WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures and Ukraine aid faced potential collapse Thursday as Senate Republicans grew increasingly wary of an election-year compromise that Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, says is \u201cmeaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate negotiators have been striving for weeks to finish a carefully negotiated compromise<\/a> on border and immigration policy that is meant to tamp down the number of migrants who come to the U.S. border with Mexico. But now that negotiations have dragged for weeks, election-year politics and demands from Trump<\/a> are weighing it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At stake is a plan that both President Joe Biden<\/a> and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have worked on for months to broker in hopes of cajoling Congress to approve wartime aid for Ukraine. The U.S. has run out of money<\/a> to supply Ukraine, potentially leaving the country stranded without robust supplies of ammunition and missiles to fend off Russia\u2019s invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump on Thursday ramped up his criticism of the potential compromise, writing in two lengthy posts on his social media platform that it would be \u201cmeaningless\u201d in terms of border security and \u201canother Gift to the Radical Left Democrats\u201d as Biden runs for reelection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AP correspondent Ed Donahue has more on the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former president said the Senate is better off not making a deal, even if it means the country will \u201cclose up\u201d for a while. He did not propose alternate policy options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a closed-door Republican meeting on Wednesday, McConnell acknowledged the reality of Trump\u2019s opposition, that he is the party\u2019s likely presidential nominee and discussed other options, including potentially separating Ukraine and the border, according to two people familiar who spoke anonymously to discuss the private meeting. Punchbowl News first reported the remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McConnell\u2019s comments raised fresh doubts in the Senate about his level of commitment to the border deal, though advocates for moving forward countered that the leader\u2019s remarks were being misinterpreted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re still working on it,\u201d McConnell told reporters on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also reassured the conference at a Republican luncheon Thursday that he still personally supports pairing the border and Ukraine, said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, the head GOP negotiator, said the group is still working on the package. He said McConnell was advocating for the proposal while simply acknowledging the political reality that the presidential primary season is fully underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that\u2019s the shift that has occurred, that he\u2019s just acknowledging,\u201d Lankford said. \u201cThat\u2019s just a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lankford has been working with a small bipartisan group and White House officials to try and close out the border deal. But release of the legislation has been held up by haggling over the price of the new policies and continued disagreements over limiting the president\u2019s ability<\/a> to allow people into the country under special circumstances, such as fleeing war and unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re really focused on making sure we get the bill out and that we get it through the Senate,\u201d said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who has been central to the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that the Biden administration has been working with the negotiators \u201cin good faith,\u201d feels that progress has been made, and hopes it will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a critical moment, and we\u2019ve got to drive hard to get this done,\u201d said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-ranked Senate Republican. \u201cIf we can\u2019t get there, then we\u2019ll go to plan B.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But congressional leaders have not identified any other way to push wartime funding for Ukraine through the darkening political prospects<\/a> of the cause. Scores of House Republicans are unwilling to send more money to the fight, even as longtime party stalwarts, like McConnell, have tried to convince them that preventing Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s advance in Europe is directly in America\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know that if Putin prevails in Ukraine, the consequences for Western democracy and for the American people will be severe, and haunt us for years,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. \u201cDemocrats are also resolute on reaching an agreement on securing the southern border.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has loomed large over the talks, first skewering American support for Ukraine<\/a> and now potentially upending a political compromise on the border that would hand his likely opponent, Biden, new policies meant to contain the historic numbers of migrants making their way to the country. With Republicans continuously raise the issue on the campaign trail, the border will likely remain central to elections this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n