Top Republican Is “Begging” Trump to Stop His Vanity Projects

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pleading with the White House to nix Donald Trump’s so-called “anti-weaponization” slush fund in order to pass Congress’s behemoth budget reconciliation bill. Thune called the White House Monday to ask it to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion fund for alleged MAGA victims of political targeting. Shortly after, the Department of Justice announced it would suspend its plans (after a major court loss). Still, the South Dakota Republican told Punchbowl News Monday afternoon that additional assurances that the fund was dead would be “helpful” toward rallying Republicans to pass the $72 billion budget reconciliation bill. “Confining the bill to its original intent, which was a very narrowly focused reconciliation bill that just addresses the funding for [ICE and CBP], is the clearest path to ultimately getting a bill on the president’s desk,” Thune said. Punchbowl reported that Thune was “practically begging” the Trump administration to shutter plans for the fund entirely, believing it is the only way to prevent Republicans from defecting on the vote and siding with Democratic-led amendments. Consequently, Thune also said that a $1.5 billion fund for a wide range of projects at the DOJ would be dropped from the budget bill. Ahead of the midterms, it seems that Thune is desperate to rein in Trump’s rampant spending and keep the president’s personal vendettas out of his legislative agenda—but it’s Republicans who have already allowed him to get away with so much who are responsible for the nation’s spiral out of control.