'Is that why they are fighting this bill?' Trump official blasts GOP deficit hawks

The Hill reports White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is targeting GOP libertarians who are threatening to derail President Donald Trump’s budget proposal this week.

Libertarian lawmakers including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), are alarmed at the megabill’s deficit impact as the nation’s interest payments grow larger than its defense budget. Debt-rating agency Moody’s also downgraded the federal government’s credit rating from “AAA to AA1” as recently as last month.

Despite this, Miller is maneuvering to paint libertarians’ opposition as low-key tolerance for immigrants.

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“Immigration has never mattered to them; it will never matter to them,” Miller said in an interview with conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk last week. “Deportations have never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. You will never live a day in your life where a libertarian cares as much about immigration and sovereignty as they do about the Congressional Budget Office.”

Miller, an anti-immigration hardliner, added that “the libertarians in the House and Senate trying to take down this bill” aren’t stupid. “They just don’t care.”

He later accused libertarians on X of wanting “to scale back the deportation program,” asking: “Is that why they are fighting this bill?”

Speaking with The Hill, Massie denied the allegation. “He’s appealing to a trope that all libertarians are open borders, and he knows that’s not true about me,” Massie said. “… He’s trying to spread some doubt about the messenger, and not my message.”

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“[Miller] can’t be as honest and candid as he was with me when he didn’t have Donald Trump as his boss,” Massie added. “He’s got his job to sell this bill, and he’s trying to put lipstick on a pig, and Rand Paul and I are pointing out it’s a pig.”

Read the full Hill Report at this link.