In March 2026, as the U.S. government faced a second month of a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, a purported quote from a Republican U.S. senator spread online. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana appeared to blame the extension of the shutdown on President Donald Trump, saying, "We could've had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the president said no deal."
According to a Facebook post:
HUGE: GOP Senator Kennedy exposed TRUMP as reason for DHS shutdown, telling the story on Fox News for millions of MAGAs to see.
Kennedy's candor was stunning, saying: Democrats offered to open up everything but ICE. Ted Cruz and I said, 'OK let's accept their offer…' Senator Thune submitted that to Trump. But Trump said 'No! No deals with the Democrats.'...
Kennedy's eyes looked down, defeated, adding: It would have WORKED. We... we could have had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the President said 'no deal.'
Finally, the truth for all to see.
This is the Donald Trump Shutdown. Even Republicans at the highest levels of government acknowledge it.
Kennedy did indeed say that Trump had shot down a solution, presented to him by Kennedy and Cruz via Senate Majority Leader John Thune, that would have ended the shutdown. Kennedy made the comments in a Fox News interview on March 23, 2026.
As such, we rate this claim as a correct attribution.
Kennedy appeared on "The Will Cain Show," where he revealed he was prepared to accept the Democrats' offer but was stopped by Trump. We have reproduced most parts of the conversation below (emphasis ours):
CAIN: So, Senator, Democrats say we'll fund it – we'll fund DHS. That means FEMA, we'll fund airport security, but we're not going to fund ICE. And to that, you say, "OK"?
KENNEDY: Well, I thought what Sen. Cruz and I proposed would work. It's not going to work, let me explain why. What we have right now, Will, is very frustrating. It's just basically murk, mess and mayhem. I've been up here 10 years and this is one of the worst I've seen. It's kind of like if the Hindenburg crashed into the Titanic. All we're doing is speechifying, getting nothing done. American people are tired of listening to it, I'm tired of listening to it. I think it's starting to lower my IQ. So Sen. Cruz and I came up with a plan, we said, look, it's a two-step process. The Democrats have offered to open up everything but ICE. Ted and I said OK, let's accept their offer. And then at the same time we would offer a bill for reconciliation where we don't need any Democratic votes to do whatever we wanted to do with ICE. And that way we're out of the shutdown and DHS is back open. We submitted that, Sen. Thune submitted that to President Trump, as is his right. He said no. No deals with the Democrats. So we're back to square one. But I've got a Plan B. We can shut down all negotiations with our Democratic colleagues and just do the entire thing through reconciliation. Do ICE, do FEMA, do TSA, get them back open, do the Coast Guard, do Secret Service. We don't need a single Democratic vote, that's how we passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill." […] It'll take 10 days or so, but it'll get us back open and it will satisfy the president's requirement that we not make any kind of deal with the Democrats.
CAIN: And is that Plan A, Senator, now? Is that Plan A.
KENNEDY: I don't know, we're on so many plans. I think that's Plan Squillion. […] And I didn't see any reason going forward with Ted and I's plan if the president's gonna veto it. It would've worked. We could've had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the president said no deal, so my Plan B, or Plan Squillion would be no deals with the Democrats […] and go straight to reconciliation.
Video of the conversation can be found on the Fox News website.
On March 23, Trump said he was "suggesting strongly" to Republicans to not make any deals with Democrats unless they passed his voter ID bill — which aims to combat voter fraud by noncitizens, an extremely rare occurrence according to the Cato Institute and other research organizations.
Democrats blocked funding for DHS and demanded reforms to ICE after federal immigration agents killed U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. As of this writing, Democrats and Republicans have not reached a resolution to end the partial shutdown. TSA agents have not been paid for more than a month, and lines and delays at airports are growing. Trump deployed ICE agents to work at airports amid staffing shortages.
For further reading, we previously covered a Senate bill passed in 2026 that would ban members of Congress from getting special treatment during airport security screenings due to the staffing shortage.