Donald Trump is throwing cold water on a potential deal with lawmakers to end the partial government shutdown as airport lines frustrate travelers.
The Department of Homeland Security has been partially shut down since February 14, when Democrats opposed a GOP spending bill.
TSA agents have gone without pay, causing chaos at airports and prompting Trump to deploy hundreds of ICE agents to over a dozen travel hotspots.
A glimmer of hope was reached after Trump held a meeting with Republicans on Monday evening at the White House.
'We do,' have a deal, Republican Senator Katie Britt told reporters. 'I’m going to be working through the night, so hopefully we can land this plane,' Britt said later.
But speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday during Markwayne Mullin's swearing-in ceremony as his new DHS chief, Trump downplayed progress.
The President said that he doesn't 'trust' any deal with Democrats.
'I think any deal [Democrats] make, I'm pretty much not happy with,' he said.
Donald Trump is throwing cold water on a potential deal with lawmakers to end the partial government shutdown as airport lines frustrate travelers
Passengers line up outside a terminal to enter after hundreds of ICE agents were ordered to deploy to airports to help fill TSA staffing gaps
TSA workers at airports across the nation have called out sick during the shutdown
He said about the shutdown: 'This is a Democrat problem, and the polls are showing it's a Democrat problem,' he said he told the senators.
Though the latest Daily Mail/JL Partners poll taken last week found that Republicans are largely bearing the brunt of the blame from American voters frustrated with long lines and delays.
Britt was among a small cohort of Republicans who met with Trump on Monday. Senators Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Steve Daines of Montana also attended the session.
The rumored deal would fund mostly all of DHS except some portions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - which Democrats have protested as the agency carries out the President's sweeping deportation mandate.
So far, the shutdown has lasted 39 days, meaning most government workers under the DHS umbrella, including workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and more, have gone without a paycheck for five weeks.
Under the current deal's framework, almost all of DHS would be funded, except for ICE's deportation arm, called Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO).
Other portions of ICE, like Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which primarily works on human smuggling and sex trafficking, would still be funded, according to reports.
Notably, ICE agents have continued to get paid despite the partial shutdown due to a $75 billion ICE funding infusion over the summer after Congress passed Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.'
The deal reportedly does not contain many of the asks that Democrats have made to fund DHS, including mandating that ICE officers forgo wearing face masks and requiring judicial warrants for operations.
