President
And even when he told Republican lawmakers in a social media post Wednesday to pass a party-line spending measure to fund DHS’s immigration enforcement operations by June 1, he left unclear how he wants them to address the department’s funding lapse in the meantime.
House Speaker
The lack of clarity from the president underlines the difficulty GOP leaders have had in navigating deep fissures over how to fund DHS without giving in to a list of Democratic demands that seek to curb Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigration.
It comes at a precarious time for Republicans, months ahead of midterm elections that will decide if they can retain unanimous partisan control of Washington. Polls show Democrats ahead overall and in key House and Senate races, backed by a string of recent wins in off-cycle elections.
There were hints that the speaker would drop his support for a hardline conservative blockade that had stymied a compromise deal Senate Republicans made with Democrats to immediately fund most of the department.
The Thune-Johnson statement referred to a “two-track approach,” which is how Senate Republicans had portrayed their compromise deal: Move quickly to restore money to the parts of the department Democrats are willing to fund and then use a cumbersome, time-consuming procedure that permits a party-line vote to fund immigration enforcement.
“House Republicans caved,” Senate Democratic leader
Lawmakers left Washington last week for their two-week spring break with the impasse unresolved, prompting tabloid publication TMZ to call on readers to send photos of lawmakers relaxing on their vacations. The DHS shutdown has already dragged on more than six weeks.
Rival GOP factions have clashed in recent weeks as Trump-allied hardliners demanded Republicans blow up Senate rules that give the minority party significant sway and GOP moderates sought a compromise that won’t haunt them if Democrats regain control of Congress.
The friction played out in public view Friday as Johnson declared the Senate-passed DHS funding deal was a “joke,” and instead passed a Republican-only measure that stands no chance across the Capitol. Democrats have said they will only fund immigration enforcement with new restrictions on agents such as requiring them to stop hiding their faces.
Trump then signed a memo to pay
Uphill battle
All the while, the president had been unwilling to wade in and to quell the intra-party fights. Instead, he publicly weighed bringing Congress back to Washington for a special session so they could duke it out in public view.
Republicans have an uphill battle to maintain their power in Washington, made more challenging by the pressures of the drawn-out partial government shutdown and an unpopular overseas conflict.
It’s still early and sentiment could change, but as of right now “a lot of things have to go right for Republicans, and change for Republicans,” to maintain their power in Congress, said Matt Foster, a political science lecturer at American University.
The GOP is pinning their policy agenda for the remainder of the year on a second party-line spending bill ahead of the midterms, where they could include provisions to finance the war in Iran, give financial aid to farmers and fund immigration enforcement. But the dissonance between the Republican leaders and the White House threatens the party’s ability to pass key policy proposals and maintain a consistent messaging strategy heading into the fall elections.
The House’s move to reject the Senate deal, which would have funded the agency except for immigration enforcement, helped Johnson quell an uprising among ultra-conservatives. Immigration enforcement operations have been fully funded during the shutdown through a dedicated pot of money Republicans set aside in last year’s tax legislation.
But the omission ignited an intra-party battle with Senate Majority Leader
Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he holds sway over congressional Republicans, using his social media platform to threaten those who vote against his wishes and even rescinding endorsements and backing primary opponents for those he deems disloyal.
But the president had refrained from publicly calling on members of the House Freedom Caucus, who criticized the Senate funding bill, to back it and end the shutdown.
“The indecision from the White House has led to a chaotic legislative environment, in which not even Republican committee chairs and leadership have clarity on what path they can pursue that would be accepted by the White House,” said
“That makes it next to impossible when you have no margin for error in passing things along party lines,” Wasserman said.
Midterm Distractions
The conflict over DHS funding comes as GOP fractures over the Iran war are becoming more apparent.
The ongoing war puts Republican lawmakers — many of whom want to be focused on the legislative victories in Trump’s tax bill — in a precarious position: support an unpopular war or defy the president and risk retaliation.
The war is also stoking inflation at home, putting Republicans on the defensive at a time they hoped to claim the mantle as the champions for affordability.
It also comes with a rapidly-escalating price tag, with reports suggesting the White House is preparing to ask Congress for $200 billion in emergency funding, coming as voters are struggling with rising health care costs and gas prices.
A Republican House lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity to give a candid assessment said the party risks losing between 60 and 70 seats during the midterm election if the White House chooses to deploy ground troops to Iran.
“He’s in very dangerous territory,” said
--With assistance from
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Mike Dorning, Derek Wallbank
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.