Donald Trump has claimed that Democrats are responsible for the long lines at airports, but the president just rejected a deal that would fund the Transportation Security Administration.Senate Majority Leader John Thune approached Trump Sunday with a plan for Republicans to agree to fund all agencies under the banner of the Department of Homeland Security, with the exception of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, senators and aides told Punchbowl News. TSA workers are facing their second missed paycheck this week, as the partial government shutdown enters its sixth week.Thune planned to handle ICE funding in reconciliation instead, sidestepping Democrats’ requests for certain reforms, like banning face masks for federal agents and requiring judicial warrants to enter homes. Some Senate Republicans and White House aides had urged Thune to take the deal to the president.But Trump rejected the deal, multiple sources told Punchbowl News. He wanted Republicans to stay in Washington and keep fighting with Democrats over DHS funding and the SAVE America Act, Republicans’ disastrous voter ID bill that now features other clauses on banning men in women’s sports and “transgender mutilation surgery.” The president warned that any Republican who left town would become his next target.In a post on Truth Social Sunday, Trump wrote that he wasn’t interested in making a deal with Democrats “unless, and until” they vote to support the SAVE America Act. “It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate,” Trump added.Republicans have repeatedly blamed Democrats for the ongoing shutdown and the chaos it’s caused at airport security lines, but they have voted multiple times to block funding essential agencies under DHS.Trump ordered ICE agents to deploy at airports Monday in order to assist with security lines, a move that is sure to sow even more chaos, not less.
With thousands more U.S. Marines headed to the Middle East and President Trump reportedly considering a ground invasion of Iran, we speak with Mike Prysner, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, who says his organization has received a massive increase in inquiries from soldiers seeking to submit conscientious objector applications. Prysner cites a “shift in consciousness” among young people in the United States, spurred by the Gaza genocide. “And the military is made up of young people in the United States.”