President Trump is weighing a dramatic move — compelling Congress to return early from recess to resolve the funding crisis at the Department of Homeland Security. “It’s something that’s under consideration,” he told The New York Post, with a characteristic aside that he might let lawmakers have their Easter first.
It would be extraordinary if he did it. The last president to force Congress back was Harry Truman, in 1948. That tells you something about the weight of the moment.
The standoff has already stretched toward two months, with DHS workers going without pay and the White House scrambling to hold things together through workarounds. Trump extended pay to TSA workers by executive action, though nobody is quite saying how long that can last.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was unambiguous: normal operations don’t resume until Congress fully funds the department.
The fight is, at bottom, about immigration. Democrats want changes to the administration’s deportation agenda. Republicans refuse to separate DHS funding from enforcement priorities. And so the impasse holds — while the agency responsible for border security, disaster response, customs, and immigration enforcement waits.
Someone will have to blink.
The question is whether Trump forces the issue before Easter, or after.
