(AFP) – It has been denounced as a “slush fund” for rioters and defended by President Donald Trump as justice for victims of Joe Biden’s “evil” administration. But for Senate Republicans, the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” compensation scheme became something more consequential: a line they were no longer willing to cross.
After months of standing behind Trump through war, tariffs, and ethics storms, Republican senators derailed one of his signature priorities — an immigration enforcement bill — rather than advance legislation while the controversy remained unresolved. The rebellion was small. But in a Congress defined by razor-thin margins, a handful of defectors can stall legislation and force leaders to choose between satisfying Trump and protecting vulnerable lawmakers.
The debacle exposed a growing fear that Trump’s personal grievances are colliding with Republican survival in a midterm election year dominated by the cost of living. The $70 billion immigration bill was supposed to be an easy win — a sweeping injection of money for immigration and border enforcement. Instead, Senate leaders sent lawmakers home for a week-long break without a vote after acting attorney general Todd Blanche failed to calm concerns over Trump’s fund, pitched as compensation for Americans unfairly targeted by the government.
“Trump finally handed Senate Republicans a vote they couldn’t survive,” progressive political commentator Thom Hartmann told AFP. “Iran, tariffs and the ballroom all kept the cost diffuse and deniable, but the so-called ‘anti-weaponization fund’ put senators on the record for paying taxpayer dollars to people who beat Capitol Police.”
– ‘Stupid on stilts’ –
The fund was created as part of a settlement under which Trump agreed to drop a lawsuit against his Internal Revenue Service over a leak of his tax returns. Critics say it could compensate Trump allies — potentially including people convicted of attacking police during the 2021 Capitol riot. For many Senate Republicans, that proved politically indefensible.
“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops?” former Republican leader Mitch McConnell said. “Utterly stupid, morally wrong — take your pick.” Thom Tillis called the idea “stupid on stilts,” while Lisa Murkowski said the White House had “dropped a bomb” into a carefully planned immigration bill. Trump defended the fund Friday, saying he had given up “a lot of money” by allowing it to go forward.
“Instead,” he wrote, “I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE!” Federal prosecutors secured a rare 100 percent conviction rate in jury trials stemming from the riot, and no appealed verdicts were overturned. But the backlash was about more than one fund.
Republicans were already preparing to strip money for Trump’s planned White House ballroom, fearing Democrats would cast it as a symbol of skewed priorities as voters struggle with mortgages, groceries, and gasoline. The “anti-weaponization” fund landed differently, combining legal uncertainty, taxpayer money, the Capitol riot, and Trump’s instinct for score-settling into one toxic package.
– Obedience –
It also arrived during a week of raw frustration over Trump’s attacks on fellow Republicans facing primaries. The president helped defeat Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, pushed to oust Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, and endorsed Texas attorney general Ken Paxton over longtime Senator John Cornyn — moves that angered many Senate Republicans and raised fears he is weakening his own side before November’s midterm elections.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged that politics had become impossible to separate from legislating, and criticized the White House for making life “more complicated” for his troops. “It would have been nice if they had consulted,” he told reporters.
The immigration bill is not dead. Republicans still broadly support Trump’s deportation agenda and are likely to revive the package after the recess, possibly with limits on who can receive compensation. But the episode marks one of the clearest signs yet that Trump’s dominance over Republican primaries does not always translate into obedience on Capitol Hill.
The question now is whether this was a brief mutiny — or the first sign that Republicans, staring at a difficult midterm campaign, see more risk in defending Trump’s grievances than defying them.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
