For Republicans, Trump’s $1.8B “Slush Fund” Was a Bridge Too Far
Why was this the thing that caused a GOP revolt?
There will be no newsletter on Monday in honor of Memorial Day. There will still be three newsletters next week, though! I’m planning to do a mailbag column for all subscribers (free and paid) in the middle of the week, since there’s just so much going on and I’m sure many of you have questions. Here’s the link to submit a question.
Have a great long weekend and thank you to all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our country. — Gabe
What a week of highs and lows for Donald Trump.
Trump entered the week having pulled off a major power play against a Republican incumbent, succeeding on Saturday in not just ensuring Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) defeat in a primary challenge, but dooming him to a dismal third-place finish. Cassidy ended up with just 24.8% of the Republican vote, the worst primary performance for a sitting senator in almost 50 years, his punishment for voting to convict Trump in his January 6th impeachment trial.
The president then followed that up on Tuesday by purging another GOP dissenter, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). Crossing Republicans off his enemies list, Trump and his team seemed to feel as invincible as ever. “Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power,” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted Tuesday night. “Fuck around, find out.”
That was then.
Over the last 24 hours, Trump faced the most significant revolt from Senate Republicans of his second term, an unexpected show of force by GOP lawmakers at the exact moment when Trump’s power over them had seemed absolute.
The split emerged after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced this week that a settlement had been reached in the case President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against his own administration over the leaking of his tax information by an IRS contractor in his first term.
As part of the agreement, the Justice Department declared that it is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from carrying out any audits or prosecutions related to tax returns filed up to this point by Trump, his two eldest sons, or their family business.
The sitting president seemingly strong-arming his acting AG (and former personal lawyer) into granting him and his relatives sweeping tax immunity was galling enough. But the settlement went even further, setting up a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that the DOJ said would be used to compensate other “victims of lawfare and weaponization” by previous administrations.
The funds are set to be disbursed by five officials chosen by Blanche and removable by Trump at any time. No limits are spelled out on who these officials can decide to give the money to, which means everyone Trump views as being unfairly targeted by the U.S. government — from pardoned January 6th rioters to those ensnarled in the Russia investigation — could benefit (and are already plotting for how to receive their piece of the pie).
Such a Weaponization Fund had long been discussed in the Trump orbit, but advisers had been uncertain where to find the money, according to CNN. Trump’s lawsuit created the perfect opportunity, courtesy of something called the Judgment Fund, “a permanent, indefinite appropriation” created by Congress in 1956 that the DOJ is allowed to dip into whenever it enters into settlement agreements.
The president’s lawsuit against his own government had unlocked the ability for his appointees to steer upwards of $1.7 billion in taxpayer dollars to allies of the president, potentially including ones who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol.
This circle of self-dealing was a bridge too far for many Senate Republicans. And I don’t just mean typical Trump critics like Cassidy (who referred to the pot of money as a “slush fund”), Mitch McConnell (who called it “utterly stupid” and “morally wrong”), and Susan Collins (“I do not believe individuals that were convicted of violence against police officers on January 6 should be entitled to reimbursement of their legal fees”).
In addition to these usual suspects, there was also Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who said that he was “not a big fan” of the fund and didn’t “see a purpose” for it. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), who earlier this month promised to always be loyal to Trump, said that she didn’t want any rioters who assaulted police officers on January 6th to receive funds. “Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think that’s probably true,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), another Trump ally, said.
“We can’t help the president with a budget reconciliation package with this hanging over us,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) added.
Indeed, this furor is coming at the worst possible time for the president. The Senate was poised this week to advance a party-line reconciliation package to fund ICE and CBP, infusing more than $50 billion into immigration enforcement, one of Trump’s top priorities.
As part of the reconciliation process, senators are required to go through a ritual known as a “vote-a-rama,” in which every senator has the right to offer unlimited amendments, and they all have to receive a vote.
Republican senators were already reeling at the prospect of facing Democratic amendments barring any funds in the package from going towards Trump’s proposed White House ballroom. (The president had wanted the bill to include $1 billion for boosting White House security, including for the new ballroom, though the GOP was preparing to drop that push due to political and procedural concerns.) Now, amendment votes on the so-called “slush fund” were inevitable as well, which threatened to put GOP senators in a tricky spot.
Blanche was dispatched to the Capitol for a damage-control meeting with Senate Republicans. It didn’t go well. According to Punchbowl News, as many as 25 GOP senators spoke up, “all in opposition” to the Anti-Weaponization Fund. The “incredibly hostile” meeting ended with Republicans considering whether and how to proactively add provisions restricting the fund into the reconciliation package, in order to preempt Democratic amendments.
Deciding they needed more time to figure out their next steps, Senate Republicans decided to head to recess early, postponing the vote-a-rama that was supposed to take place Thursday. That guarantees that Republicans will miss Trump’s June 1 deadline for the package to be sent to his desk, a significant embarrassment for the president. (The Senate is not set to return to Washington until that day.)
Adding insult to injury, House Republicans also skipped town early on Thursday in order to avoid taking a politically costly vote inflicted on them by the president. The House had been scheduled to take up a Democratic resolution to end the war in Iran; GOP leaders decided to postpone the vote until June to give them more time to whip their members, since it looked like the measure had enough votes to pass. The Senate similarly advanced a resolution to end the war this week, which means that — had Republicans not canceled the vote — majorities of both chambers of Congress were likely to be on the record against the war for the first time, another blow to Trump.
I’ll be honest: I was not expecting this amount of GOP pushback against Trump, certainly not in a week when he had flexed so much power over them, and certainly not in a way that would derail his legislative agenda so profoundly. Beneath the paywall, I dig into the reasons why this was the moment — after 16 months of controversies — that Senate Republicans decided to draw a red line.