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President Donald Trump has drawn a hard line in the sand on the ongoing Department of Homeland Security funding standoff, declaring he will not make any deal with Democrats until they pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act. The announcement comes as airports across the country face mounting chaos from unpaid TSA agents, with over 400 officers having quit since the partial shutdown began on February 14.
In a phone call with NewsNation correspondent Hannah Brandt on Saturday, Trump made his position crystal clear. “I don’t think any deal should be made on this until they approve save America,” he told her, referring to the SAVE Act. When Brandt asked how long he was prepared to keep ICE agents deployed at airports to assist with security, Trump’s answer was blunt: “For as long as it takes.”
The president’s stance represents a significant escalation in the funding battle. Democrats have been pushing to make a deal on DHS funding, but Trump now says their willingness to negotiate only materialized after he threatened to place ICE agents at airports. “Now that he has suggested placing ICE agents at the airports, Democrats want to make a deal,” Brandt reported Trump saying. But that deal will not come without strings attached.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump expanded on his demands, stating he would not make any agreement with “the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats” unless they approved comprehensive election reforms. His conditions include voter ID with photo verification, proof of citizenship to vote, restrictions on mail-in voting with limited exceptions, paper ballots only, an end to men competing in women’s sports, and a ban on “transgender MUTILIZATION of our precious children.”
The president also rejected a proposal that would give Democrats what he characterized as a “Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding,” calling such a deal “unacceptable to me and the American people” without the SAVE Act attached. Republican lawmakers like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have suggested splitting funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection from the broader DHS appropriations to keep border security operational while the political standoff continues.
Meanwhile, the situation at America’s airports grows more dire by the day. Spring break travelers are flooding terminals only to encounter TSA lines stretching for hours, with airports advising passengers to arrive three to four hours before their flights. The TSA workers still showing up are doing so without paychecks, and the exodus of experienced officers, nearly half with over three years on the job and a third with more than five, is creating a security and operational crisis.
Trump’s calculation appears to be that Democrats will blink first rather than let the airport chaos continue indefinitely, especially as images of frustrated travelers and missed flights dominate news coverage. By tying DHS funding to the SAVE Act, he has transformed a budget battle into a referendum on election integrity and cultural issues. The question is whether Democratic leaders believe their base will hold firm or whether the pressure of an extended shutdown will force them to the negotiating table on Trump’s terms.
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