Trump falsely claims he never endorsed senator behind bipartisan deal
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a "Save America" rally at Country Thunder Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
February 05, 2024
As the future of the bipartisan border deal looks bleak, former President Donald Trump — who was instrumental in getting Republicans to turn against the plan — is now claiming that he never even supported the election of the senator who helped write it.
Just one problem, according to The Daily Beast: He did.
"Donald Trump said during an interview Monday that he did not endorse Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who won re-election in 2022 and is now one of the architects of the immigration bill that Trump opposes," wrote William Vaillancourt.
"Just to correct the record, I did not endorse Sen. Lankford. I didn’t do it. He ran, and I did not endorse him," Trump told Dan Bongino on his show.
Bongino then pointed Trump to his endorsement and that others were referring to it as well: "So I’m sure your person will be happy to hear that."
Trump did enthusiastically endorse Lankford when he last ran.
“James was strongly committed to America First, and everything it stood for, and likewise strongly committed to me, as President. Sometimes we didn’t exactly agree on everything, but we do now,” said Trump in a statement issued two months before the 2022 midterm elections. “He is a very good man with a fabulous wife and family, loves the great State of Oklahoma, and is working very hard on trying to Save our Country from the disaster that it is in.”
Ironically, Trump even proclaimed that Lankford was "strong on the border."
The new bill, brokered between Lankford and Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), would tighten asylum rules, expedite removals of migrants who don't qualify, and require an immediate shutdown of all border crossings outside ports of entry if more than 5,000 migrants are encountered in a rolling daily average. In return, the bill raises visa caps and grants a right to counsel for unaccompanied migrant children. All of this is lumped together with foreign aid for Israel and Ukraine.