterday's tweets were similarly timed.

Trump followed the tweet with another call — again, like yesterday — for Senate Republicans to kill the 60-vote rule to bypass Democrats and move on immigration reform legislation.

  • Trump last called for the nuclear option to be used in the Senate in January to end the government shutdown. Mitch McConnell's response then? Per CNBC: "The Republican Conference opposes changing the rules on legislation." Put simply, it's not happening.

Finally, Trump doubled down on his move away from a hopeful DACA deal with Democrats.

  • Flashback to January: "Big win for Republicans as Democrats cave on Shutdown. Now I want a big win for everyone, including Republicans, Democrats and DACA, but especially for our Great Military and Border Security. Should be able to get there. See you at the negotiating table!"
  • Between the lines: It's not immediately clear what Trump means when he says that "now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon" because, per CNN, the program is no longer accepting new applications.
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