‘A bridge too far?’: As GOP senators revolt, Trump defends fund and attacks defectors

WASHINGTON— For much of President Trump’s second term, Republican senators have largely remained in line, wary of the consequences of challenging a president with a history of targeting those who oppose him. This week that dynamic has changed noticeably.

Senate Republicans blocked two of Trump’s legislative priorities, angered by a push to create a $1.8 billion federal fund to compensate people who claim they were politically persecuted, including the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The riot forced Republican leaders to hold a planned vote on legislation that would fund the president’s crackdown on immigrants and security measures for the president’s White House ballroom project.

In response, the president defended the fund and lashed out at its critics.

“I gave up a lot of money to allow the just-announced Proliferation Fund to move forward,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Instead, I am helping others who have been so badly abused by the evil, corrupt and weaponized Biden Administration finally get JUSTICE”!

The president also called Republican senators who defected from him quitters who “fucked the Republican Party.”

The growing friction has been watched for weeks as a potential test of the limits of Trump’s grip on his party in an already tense political environment heading into the midterm elections.

“It’s kind of the perfect storm,” former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Maybe this time, moving away from some of the president’s policies and the fear that the president might target you, you can point and say when the great migration started.”

Whether this week marks the beginning of that moment or another period of abating political turmoil is the central question now regarding Trump’s second term.

Not the first break – but an escalation

This isn’t the first time Republicans have cut ties with the president. In November, Congress voted overwhelmingly to force the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files; It was an effort that Trump unsuccessfully tried to block for months.

The Epstein vote showed that Republicans could challenge Trump on the right issue, under the right circumstances. This week, the creation of the fund changed the circumstances once again, and the number of Republican senators willing to take action grew rapidly.

The moment comes after months of escalating costs during the war in Iran, the president’s efforts to oust members of his own party and now a series of proposals that have proven difficult to defend in an election year.

“There’s a group of people who basically feel under siege,” said Bob Olinksy, senior vice president for Structural Reform and Governance at the Center for American Progress. “They also know that most of the things the president does are unpopular, and they are the ones who will be running for re-election in November.”

Republicans backed down

Senate Republican leaders are now asking the Justice Department to reconsider the terms of the funding, underscoring how politically toxic the idea has become within the president’s own party.

Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters that from a political standpoint, the fund “inexplicable.” Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) he told the New York Times The fund must be in real trouble. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) called the fund “utterly stupid” and “morally wrong.”

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whom Trump singled out for opposing him, was equally fierce, saying he opposed “using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate criminals and thugs who attack police.” He also criticized the administration for highlighting domestic and foreign policy issues that he said were bad for housing and the military.

“If opposing these things makes me a RINO [Republican In Name Only]”Then I gladly accept this nickname,” Tillis wrote on X. “We need Republicans to do well in November, but stupid things are ruining our chances!”

The Republicans’ retreat comes as voters’ concern about pursuing their own interests deepens.

A. latest poll Economist/YouGov poll It turns out that 59 percent of Americans believe Trump is using his office for personal gain, but that belief is sharply divided along partisan lines. A CNN poll 37 percent of Americans said Trump puts the country’s interests above his personal interests, while 32 percent said he is out of touch with the problems of ordinary Americans.

When asked whether the political climate affected this week’s actions, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters there is a “political component to everything we do here.”

Funds and tax immunity provisions

Senate Democrats wonder whether the funding could be a turning point for Republicans.

“Have Republicans finally found a bridge too far?” Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters after Republicans left Washington without funding Trump’s priorities.

Democrats have called the fund an illegal abuse of power designed to line the pockets of Trump’s allies with taxpayer dollars. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called it a “complete theft of public funds.”

The fund was created as follows: part of a settlement Resolving the $10 billion lawsuit that Trump personally filed against the Internal Revenue Service due to the leak of his tax returns. However, the settlement states that the IRS is “permanently prohibited and precluded” from pursuing any tax claims against Trump and his businesses.

According to the tax exemption clause, Trump and his family will be able to save more than $600 million. According to Forbes’ analysis.

But the fund has been the target of much bipartisan ire. Mostly because Trump and administration officials have not ruled out that this could benefit people who committed violence during the Jan. 6 riot.

The public funds, if distributed, would come from the federal judgment fund, a congressionally approved permanent appropriation that allows the Justice Department to resolve cases and make payments. Republicans have had trouble with the funding in the past. The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee described it this way: abuse In 2017.

Some of the president’s allies have already spoken out about taking advantage of the funding.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to prison for campaign finance violations He said he plans to file for compensation.

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and later pardoned by Trump. he told CBS News He would ask for payment from the fund.

“I was targeted,” Tarrio said. “And I believe this funding is available to me.”