Republicans flee Trump's advice to let country default: report

Donald Trump's hectoring on Truth Social and in public comments that Republicans should not agree with any debt deal unless they get everything they want from Democrats is not going over well with GOP lawmakers who don't want to be saddled with blame if a default ensues.

According to a report by the Daily Beast's Sam Brodey, prominent Republicans would be pleased if the former president stayed out of the budget impasse as the clock winds down because they know his interference could haunt them in the 2024 election.

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During his controversial CNN town hall appearance, the former president told a national audience, "I say to the Republicans out there—congressmen, senators—if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default."

Days later he took to Truth Social to rant, "Republicans should not make a deal on the debt ceiling unless they get everything they want (Including the ‘kitchen sink’). That’s the way the Democrats have always dealt with us. Do not fold!!!”

That has Republicans who are trying to get a deal done blanching and trying to dismiss his advice.

"Despite Trump’s continued influence on Capitol Hill—where many Republicans have endorsed his 2024 presidential bid—a range of GOP lawmakers uniformly steered clear of his comments about defaulting, the Beast's Brodey wrote before adding that "lawmakers blamed Trump’s default comments on the fact that he was running for president, suggesting that context spared Capitol Hill from taking him seriously."

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One Trump-supporting senator who has already endorsed his 2024 presidential bid walked away from dealing with his suggestions, telling the Beast, "What any one individual says about how to dramatize it, that’s up to them."

The report goes on to note that "Trump’s open flirtation with a default matters more than Republicans might like to acknowledge. It undermines them in that he is unreservedly teasing out the logical conclusion of the GOP’s negotiating position—in a way that could attract public blame if a default does happen."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) applauded the former president for putting members of his party on the spot.

“Their entire strategy is predicated on their willingness to default being real and believable,” he stated. “Nobody would negotiate with them over their crazy set of demands to kick thousands of kids off nutritional benefits and Head Start if you didn’t think they were.”

You can read more here.