‘He can’t lose Hannity’: GOP senator explains why Trump remains stuck in the shutdown

A Republican senator involved in the immigration debate said President Donald Trump faced an impossible choice as the government shutdown lingers into a second month.

The senator, who was not identified, told Axios that the president and his son-in-law's efforts to end the shutdown with a compromise on immigration would alienate Trump's most devoted supporters.

One idea that has circulated over the past day in the White House and among congressional staffers is giving a path to green cards to the current 700,000 DACA recipients, according to three sources familiar with the conversations.

White House adviser Jared Kushner has brought this idea, which has the support of Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and other GOP senators, back to the White House, but the unnamed Republican senator said that was a non-starter.

"Trump can withstand Ann Coulter," the senator said. "He can't lose Hannity and the rest."

The GOP senator said Kushner "wants to go big" as he tries to negotiate an end to the 33-day shutdown, but he said "now's not the time to go big.

"If you throw green cards onto the table, this whole coalition will fall over on the right," the Republican told Axios. "If you start putting citizenship on the table in any meaningful way, Democrats will have to give more, and they’re not ready to give more."

A source told the website that Kushner has not been pushing the green card idea, which a second conservative lawmaker described as "insanity," but was simply listening to ideas that could help the president wriggle out of the shutdown.