As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., struggles to hold up to the fiscal conservative demands to pass individual appropriation bills, former President Donald Trump weighed in with a measure that resonates with McCarthy's House GOP opposition.
"A very important deadline is approaching at the end of the month," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday night. "Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden's weaponized Government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State.
"This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots. They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the purse and defend the Country!"
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a vehement McCarthy critic, shared Trump's message, urging his House GOP colleagues to "hold the line" against a continuing resolution (C.R.) to help Democrats keep the government funded at the existing levels.
"Trump Opposes the Continuing Resolution," Gaetz posted on X. "Hold the line."
Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and the White House during the Trump administration when the government was shut down for a record 35 days over the Christmas break from December 2018 to January 2019.
That fight was over funding for Trump's border wall, and Republicans were effectively rolled by Democrats in blocking border-wall funding that ultimately had to be earned through myriad court battles, Trump lamented in past rally speeches.
McCarthy says Republicans are "very close" on a short-term C.R., predicting he would be able to advance other longer-term spending legislation.
To avert a government shutdown Oct. 1, the House and the Democrat-led Senate must agree on short- or long-term spending legislation that President Joe Biden can then sign into law. But the partisan measures that Republicans hope to begin passing soon face stiff opposition from Democrats in the Senate and from the White House.
Republican hardline conservatives want assurances that fiscal 2024 appropriations will not exceed a 2022 top line of $1.47 trillion — $120 billion less than McCarthy and Biden agreed to in May.
Congressional Republicans need to get tough against Biden's open borders and funding for illegal immigration, Trump said in a Dubuque, Iowa, stump speech Wednesday.
"I'm calling on congressional Republicans to ban Joe Biden from using a single taxpayer dollar to release or resettle illegal aliens into the United States, effective Sept. 30," Trump said.
"The Republicans are very good people but, honestly, they have to get tougher. They've got to get tougher because they're fighting a fight that – these other people, they are dirty fighters; these are dirty people. The time for talk is over now is the time for action. We need action."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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