Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) revealed Friday that House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee voted to make themselves eligible to collect from President Donald Trump's $1.8 billion January 6th slush fund, triggering immediate outrage online.Levin took to X to announce that he had introduced an amendment to block members of Congress, the president, and the vice president from collecting any money from the controversial fund unless a court specifically orders it. Every Republican on the committee voted against his amendment, according to his video."Every Republican present in the House Appropriations Committee last night voted to make THEMSELVES eligible to collect from Trump's $1.8 billion January 6th slush fund. I am not making this up," Levin wrote in the caption.The California Democrat said the vote allows MAGA Republicans in Congress, along with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, to position themselves as victims of "government weaponization" and collect settlement funds out of the pool Trump created."That is exactly the kind of self-dealing corruption the American people are sick of," Levin wrote.The reaction was immediate. Former GOP insider Tara Setmayer reposted Levin's thread with a single line."Republicans in Congress did WHAT???" Setmayer wrote.Media producer Roy Bellamy offered a different take."I hope this ends up like a class action suit and everyone gets 35 cents," Bellamy wrote.Disability rights advocate James Tate kept it simple."Republicans love stealing tax dollars," Tate wrote on X.Republicans love stealing tax dollars. https://t.co/J4FnwMpQmy— James Tate (@JamesTate121) May 23, 2026
Some Republican lawmakers are pushing back on a potential peace deal with Iran as President Donald Trump mulls renewed airstrikes. The United States and Iran are reportedly close to securing an agreement that extends the ceasefire for 60 days. If finalized, the deal would include the gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and lay […]
Rep. Gimenez says Castro's indictment sparks regime paranoia, adding that Trump is letting pressure percolate while drawing up contingency plans.
Ohio Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) can’t be too thrilled with John Kasich’s appearance on MS NOW on Saturday morning after the popular former Republican governor refused to say if he would vote for him and questioned if he will be re-elected.Brought on to talk about the Republican infighting over, among other things, Donald Trump’s angering GOP lawmakers for pushing for a $1.8 billion “weaponization” slush fund, Kasich was asked by “The Weekend” co-host Jackie Alemany about voting for Husted.“I want to put you on the spot about the Ohio Senate race,” she began. “Obviously, you have Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill JD Vance's position, who's running against Sherrod Brown. Can we get a little bit more into sort of your prognostications of how the state of Ohio — you know, whether or not it's a still a MAGA stronghold? If you think Husted is going to be able to keep the seat and who you're going to be voting for?”“I mean, you haven't endorsed Husted. Are you going to be voting for Sherrod Brown?” she pressed.“Well, I guess, unless you're a voting machine, you're not going to know what I'm going to do,” he demurred. “I don't go telling people how I vote.”“But look, here's the situation with this,” he added. “This is going to be extremely close. Jon Husted has the difficulty of being an incumbent, you know, at a time where he doesn't have any of the benefits of being incumbent, which is the statewide name ID. Sherrod Brown ran, he's older. I think you're going to hear a lot more about that and, you know, he lost the last time. Is he going to try again? But here's what we do know: There's going to be an unbelievable amount of money spent here.”“A real interesting question is with the race in Texas, where they're going to have to pour a lot of money and the Republicans will need to hold that Senate seat. What does that do for all these other races where they need lots of money? Let me also say one thing -- in other words, I don't know who's going to win. I think it's going to be extremely close.” - YouTube youtu.be
President Donald Trump is dragging the Republican Party down at a moment when it could cost them everything, the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote in an analysis published on Friday evening."Republicans don’t want to say this publicly, but privately they do," wrote the board, an increasingly frequent critic of the president's policies despite sharing many of his political beliefs. "President Trump’s personal political obsessions are hurting his Presidency, harming the chances for further policy gains the rest of this year, and putting control of the House and Senate in jeopardy."GOP lawmakers' inability to pass Trump's Homeland Security funding bill, while also turning up the heat against his "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to pay out $1.776 billion to his political allies, is beginning to make the cracks show, the board wrote. Trump's other fixation on getting White House ballroom funding passed has similarly ground the DHS budget bill process to a halt, and the ongoing war powers votes Democrats are forcing against his action in Iran are starting to divide the party as well.But the real catalyst, the board wrote, is Trump working to unseat two Republican incumbent senators."First he helped defeat Lousiana's (sic) Bill Cassidy in a primary, and this week he endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn," wrote the board. "Mr. Trump’s motives in both cases were largely personal — he wanted revenge against Mr. Cassidy for thinking his behavior on Jan. 6, 2001 (sic), was an impeachable offense, and Mr. Cornyn didn’t endorse him for President with enough alacrity to suit his loyalty test."Through all of this, the board wrote, Trump "seems incapable of rising above, even as voters care much more about the economy and prices and his job approval falls to new lows.""Mr. Trump’s Presidency will be all but over — except for impeachment 3.0 — if the GOP loses control of Congress in November," the board concluded. "If he wants to accomplish more legislatively, he has only a few months to do it. Does he want his remaining legacy to be a ballroom, an Arc de Trump, and payoffs for his friends from a fund that Republicans would denounce if a Democratic President tried it?"
When asked about the Trump administration’s new $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded settlement for those alleging unfair targeting by Biden's Justice Department – including violent Jan. 6 Capitol rioters – a GOP strategist told CNN Saturday that not only was it a “political miscalculation,” but that the fund could be politically toxic in the midterm elections.Named by the Trump administration as the “anti-weaponization fund,” the settlement agreement was reached after President Donald Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over his tax returns leaking in 2019. Among those eligible for payouts from the taxpayer-funded settlement are those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and Trump’s donors, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was forced to admit this week.When asked about the fund during an appearance on CNN Saturday, GOP strategist Jeanette Hoffman gave a less-than-charitable reading of what she characterized as the Trump administration’s misplaced priorities.“I think it was a political miscalculation. You saw what happened: half the Senate caucus was extremely frustrated, you had people like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying it's disgusting, morally bankrupt, stupid; you had [Sen.] Thom Tillis (R-NC) saying this is 'stupidity on stilts,' [Sen.] Susan Collins (R-ME) asked a lot of questions about it,” Hoffman said. “So I don't think they're going to get their way on this. The message is wrong, this is not something that Republicans want to be talking about – Jan. 6 when we're coming back into midterms – and I think the administration has other priorities they need to focus on to really accomplish things for the American people in the next several months.”
A combination of bad Donald Trump polling and highly controversial proposals like his so-called “slush fund” to compensate allies who feel they were victimized by President Joe Biden’s DOJ for their criminality has finally given GOP lawmakers the nudge they needed to abandon him and save their own careers.According to MS NOW, a single week of Republican defiance saw GOP lawmakers strip $1 billion in security upgrades — including $220 million for Trump's new East Wing ballroom — from their reconciliation package, move closer to backing a resolution forcing Trump to end the Iran war without congressional authorization, and abruptly cancel a vote on $72 billion in additional funding for the administration's immigration and deportation agenda.The week coincided with Trump's approval rating falling to 37% in a New York Times/Siena poll — the lowest of his two terms combined. Gas prices averaging roughly $4.50 per gallon nationwide have become a constant reminder to voters of the economic pain inflicted by his Iran war.Republicans are increasingly bleak about the party's electoral prospects. "A freaking disaster [is] coming," one House Republican told MS NOW, speaking anonymously to discuss the election frankly.A former Trump administration official was more direct: "If the election were held today, we'd lose the Senate and the House."Republicans have finally reached a breaking point over Trump's controversial $1.8 billion "slush fund" designed to compensate allies who claim victimization by the Biden administration's DOJ — despite their criminality."Republicans have realized they are being scammed and this is the week where they said enough. I can't imagine any Republican ever allowing money to be paid to anyone who harmed law enforcement," a former Trump administration official admitted to MS NOW.GOP lawmakers cited Trump's erratic governance as justification for their rebellion. One House Republican criticized what the lawmaker described as "flip-flopping" on Iran negotiations from one Truth Social post to the next, and treating Taiwan like a "bargaining chip.""He's pushing it too far. The list goes on and on," the House Republican said.A second House Republican told MS NOW that Republicans "feel more confident in criticizing [him] because the poll numbers aren't as high as they were," adding that if Republicans had a "Memorial Day wish," it would be to exit the Iran war entirely.A source close to the White House revealed the fundamental shift in Republican calculations, telling MS NOW's Laura Barrón-López and Mychael Schnell, "In many ways I don't think they [GOP lawmakers] fear the president anymore. Many have realized you can outlive Trump, politically speaking."
In a deep dive on Donald Trump’s “bad week” that prompted a massive Republican Party revolt against the president who is used to having his way, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the outburst against the president’s proposed “slush fund” was a direct result of their existing discontent with his GOP primary meddling.According to the Journal, the verbal abuse that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was greeted with, in what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called “One of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” was an outgrowth of previous frustration with Trump.For more than a year, Republican senators had largely deferred to Trump's wishes — backing contentious cabinet nominees, giving the president free rein on tariffs and the Iran war, and accepting his judicial appointments without serious resistance.This week, they revolted en masse, fed up with Trump's insistence on settling personal scores and pursuing pet projects at the expense of their legislative agenda.The "tipping point" came Tuesday when Trump endorsed scandal-tarred Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the state's Republican Senate primary runoff — a move that stunned many of Cornyn's colleagues, the Journal is reporting.GOP senators viewed the endorsement as reckless and personal. Cornyn is a longtime, well-respected Senate fixture who served in leadership, ran for majority leader, and has been a prolific fundraiser — collecting more than $400 million in donations for Senate colleagues, candidates, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee since 2002."I'm just sad," said an emotional Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) after Trump announced the endorsement. She fretted that it would cost Republicans "a fortune" to try to hold Cornyn's seat.Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate. The report notes that GOP senators have warned that Paxton — who was impeached by his own party, later acquitted, and is in the middle of a divorce initiated by his wife on "biblical grounds" — could force the party to spend tens of millions defending a traditionally red seat.Those resources could be invested elsewhere on the Senate map in truly competitive states such as Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, and Alaska.The Paxton endorsement followed Trump's ouster of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician and committee chairman who failed to reach the Senate GOP runoff after Trump backed Rep. Julia Letlow. Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in the 2021 Senate impeachment trial.Some Republican aides viewed Trump's last-minute Paxton endorsement as a sign of his broader frustration with the Senate and his determination to punish perceived disloyalty — regardless of the electoral consequences for the party.