This ‘absurd’ Trump plan was a step too far – even for his party
Cat Zakrzewski And Theodoric Meyer
Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Republican-controlled Congress has approved nearly all of Trump’s controversial nominees, delegated trade authority to the White House and largely acquiesced in the president launching a highly unpopular war in Iran.
But the administration’s plan to create a US$1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) fund for people claiming political persecution turned out to be a step too far, triggering a GOP revolt on Capitol Hill that forced the White House to back down. On Tuesday afternoon, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the administration had “made no progress on funding.”
The standoff has exposed new tensions in Trump’s relationship with Congress, which has rarely exercised its authority to check on him at a sensitive moment in his presidency. More than the fund itself, the newfound challenge from Republicans may say more about a sharply shifting political dynamic that could have ramifications for the rest of Trump’s term.
Tensions between the White House and GOP lawmakers are rising as the midterm elections approach, and Republicans are becoming increasingly concerned about the party’s ability to maintain its narrow majorities in the House and Senate, especially as the president’s policies continue to push up consumer prices.
“You’re starting to see Republicans want to show some independence from Trump, and this was an easy issue to achieve that,” Republican strategist Alex Conant said.
“Running this Congress was already very difficult, and it will become even more difficult as Trump’s popularity wanes and the midterm elections approach. There is a lot of frustration with the political situation they find themselves in.”
Republican strategists saw the unpopular fund as a special political liability. in may EconomistAccording to the /YouGov poll, 49 percent of respondents said they opposed the fund, including 48 percent of Trump voters and 45 percent of those who identified as MAGA supporters. And Senate Republicans found a direct way to show their displeasure by blocking the $72 billion immigration enforcement funding package that Trump badly wanted.
Many Republican lawmakers and strategists have struggled to figure out how to even talk about the fund amid criticism that it amounts to Trump pursuing his own interests and rewarding his political supporters.
“People who admit to taking physical action against the president may actually receive compensation. How ridiculous does this sound coming from my mouth?” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Tillis decided to oppose Trump’s spending bill last year and is not running for re-election.
Last month, senators also rebelled against Trump’s proposal to add money to the budget bill to cover security costs related to his plan to add a ballroom to the White House. Although the public opposes the initiative by a wide margin, Trump has repeatedly emphasized that the ballroom is a top political priority.
The Senate parliamentarian responsible for advising the Senate on its rules decided that ballroom funds could not be included in the measure. Trump then called on Senate Republicans to impeach the parliamentarian, but they ignored his call.
The Senate also introduced a resolution last month to end the Iran war by a vote of 50 to 47; All four Republicans advanced the proposal along with Democrats. Still, the measure is unlikely to become law, in part because Trump could veto it.
At the same time, Trump alienated Senate Republicans by supporting his rivals in the GOP primaries and ended the political careers of such favorites as John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
A more defiant Congress could pose a significant obstacle for Trump, who faces increasingly obstacles to his tough tactics to restructure American government and society. Initiatives ranging from tariffs to renovations of the Kennedy Center have been blocked in the court system, and world leaders have shown a greater willingness to push back against an increasingly embattled president.
Trump has governed largely through the executive branch, bypassing the legislature to advance his agenda, except for the 2025 tax cut package. So far, Congress has treated Trump with much more respect than it did during his first term, when members of his own party blocked repeal of the Affordable Care Act and thwarted his attempt to build a border wall.
Trump has remained uncharacteristically quiet in the face of the current backlash.
He has not taken questions from the White House press since Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. His remarks over the past few days have been limited to posts on Truth Social and interviews with individual news outlets, including a Fox News segment about the ballroom with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.
He did not acknowledge or confirm that the settlement fund was dead.
The White House denied the claim that there were any problems between Trump and congressional Republicans. “President Trump is committed to maintaining the Republican majority in the House and Senate,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
“The White House and President Trump have enjoyed working closely with Republicans in the House and Senate to deliver on many important promises to the American people, including the largest tax cut in history for working Americans. While the media and Democrats seek to sow divisions that do not exist, we look forward to continuing this close relationship to continue to deliver on President Trump’s agenda (specifically, funding ICE and CBP) for which Americans elected him.” [immigration enforcement and border protection].”
Still, Republican Louisiana Sen. John Neely Kennedy said the party is concerned about Trump’s compensation fund, in part because of the administration’s lack of clarity about how it would work and who would manage it.
“I support redressing people’s grievances, but I don’t want a fixed process,” Kennedy said. “I’m not saying the process is going to get better, but it might give some insight into that. That’s what the pushback was about.”
He added: “When you don’t understand what happened and it happened in Washington – I don’t care who is responsible – you assume the worst. If you trust the government, you fail history class. So people assumed the worst.”
‘YOLO group’
Republican senators pressured the White House to give up the settlement fund, threatening to derail the immigration enforcement package and giving them influence over the administration. Trump also has three cabinet-level vacancies and the Senate will need to confirm his nominees, but he has shown a willingness to pursue such appointments in acting roles for long periods of time.
When Trump announced Tuesday that he would appoint loyalist Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, some Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said they were unsure whether Pulte had relevant experience. Pulte, a housing adjuster, has no background in intelligence.
“I don’t see any evidence of qualification for this job,” Cornyn told reporters.
Cornyn is among a handful of Republican lawmakers newly emboldened to criticize Trump after the president effectively ended his career. MPs in this position became informally known as the “YOLO Group”, a reference to the term “You Only Live Once”.
Trump has sought to solidify his control over the legislature by supporting key opponents of senators he sees as disloyal to his political movement. Given Republicans’ slim majority in Congress, these lame members of the party still have significant power to thwart Trump’s policy plans.
Republicans were particularly outraged last month when Trump announced he would endorse Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s Republican Senate primary, paving the way for Paxton to defeat Cornyn. Many Senate Republicans argue that Paxton is a scandal-plagued candidate who will need huge funds to prevail in the general election.
‘Act like this never happened’
Republican lawmakers revealed their growing anger at the Trump administration during a heated meeting with Blanche ahead of Memorial Day. Senators pressed him on who would benefit from the funding, including whether money would be distributed to people who participated in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on his podcast that several senators yelled at Blanche during the meeting and said the president was “looking out for his own interests.”
“The anger and frustration of Republican senators wasn’t legal, it was political,” Cruz said. “It was a statement of ‘you put us in a situation’ that many Republican senators were not willing to defend.”
Funding was also a personal matter for some lawmakers who were on Capitol Hill during the Jan. 6 attacks. “They continue to experience very personal and emotional trauma from this,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican political strategist whom Trump appointed to the State Department in his first term.
On Tuesday, some of the fund’s critics were willing to back down from the debate.
“I just think we need to build a Wayback Machine and pretend this never existed and take the necessary steps to make sure it never comes into existence or falls apart,” Tillis said. “There are other mechanisms for people who are over-prosecuted.”
Jarrell Dillard contributed to this report.
