Tensions rising in GOP over Trump border plan as Rand Paul squares off with Stephen Miller

A bitter feud is escalating between Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Donald Trump’s top border official, injecting uncertainty into Congress’s attempt to pass the administration’s signature policy bill this month.

A bitter feud is escalating between Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Donald Trump’s top border official, injecting uncertainty into Congress’s attempt to pass the administration’s signature policy bill this month. Key Trump adviser Stephen Miller came to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans on Thursday to resolve a disagreement over money for the bill’s border security provisions. Paul and Miller have been locked in a dispute for days over the border funding. The White House is seeking $150 billion in funds for border security and deportation. But Paul – who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee – has repeatedly lashed out against the price tag of Trump’s bill and wants to dramatically cut down that funding. And on Thursday night, Paul released his portion of the sweeping bill that includes a fraction of what Miller and the White House are demanding for border security, contending an additional $39 billion in new spending will deliver “real border security without fueling Washington’s addiction to waste.” Now, GOP leaders will look to overrule Paul and change the bill to meet White House demands when they include the proposal in the larger Trump policy bill – all as tension between Miller and the Kentucky senator has been spilling out in the open. Paul is taking swipes at Miller to reporters on Capitol Hill, attacking Miller for his recent comments about the administration looking at suspending habeas corpus and then suggesting on Wednesday that Miller himself was the reason he was uninvited from a White House picnic. Trump has since personally asked him and his family to attend the Thursday event, the senator said. Miller, meanwhile, has been firing off social media posts at the Kentucky senator, accusing him of, for instance, trying to cut funding for border security amid the Los Angeles riots.