The end of Trump’s ‘weaponisation’ fund is another sign Republicans are fighting back

President Donald Trump’s plan to distribute $1.8bn (£1.3bn) in taxpayer funding to his political allies lasted two weeks before the Department of Justice (DOJ) abandoned the idea amid intense backlash from Republicans in Congress.

The department’s decision Tuesday to officially end the “anti-proliferation” fund came in the wake of rebellion within Trump’s own party. Republicans have threatened to derail a critical immigration bill if the administration does not abandon a plan to provide public funds to Trump supporters, including rioters who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Republican lawmakers and Trump’s allies viewed the controversy as a simple mistake by Trump at a time when the president and his party could not afford it.

“This was a completely self-inflicted wound and completely unnecessary,” said a former Trump adviser who asked to remain anonymous to speak publicly.

“This sometimes points to the president’s myopic perspective,” the source added. “He’s going to do what he wants to do, regardless of whether it hurts Republicans or not.”

Trump is grappling with an unpopular war in Iran, high gas prices at home and a low approval rating that could drag Republicans down in the midterm elections.

The fund, part of a settlement in a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS, would pay people the administration determined were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.

It also barred existing tax audits of Trump, his family and their businesses; It was a provision that Republicans and Democrats criticized as corrupt. The administration has argued that the fund is needed to “integrate” Americans who have been unfairly prosecuted in the past and has insisted that everyone, including Democrats, is eligible to receive payments.

But administration officials have refused to rule out paying the Jan. 6 rioters. And on Tuesday, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the provision shielding Trump and his family from tax audits would remain in place, further angering Republicans who say the provision should be repealed.

The storm against the fund was the latest example of a trend taking shape during Trump’s second term; the willingness of some Republicans to back down when they feel their attempts to expand the president’s power, reward his allies and punish his political opponents have gone too far.

They have clashed multiple times since Trump returned to office; It’s a sign that the president does not have firm control over his party in his second term.

Many Senate Republicans joined Democrats in passing a war powers resolution last month to limit the length of the conflict with Iran. (A similar resolution has still not passed the House, and it is unclear whether these measures will cause Trump to take action against Iran.) Last year, Republicans voted to force the Justice Department to release files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in another blow to Trump.

The White House tried to contain Republican anger over the Epstein scandal for months before Trump finally bowed to pressure and agreed to release the files. In this case, Republican condemnation of Justice Department funding was swift and appeared to catch Trump and his top aides off guard.

Senate Republicans criticized the fund in a contentious private meeting with Blanche on May 21, two days after the fund was announced. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said on the podcast Verdict the day after the meeting that Republicans were “blasting the attorney general.”

“There were a lot of senators yelling at the attorney general and saying this was acting in their best interest,” Cruz said.

The pressure campaign for Republicans to abandon the fund intensified after that.

Republicans have stalled progress on legislation that would fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), sending a message to Trump that the planned funding could unravel a long-delayed spending plan for two key immigration agencies. When lawmakers returned to Washington this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune called on the administration to end the funding plans.

“The best way to deal with this is for the administration to decide to shut this down on its own,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.

The growing opposition from Republicans comes as Democrats vowed to hold up the immigration bill related to the funding and several groups sued in court to block the program.

It was a rare but increasingly frequent moment of bipartisan anger in Washington against Trump. Democrats’ anger is no surprise, as the party has opposed Trump at almost every turn during his second term. But few among Republicans, who have largely been staunch supporters of the president regardless of the controversy, have rushed to defend him publicly.

The turmoil has also sparked another test for the courts, which have seen numerous legal battles over the expansion of executive power since Trump returned to power. In a ruling Friday, a federal judge ordered the justice department to suspend the fund to allow a lawsuit against it to move forward.

The justice ministry said Monday it was temporarily suspending the compensation plan, citing the court order. But critics, including some Republicans, have demanded that the administration go further and make clear that it has abandoned the idea altogether. Blanche finally pulled the plug on Tuesday, telling House lawmakers: “We are not making progress on the funding.”

But this is probably not the end of the saga. As much as management wants to move on, the problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Blanche also told MPs that she was “not committed to putting anything in writing”; This has been interpreted by some as leaving the door open to return to this topic in the future. Even before Blanche’s announcement, critics on Tuesday promised to continue the legal fight.

“The lawsuit provides assurance that Trump will not revive this idea,” said Norm Eisen, co-founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund, which represented plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against the administration.

Democrats have also promised to make changes to the immigration bill that would prevent presidents from using taxpayer money to reward political allies. The issue has already become a flashpoint on the left and will surely feature in Democratic campaign ads against Trump ahead of the crucial midterm elections this fall.

On Tuesday evening, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, said the administration’s promise to end the funding was not enough.

“Blanche and Trump’s words have no value,” Schumer said in his social media post. “The only way to stop Trump’s nearly $2 billion MAGA slush fund and tax fraud blank check is to permanently eliminate it through legislation.”

He added: “Senate Democrats will force the chamber to vote to end Trump’s corrupt plan once and for all.”

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