Democracy Dies in Darkness

Republicans struggle to hold together Ukraine-for-border deal

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who remains behind the deal, acknowledged difficulty of Trump’s opposition to the package

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Updated January 25, 2024 at 5:54 p.m. EST|Published January 25, 2024 at 11:24 a.m. EST
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks during a news conference after the Republicans weekly policy luncheon on Jan. 23 in Washington. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
7 min

Senate Republicans struggled to hold together support for a bipartisan border-for-Ukraine deal on Thursday as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) privately acknowledged former president Donald Trump’s opposition to the deal has complicated its future.

Republicans demanded stringent border policy changes to pass $60 billion in Ukraine aid requested by the White House last year, and a small group of Senate negotiators are closing in on a deal that Trump has publicly slammed and that some Republicans have argued could hurt Trump’s reelection chances by removing a potent campaign issue. A significant number of Republican senators have begun to speak out against the border security deal before its details have been released and even as they continue to raise alarm bells about the migrant crisis at the border.