Calling the MAGA Bluff

AND SO WE HAVE a bright new shiny immigration bill, passed by the Senate, ready for the president's signature, which he promises to provide. All that is lacking is the vote by the House of Reps, with enough Republicans on board to pass it. In steps Trump, who orders his MAGA Representatives to kill the bill, and who promptly killed it because If the Democrats steal Republican tuhunder and claim credit for solving the immigration crises, what issue will Trump run on to become president? Only a few short weeks ago the Republicans were insisting on exactly the tyeof bill just passed by the Senate, refusing to consider morIt may wel bee military aid for Ukaraine without tough new immigration laws. The Democrats called their bluff, and they backed away, putting politics over border security. If the Democrats are smart, they'll go straight to Republican Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, and invite him to write another version of the bill which will attract House MAGA Republcians, who falsely claim that the reason for their withdraw of support for the bill which Lankford wrote and Democrats agreed to is insufficiently strict. Again, call their bluff, the phony bastards. The current bill Ttump would sign and embrace in a heartbeat were he president, then he would doubtless take total credit for it. If a new bill presents Trump with an offer he couldn't refuse, he'll have to refuse it anyway, or risk losing his biggest campaign argument. If Trump refuses to endorse an immigration bill no matter how satisfactory to Republicans it is, he will have positioned himself, suddenly, as the presidential candidate who is opposed to border security - unless he is president, and can get credit for it. Trump thus reveals his true motive; he is perfectly willing to allow the border crises to continue for many needless months, all because of politics and personal gain. Thousands of undocumnted immigrants, flooding into the country, unorganized, anonymous, unable to get the help, documentation, and frest start they so desperately need, creating all the many social problems Republicans, until now, have been so terribly concerned about. Senator Lankford, in an interview, explained Trump's behavior by saying that he and Trump have different priorities; the Senator wants to end the crises at the border, Trump wants to get elected president, again. In other words, the Senator is agreeing that Trump's priority is personal political success, not the protection and defense of the country. The fact that the current bill is acceptable to most Republians, in the absence of Trump's influence, clearly proves that it would, if enacted, be adequately strong. As the presidential campaign continues, Trump will doubtless keep claiming that the Democrats are weak on border security. Biden and the Demmocrats can respond that they passed an effective border bill which Trump killed, and that therefore they, rather than he, are working for border security, while Trump is deliberately prolonging a national crisis for personal gain. It may be that the Democrats have now or will soon steal the republicans thunder and become the party of border security, while the Republican claims to that status begin to ring hollow, and false. Today's Republicans seem to have a habit of doing just that; making false claims.