‘It Would Have Worked’: Republican Senator Confirms Trump Killed Plan to End Shutdown and Fund TSA

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) confirmed Monday that President Donald Trump killed a plan that he and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) formulated to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown and quickly restore funding to TSA agents.

Airports across the country have faced hours-long backups at TSA checkpoints as agents who can’t afford to work without getting paid have failed to show up to the job.

On Monday, Trump gave himself credit for sending ICE agents to airports to help with the backlog.

“They’re helping TSA, the agents, and they’re working together, so far very well,” Trump said, adding, “We will also bring out, if we don’t have enough, we will bring out the National Guard where we need it to help out at the airports.”

But Kennedy said the problem could have been solved easily had Trump agreed to work with Democrats. Punchbowl News was the first outlet to report on Kennedy’s plan.

“Senator Cruz and I came up with a plan,” Kennedy told Fox’s The Will Cain Show. “We said, look, it’s a two-step process. The Democrats have offered to open up everything but ICE. Ted and I said, okay, let’s accept their offer. At the same time, we would offer a bill for reconciliation where we don’t need any Democratic votes to do whatever we wanted to do with ICE And that way we’re out of the shutdown and DHS is back open.

“Senator Thune submitted that to President Trump. As is his right, he said no. No deals with the Democrats. So we’re back to square one,” Kennedy said.

The senator said that he and Cruz have been working on a “plan B” to “shut down all negotiations with our Democratic colleagues” just like they did when passing the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Look, Senator Thune is the majority leader. As all majority leaders, has total control on the floor. He decides what can be voted on, and I didn’t see any reason going forward with Ted and my’s plan if the president was going to veto it. It would have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the president said no deal, so my plan B…would be no deal with the Democrats. It’ll take a little longer, but we won’t need any Democratic votes.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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