Utah Sen. Mitt Romney had harsh words for Donald Trump on Thursday, telling reporters it was “appalling” that the former president was trying to sink Congress’ immigration deal.

A few hours later, Trump responded, posting on his social media platform Truth Social that the country “will be a better place” once Romney retires.

“In response to the Statement made by Pierre Delecto, I haven’t spoken to him (Mitt Romney!) in years, and he knows nothing about me, or my views. Fortunately, he will permanently be leaving the Senate soon,” Trump wrote, referring to Romney’s once-secret Twitter account.

Trump also defended his attempt to sabotage the immigration deal — which Senate Republicans on Thursday said they were still pursuing — calling it “meaningless in terms of Border Security.”

“We need a Strong, Powerful, and essentially ‘PERFECT’ Border and, unless we get that, we are better off not making a Deal, even if that pushes our Country to temporarily ‘close up’ for a while,” the former president wrote.

Trump’s comments come after Romney told reporters in Washington, D.C. that the former president was urging Republicans to abandon the deal to make Biden look bad.

“Former President Trump has indicated to Senators that he does not want us to solve the problem at the border, he wants to lay the blame for the border at Biden, and the idea that someone running for president would say ‘Please hurt the country so I can blame my opponent and help my politics’ is a shocking development,” Romney said.

Although the deal is still a work in progress, early reporting suggests the immigration deal would target the Biden administration’s use of parole, which grants migrants temporary status allowing them to work and live in the U.S. Republicans have also indicated that they want to make it more difficult to seek asylum.

Utah News Dispatch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news source covering government, policy and the issues most impacting the lives of Utahns.

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