Donald Trump Says 'RINO Republicans' Are 'Being Played' Over Infrastructure

Former President Donald Trump has warned Senate Republicans not to help President Joe Biden to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and called on them to maintain the tax cuts passed during his time in office.

Trump referred to those negotiating the infrastructure deal as "RINOS" - Republicans in Name Only - and blasted Democrats' "fake infrastructure proposals."

The White House and a group of Senate Republicans agreed to a $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework in June. The bipartisan bill would be passed in tandem with Democratic proposals to fund "human infrastructure," which the party intends to introduce using the budget reconciliation process.

Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington issued a statement from the former president via Twitter on Friday.

"Very important that Senate Republicans not allow our hard-earned tax reductions to be terminated or amended in an upward trajectory in any way, shape, or form," the statement said.

"They should not be making deals on increasing taxes for the fake infrastructure proposals being put forward by Democrats, almost all of which goes to the ridiculous Green New Deal Marxist agenda," Trump said.

Democrats' budget reconciliation bill could include changes to the Trump-era tax cuts as Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), a key figure in the process, has indicated support for reversing some of the cuts passed in 2017. Those tax cuts were passed using the budget reconciliation process.

On June 23, Manchin said: "Republicans have drawn a line in the sand on not changing anything, and I thought the 2017 tax bill was a very unfair bill and weighted to a side that basically did not benefit the average American. So I voted against it."

"I think there are some adjustments that need to be made," the senator said.

Trump's statement went on: "Keep the Trump Administrations [sic] tax cuts just where they are. Do not allow tax increases. Thinking about it, I have never seen anything so easy to win politically."

"Also, RINO Republicans should stop negotiating the infrastructure deal - you are just being played by the Radical Left Democrats - they will give you nothing!"

Democrats could repeal the Trump tax cuts through the budget reconciliation process without Republican votes as the process allows the Senate majority to overcome the filibuster.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, has floated a price tag of some $6 trillion for the reconciliation bill on non-traditional forms of infrastructure. This would include funding for items like home health care and child care.

"The president has given us a framework. I think it is a comprehensive and serious framework. It is the function of the Congress now to take that framework and go with it," Sanders said on June 18.

"Everything is in movement. This is a proposal," he said. "It's going to change every day."

Newsweek has asked Senator John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, for comment.