This week, Donald Trump apparently coerced members of his own party, including senator Mitch McConnell, into killing a border deal with the Biden administration and Democrats, a deal that would have given Republicans and conservatives much of what they want on border control in exchange for Ukraine funding. The reason Republicans may kill their best chance at closing the US border with Mexico? Because Trump wants to run on "border chaos" in the presidential campaign.
It probably surprises no one that Trump's only real political goal is to get reelected and that he doesn't really care about the border at all. What is more surprising is that the Republicans might go along with it. They surely realize that Trump would never be able to get such a bill through Congress. Essentially, they are blowing up their only chance to kill asylum in order to, ironically, get Trump reelected so he can not do anything. It's hardly a wise campaign strategy to kill an agreement on the number one issue Republican voters care about, and, of course, we all know that Mitch McConnell hates Trump with the fury of a thousand suns.
Its also clear, however, that many Republicans don't really want this bill to pass. Trump's forced them to say the quiet part out loud, that they don't see the border as a "crisis" and they certainly don't want to "close" the border or do anything that many conservative voters want. As long as Republicans can't see a way out of this mess they have created for themselves and for the anti-immigrant wing of their party and the electorate, no bill will pass and asylum is safe, thanks to the swift intervention of Donald Trump.
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