Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to mock President Trump's claim that Democrats are not really interested in saving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program.

The president had earlier in the day said the Democrats were more interested in having a political issue to run on in 2018 than preserving the program, which allows people who came into the country as children to remain.

"If Trump wants America to believe Democrats don't care about DACA, established by Democrats over Republican opposition, and rescinded by Republican Trump with cheers from right wing Republicans, good luck with that," Whitehouse tweeted.

He added in a follow-up tweet: "And we do NOT want to reduce military funding; we want non-defense spending to track the defense increases. I wonder if he knows what's going on in the negotiations..."

The senator was reacting to a tweet Sunday morning in which Trump said: "DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military."

The president and Democrats have been sparring over the program, with President Trump trying to use a looming government shutdown and the possibility that the DACA program will expire, resulting in deportations, to extract concessions from Democrats on immigration policy.

Liberal lawmakers have resisted, arguing that the program should be fixed without any preconditions.

"I, for one, will not vote on government funding until we get a deal for DACA," Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., told ABC News on Sunday.