Insiders reveal Trump personally killed DHS deal: 'He is to blame for airport chaos'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

March 23, 2026 9:13AM ET


As chaos continues at airports across the nation amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, multiple insiders revealed that President Donald Trump had been presented with a plan to fully fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and pay airport employees — but rejected it out of hand, Punchbowl News reported Monday.

The partial government shutdown began last month after Democratic lawmakers refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without major reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the immigration enforcement agency under DHS that has carried out violent operations across the nation in recent months.

According to Punchbowl News, however, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) presented Trump with a proposal on Sunday that would have provided funding for all agencies under DHS, including TSA, other than ICE.

“But Trump said no, according to multiple sources,” Punchbowl News reported. “The president wants Republicans to stay in D.C. and keep fighting with Democrats over DHS funding and the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill.”

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/airport-delays/

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Link to Punchbowl News REPORT - Trump to Thune: No deal with Democrats

Link to tweet

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
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Confirmed what I suspected in a post last night. Thune reached a deal with Dems to fund DHS except for ICE and Trump rejected it. DONALD TRUMP is to blame for airport chaos - not Democrats.
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John Bresnahan
@bresreports
.@PunchbowlNews AM today
On Sunday, Thune told Trump about a potential deal with Democrats to end the DHS shutdown. Trump said no
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https://punchbowl.news/archive/32326-am/
6:54 AM · Mar 23, 2026

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. He knows his only chance to avoid

jail is the "SAVE Act" suppressing the vote in November.

[underpants]

2. A hole.

[tanyev]

3. Like when he killed a bipartisan border security bill in 2024 so he could keep campaigning on the issue.

[OMGWTF]

11. Or when T💩p blew up the Iran nuclear agreement so he could attack them.

[dweller]

4. But I thought

Lone Skum (N-ZA) was offering to pay TSA salaries ?




✌🏻

[Qutzupalotl]

5. Democrats would accept a party-line reconciliation to fund ICE?

That's distressing.

If we get back in power, DHS should be broken up into its former agencies, and ICE abolished.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. We are still in the minority

so as long as a majority of the GOP votes for it in both chambers, then our votes are meaningless.

And I agree - DHS should have NEVER been created. They literally cannibalized almost a dozen Departments to manufacture DHS.

When I was still working as a fed pre-DHS, my agency worked closely with Customs and USDA. We had folks there who were contacts that we would use for our work and would often go to lunch together, etc.

But then DHS happened and a number of them were yanked out of their positions and shoehorned into some DHS role. I know they were pretty upset about it but a job was a job, and they transitioned over.

All those TSA people can go BACK under the Department of Transportation (where it was a much smaller crew since the airport security was generally handled by the airlines and airports) but with DHS, they hired a shit-load of people to do that function. Customs can go BACK under the Department of Treasury (as their main thing was to manage imports/exports and collect fees). ALL the Immigration stuff should go BACK under the Department of Justice.

[FakeNoose]

6. Doesn't this prove what's happening with the outrageously high ICE funds?

He's grifting - or directly stealing - out of the ICE funding. But he can't touch the money that funds the TSA program. So he won't ever reduce ICE funds in order to keep TSA going. None of that TSA money would go into his own pocket.

Even when his own GOP Senators try to head off this mess with a sensible solution, Chump is against it. He doesn't want sensible solutions, he wants more grifting opportunities.

Somebody please lock this fucker up!

[Deminpenn]

8. Talking about long lines at airports is a distraction from the mess in Iran

If Rs and Ds keep fighting about it, then they aren't focusing on the giant clusterf**k Trump and Bibi have made in Iran and the rest of the Middle East.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. The undeclared "war" is being discussed 24/7

and is a direct cause for the high fuel prices, which is impacting a helluva lot more people (almost twice as much when counting cars/public transit) than those who have the money to fly anywhere. So that is not an issue being drowned out by the TSA fiasco.

[OMGWTF]

10. As Rebecca from Wonkette would eloquently say: Fuck you, you fucking fuck!

PAY THE COAST GUARD!

[popsdenver]

18. He must not comprehend

that the Coast Guard is a HUGE part of his security down at Mar-A-Gago...............

[angrychair]

12. Republicans are creating this mess

Rather than just agree to what amounts to meaningless changes from Democrats. It's a weird hill to die on because the changes being requested actually change very little despite the insistence otherwise.

[groundloop]

24. tRump NEEDS the SAVE A PEDOPHILE ACT to keep his sorry ass out of prison.

Without that last gasp attempt at voter suppression he goes down in flames. And to hell with the entire country waiting in snarled airport TSA lines, he'll still be golfing every weekend.

[jmowreader]

13. It's time for the Senate R's to have the "Nixon Talk" with Trump

On August 7, 1974, Senators Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott informed then-president Richard Nixon he had two choices: resign, or lose his office to impeachment.

In the year 2026, Donald Trump has started two illegal wars, one in Venezuela and the other in Iran, has destabilized the world economy with the Iraq War, has increased his grifting activities, and has screwed up airport security to the point they're talking about closing critical airports (specifically, the ones in Hawaii; due to sea conditions in the Hawaiian archipelago the only workable solution for interisland travel...like, say, going to the hospital in Honolulu...is air, so there MUST be a working airport on every populated Hawaiian island) and deploying ICE to replace TSA officers.

The Senate needs to inform Mr. Trump that they can easily convince 10 Republican Congressmen and 20 Republican Senators to get rid of his sorry ass if the Party is to be saved.

[ChicagoTeamster]

14. Just like how he rejected Lankford's border funding bill in 2024

So he could tell the MAGAts Biden left the border unsecured.

[GiqueCee]

15. I think it's obvious...

... that among the endless list of Trump's undiagnosed mental disorders is one called "Oppositional/Defiant Disorder", wherein the subject insists on doing the opposite of any suggestion that doesn't immediately benefit him. His Malignant Narcissism compounds that aberration exponentially.
We must never lose sight of the fact that Trump's actions always serve a dual purpose. One is to satisfy his fragile and overinflated infantile ego, and the other is to avoid defenestration. He probably doesn't even know what the word means, but he does know that Putin gets an evil gleam in his eye whenever he says it, so that's reason enough to be afraid of it. And he is VERY afraid if it.

[Biophilic]

16. Do the republicans know that ETTDs? That WILL include the GOP if this keeps up.

[barbtries]

17. he couldn't have done it

if republicans didn't kowtow to his every whim.

fuck 'em all

[twodogsbarking]

19. Name one thing where Trump has caused chaos. I can't. But I can name about one hundred real fast.

[paleotn]

20. Since when does a sitting majority leader of the US Senate...

ask the executive branch for "permission" to cut a deal with Dems. Or for really anything? Consultations, sure, maybe, sometimes, but not permission. Not even when the president is a member of your own party. Has Congress really ceded all its power to the executive branch?! Apparently. Thune sure as hell has. He's a scared little man who can't stand up to Trump even when he knows it's the right thing to do.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. That actually does happen

because a President can either sign it anyway, NOT sign it (and it becomes law in 10 days), or VETO it, and the Senate would need 67 votes to override.

E.g. - Reconciliation redux? Pelosi, Schumer huddle with Biden

In other words, if a party controls both chambers and the President is from the same party, then they try to coordinate the legislation to make sure that they get the votes they need from each chamber and the President will sign it (Pelosi was a master at that and "counting" before introducing any bill to the floor for a vote).

[paleotn]

25. I know that..... but coordinating and getting permission are two entirely different things

Thune doesn't run the Senate. Apparently Trump does. I can't think of any self respecting Senate majority leader in my lifetime who would let that happen, even if they were in the same party as the sitting prez. Some have even left sitting presidents from their own party twisting in the breeze if they're in a political snit with the White House.

[pandr32]

21. Congresspeople and senators should not be at the whim of the orange shit-bag.

If a deal had been struck between all parties in Congress to get something passed why in hell did they allow the creature from under the outhouse kill it? He has veto power, but then it would be clear to all, including his few supporters (who may actually be happy that a deal finally passed both chambers as well) who the saboteur is.
He can now slide back safely into his gilded palace (our former White House). Some of us will have been told he killed the funding deal, but some, likely Faux News watchers will not. They'll be told it is all the radical left's fault.

[mdbl]

22. He didn't kill shit!

They have the power to override him anytime they want. The GOP killed it. I'm getting sick of this pass the blame shit.