Trump Calls on Senate GOP To Stop Negotiations on Infrastructure

 President Donald Trump (Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump is calling on Senate Republicans to reject an infrastructure deal that would be funded by eliminating the tax cut measures he pushed through, while warning "RINO Republicans" to stop working on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan because they are "just being played by the Radical Left Democrats" who "will give you nothing."

"(It is) very important that Senate Republicans not allow our hard-earned tax reductions to be terminated or amended in an upward trajectory in any way, shape, or form," Trump said in a statement Friday night, posted on Twitter by his spokeswoman, Liz Harrington. ​​"They should not be making deals on increasing taxes for the fake infrastructure proposals being put forward by Democrats, almost all of which goes to the ridiculous Green New Deal Marxist agenda.

The former president also implored Republicans to "keep the Trump Administrations (sic) tax cuts just where they are. Do not allow tax increases. Thinking about it, I have never seen anything so easy to win politically.”

The bipartisan Senate deal announced last month by President Joe Biden includes some existing infrastructure programs, as well as $579 billion in new money over eight years to patch highways, rebuild bridges, speed rail traffic and more spread broadband internet access. The plan also calls for spending billions of dollars into coastlines and waterways washing away because of rising sea levels and $7.5 billion into financing a half-million electric vehicle charging stations.

Republicans are insisting that the legislation not be funded by pulling back tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017. 

A bill could come onto the Senate floor for a vote as soon as July 19, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't bring the measure up in the House unless the Senate passes a $6 trillion bill through the reconciliation process. 

However, there are House members already endorsing the bipartisan Senate bill, including the House Problem Solvers caucus, which said in a statement that the Senate bill is "closely aligned with our own 'Building Bridges' proposal released last month." 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he thought “there’s a decent chance” for a bipartisan bill to come together, but told the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce that he wants the measure to be paid for, because "we've added quite enough to the national debt."

However, earlier in the week, the Kentucky Republican warned that his party will wage "one hell of a fight" if Democrats try to pass the bill along party lines. 

"This is going to be a hell of a fight over what this country ought to look like in the future, and it's going to unfold here in the next few weeks," McConnell said. "There is a process by which they could pass this without a single Republican. But we're going to make it hard for them. And there are a few Democrats left in rural America and some others who would like to be more in the political center who may find this offensive."