Trump's grip on congressional Republicans casts doubt on possible border deal

With Republican and Democratic senators closing in on a rare bipartisan deal on tough new border security, the fate of any agreement appeared in doubt Friday with key Republicans expressing concern former President Donald Trump could derail the whole thing.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday piled on Trump's pressure to hold off on anything less that a «perfect» deal until after the presidential election, saying the Senate bill could be «dead on arrival in the House anyway.»

Trump has made immigration one of his top campaign issues and signaled he wants to deny President Joe Biden a win on the border before November.

«We need a Strong, Powerful, and essentially 'PERFECT' Border and, unless we get that, we are better off not making a Deal,» Trump posted on his social media site Thursday night.

A few hours later, Johnson then sent a letter to his House Republican colleagues, obtained by ABC News, saying the Senate «appears unable to reach an agreement on the border.»

«If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyways,» Johnson said.

Any bipartisan deal the Senate strikes faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House. Johnson has said he's been in regular contact with Trump about the border negotiations, and many hard-liners were inclined to reject a deal even before Trump began getting more vocal on the matter.

For months, Senate Republicans have been pushing Biden for a deal to address the flood of migration at the southern border, calling for policies that would curb his parole authority and slow the flow of migrants into the country.

Biden said he's «ready to act» on changes at the border. Democrats insist that they're ready to make significant