Stunning sign Trump LOSING party: White House crisis summit scrapped as Republicans knife president over $1.8 billion fund for J6 rioters
Donald Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party is crumbling in real time.
A high-stakes White House summit with Speaker Mike Johnson and top GOP leaders was abruptly canceled on Thursday as the President openly rebelled against his own party’s $1.8 billion ‘secret fund’ for the January 6 rioters.
Johnson reportedly refused to sit down with Trump, in a stunning act of rebellion by the President’s most trusted congressional leader.
The purpose of the meeting was to salvage the $70 billion immigration bill that the administration was waiting on to fund the deportation operation through 2029.
Instead, senators emerged from a tense, closed-door session with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and declared the bill dead for the week.
Even Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers, including Alabama’s Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, broke ranks to confront Blanche over the possibility that taxpayer money would flow to the rioters who injured police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pulled the plug on the votes, sending lawmakers home by June 1, missing Trump’s deadline.
Thune told reporters the White House “needs to help with this because we have a lot of members who are concerned.”
A high-stakes White House summit with Speaker Mike Johnson and top GOP leaders was abruptly canceled Thursday amid a deepening dispute between the President and his own party over $1.8 billion in funds that critics have publicly denounced as a “secret fund”
The vast majority of Senate Republicans, including normally Trump loyalists like Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, opposed Blanche out of serious concerns that the fund could funnel taxpayer money to rioters who attacked police officers on Jan. 6, 2021.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pulled the plug on the vote by sending lawmakers home by June 1
A high-stakes White House summit with President Mike Johnson and top GOP leaders was abruptly canceled Thursday amid a widening rift between the President and his own party
Thune’s public appearance is officially tied to the uproar over a so-called “secret fund” that Trump used to reward political allies who claimed the Biden Justice Department was targeting them.
But privately, sources say the majority leader was outraged over Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton over Thune’s close ally John Cornyn in the Texas Senate GOP primary earlier this week.
Asked in the Oval Office earlier Thursday if Republicans had lost control of the Senate, Trump replied: ‘I really don’t know. ‘I can only tell you that I did the right thing.’
Sources close to the session said more than half of Senate Republicans privately expressed concerns about the funding in the meeting with Blanche, including some who have not yet commented publicly.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters that the funding “dropped like a bombshell in the middle of a pretty well-planned compromise bill.”
‘Do you really think the American people like it when the president sues himself, then makes a deal that benefits him with broad immunity not just for IRS proceedings but for everything else?’ said outgoing Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy.
Utah Senator John Curtis said bluntly: ‘I don’t like the fund at all.’
North Carolina’s Thom Tillis branded it a ‘pay pot for tramps’.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson told CNN: ‘Someone described it as a galactic error, and I think that’s probably true.’
Earlier this week, the Justice Department settled the President’s $10 billion lawsuit against the agency by creating a $1.8 billion fund for his political allies.
It was created to issue formal apologies and release monetary relief owed to claimants who were subjected to ‘law enforcement’ under the Biden administration.
More than 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump are eligible to receive payments from the fund.
Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 riot sued Trump in Washington, D.C. district court to block the funding.
GOP Senate majority leader fumes over Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton over Thune’s close ally John Cornyn in the Texas Senate GOP primary earlier this week
Five commissioners will be appointed to oversee the fund and make payments to those seeking redress for allegations of political persecution under the Biden administration. Trump will have the power to dismiss these commission members.
Republicans’ frustration boils over not just over the $1.8 billion payment but also over the extraordinary side deal that gave Trump and his sons immunity from IRS tax audits.
Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said he had “never heard of” such a regulation before and vowed it would “of course” be targeted in any legislative effort to eliminate funding.
“You can’t do that,” the Republican told reporters Wednesday.
The GOP backlash over Trump’s ‘secret fund’ comes as Republicans grow uneasy about Trump’s demand for $1 billion in White House security upgrades tied to the planned ballroom.
‘I know my constituents, and I’m sure many other representatives’ constituents do not want taxpayer money going to the ballroom,’ Fitzpatrick said.
