Trump tells GOP lawmakers to halt infrastructure push: You’re ‘being played’

Former President Trump urged “RINO Republicans” to stop negotiating with Democrats over a bipartisan infrastructure deal, saying they are “just being played.”

“RINO Republicans should stop negotiating the infrastructure deal—you are just being played by the Radical Left Democrats—they will give you nothing!” Trump said in a statement late Friday, using the acronym for Republican In Name Only.

“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,” he said. “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. Keep the Trump Administrations tax cuts just where they are.”

The comments come as the Senate is in a two-week July 4 recess. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said that after senators return, he wants a vote for two infrastructure bills — one bipartisan deal, which would spend $1.2 trillion over eight years, and a much larger reconciliation package with Democratic priorities.

Schumer is pressing for a vote on the bills before the Senate leaves again in August, but the Democratic leader warned colleagues in a letter Friday that they may have to work into the August recess to finish work on both bills. 

Shortly after President Biden and a group of bipartisan senators reached a deal on infrastructure, Biden indicated that he also wants Congress to pass a much larger infrastructure package spotlighting Democrat priorities.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not ruled out that the bipartisan bill could get 60 votes to pass and said, “If that’s credibly paid for, as opposed to adding it to the debt, I think there’s a way forward on that portion of it.”

However, the GOP leader said on Tuesday  that Republicans would bring on a “hell of a fight” if Democrats tried to pass their larger reconciliation bill through the Senate without Republican votes.

“The era of bipartisanship on this stuff is over. … This is not going to be done on a bipartisan basis. 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. I don’t think we’ve had a bigger difference of opinion between the two parties,” McConnell said about the spending package.