“Who thought this was a good idea? Who chose this timing?” Cotton asked bluntly.
Cotton was speaking about Trump’s slush fund to pay January 6 rioters and other convicted criminals when Trump’s Attorney General Todd Blanche pitched the idea to the Senate.
Cotton knows the answer is Trump. He just didn’t say it. Other Senators did, many of them.
The Week That Broke Trump’s Control Over Congress
The Wall Street Journal comments on The Week That Broke Trump’s Control Over Congress
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, and a team of White House aides arrived at a hastily organized meeting near the Senate chamber hoping to reassure Republicans about a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” promoted by President Trump.
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Trump ally from Arkansas, wasn’t having it.
“Who thought this was a good idea? Who chose this timing?” Cotton asked bluntly inside the Senate’s ornate Mike Mansfield Room, pressing Blanche, White House legislative affairs director James Braid and others about the fund with a series of point-blank questions, according to people familiar with the tense exchange.
Cotton was far from alone—more than a dozen Republican senators grilled Blanche about the settlement in the two-hour meeting, the people said, questioning its merit and warning that it could derail approval of a $70 billion multiyear package funding immigration enforcement.
“One of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), said Friday on his podcast. “Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said, adding that some senators were screaming at Blanche.
For more than a year, Republican senators had largely been deferential to Trump’s wishes—from backing contentious cabinet nominees to giving the president free rein on tariffs and the Iran war.
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 when Trump endorsed a rival to Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday, a move that stunned many of Cornyn’s colleagues. They saw it as a reckless way to treat a senior Republican incumbent whose seat the party can’t afford to lose in November.
“I’m just sad,” said an emotional Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) after Trump announced the endorsement. She fretted that it would now cost Republicans “a fortune” to try to hold Cornyn’s seat.
Trump’s approval numbers are sinking headed into the midterms. A new Wall Street Journal poll found Trump’s job approval at 41%, with 57% disapproving, down from 45% approval in January. In a troubling sign for the White House, the survey showed that the share of Republicans who say they “strongly approve” of Trump’s job performance had dropped from 75% in January to 57% in May.
The poll also found Democrats leading Republicans, 48% to 40%, in a congressional ballot measuring which party is favored to lead the next Congress. The poll was conducted from May 7 to May 18.
ICE funding paralyzed
People familiar with senators’ thinking said far more than half of the GOP conference has concerns about the Justice Department settlement fund, set up to pay people who claim political persecution—including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who stormed the Capitol and could now walk away with millions from the federal government. Many also are uncomfortable with Trump’s push for $1 billion in security funding tied to his planned White House ballroom, a project Trump had insisted would be paid for with private donations.
The “anti-weaponization” fund was created as the result of the administration settling a Trump lawsuit against his own government. It came just ahead of a deadline set by a federal judge, who demanded explanations on how Trump could be on both sides of the case.
The White House “put themselves in a bad spot. It wasn’t Congress that did it. Congress has had no input. Might be part of the problem,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), who lost his recent primary after Trump endorsed a rival.
The fight has paralyzed progress on Republicans’ long-sought bill to provide funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski likened it to “dropping a bomb” on the legislative process. Senators wanted to wrap that up this week ahead of Trump’s June 1 deadline but were forced to punt until next month.
Trump told reporters Thursday that he didn’t know if he was losing control of the Senate. He made clear Friday he wasn’t backing down on the fund.
“I could have settled my case…for an absolute fortune,” he said on Truth Social. “Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused.”
Trump lashed out at Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), who had drawn Trump’s ire by labeling the fund a “payout pot for punks” and “stupid on stilts.” The president said Tillis—who decided to retire under pressure from Trump—“can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party.”
Tillis responded that Republicans need to do well in November, but “the stupid stuff is killing our chances!”
GOP senators say the ball is in the administration’s court to make changes to the settlement. According to people familiar with the matter, senators in the meeting with Blanche delivered a message to the White House: You need to fix this.
“The administration is going to have to come up with some suggestions and ideas,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) told reporters Thursday. Asked if Trump’s endorsements against incumbents played into the logjam, he responded: “There’s a political component to everything we do around here.”
Cruz, in his podcast, said he expected the administration would move—at minimum—to modify the fund or face “a full-on revolt” in the Senate.
Senators Primed for a Revolt
The chamber was primed for a revolt after Trump’s decision to endorse scandal-tarred Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Cornyn in the state’s Republican Senate primary runoff.
Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate. Republicans have warned that Paxton, who was impeached by his own party and 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 of dollars that could be invested elsewhere on the Senate map, in competitive states such as Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and Alaska.
Some Republican aides viewed Trump’s decision to endorse Paxton at the last minute as a sign of his broader frustration with the Senate. Trump has been raging on social media for months about passing the Save America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote but lacks the 60 votes required to overcome a Senate filibuster. Trump has called passing the bill critical to Republicans winning the midterms.
Until this week, Senate Republicans, with the exception of a few like Tillis who are retiring or representing swing states, had mostly been deferential to the president.
But that support broke down when the Trump administration unveiled the settlement fund, derided by members of both parties as a “slush fund,” just as the House and Senate were hoping to approve their immigration-enforcement funding package.
“Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think that’s probably true,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) said to CNN.
Former Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) who returned to the U.S. Capitol this week for the first time in five years, said Trump’s decision not to endorse Cornyn had affected Senate Republicans because so many members respect the Texas lawmaker.
“I’m not sure what the president’s strategy is in purging Senate Republicans who support him 99% of the time,” said Alexander.
Trump Has Lost the Governing Plot
Also, consider the WSJ Editorial Trump Has Lost the Governing Plot
Republicans don’t want to say this publicly, but privately they do: 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.
The trigger for the Senate revolt Thursday was Mr. Trump’s insistence on his $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund.” This is allegedly part of his settlement, if you want to call it that, with the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. It’s an agreement between Mr. Trump and the Justice Department which reports to him—he is on both sides of the deal—to pay Jan. 6 riot participants and others Mr. Trump claims were unjustly targeted by Democratic officials.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, hardly a GOP faint heart, said someone had called it a “galactic blunder,” and “that’s probably true.” Mr. Trump has already pardoned the rioters but now he wants the rest of us to pay them.
GOP leaders pulled the entire funding legislation when it appeared they might lose the weaponization vote and went home on recess. But Democrats will be back again with the same amendments if the bill returns with the same payout.
Then there’s Mr. Trump’s East Wing ballroom fixation, for which he wants $220 million from Congress. He has a point about hardened security for the new White House area, but he had said when he first tore down the old East Wing that it would require no public money.
The parliamentarian struck the ballroom funding from the DHS bill under budget reconciliation rules, so now the GOP will need 60 votes (not 51) to pass ballroom funding. Mr. Trump naturally berated GOP Senators for not firing the parliamentarian.
Senate GOP frustration is also boiling after Mr. Trump’s campaign against two Senators running for re-election. First he helped defeat Lousiana’s Bill Cassidy in a primary, and this week he endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn. Mr. Trump’s motives in both cases were largely personal—he wanted revenge against Mr. Cassidy for thinking his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, was an impeachable offense, and Mr. Cornyn didn’t endorse him for President with enough alacrity to suit his loyalty test.
In both cases, he’ll get slavish replacements—that is, if Mr. Paxton wins the primary and then doesn’t lose in November. But meantime there are governing consequences for alienating allies. Mr. Cassidy provided the swing vote that allowed the Democrats’ war powers resolution to advance, and he was a likely no on ballroom funding too. Mr. Cornyn is such a class act that he won’t take gratuitous votes that hurt his party, but he’ll have no incentive to bow to Mr. Trump’s demands either.
By the way, GOP House leaders pulled a war powers vote Thursday when it appeared Mr. Trump would lose that too. That will also come back again. Mr. Trump can always veto the resolution, but the erosion of support for the war is a sign of overall eroding political support.
Mr. Trump’s politics has always been largely personal, but in his second term it has become self-indulgent even by his standards. The Trump name on everything, the Beltway “arch” and other monuments to French-like grandeur. And most of all the politics of retribution and lawfare as he seeks to ruin anyone he thinks has wronged him. He 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. 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?
Mr. Trump needs a second-year reset, or he is headed toward a second-term failure.
Senator Revolt
- Tom Cotton: “Who thought this was a good idea? Who chose this timing?”
- Ted Cruz: “One of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), said Friday on his podcast. “Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said, adding that some senators were screaming at Blanche. Cruz, in his podcast, said he expected the administration would move—at minimum—to modify the fund or face “a full-on revolt” in the Senate.
- Cynthia Lummis: “I’m just sad,” said an emotional Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) after Trump announced the endorsement. She fretted that it would now cost Republicans “a fortune” to try to hold Cornyn’s seat.
- Thom Tillis: Tillis had drawn Trump’s ire by labeling the fund a “payout pot for punks” and “stupid on stilts.”
- John Thune: “The administration is going to have to come up with some suggestions and ideas,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) told reporters
- Ron Johnson: “Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think that’s probably true,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) said to CNN.
- Bill Cassidy: The White House “put themselves in a bad spot. It wasn’t Congress that did it. Congress has had no input. Might be part of the problem,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.).
- Lisa Murkowski: Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski likened it to “dropping a bomb” on the legislative process.
Reflections on RINOs
The MAGA response will be to label Cassidy, Murkowski, Tillis, and Thune as RINOs, Republicans In Name Only.
Labeling Cotton, Cruz, Lummis, and Johnson as RINOs won’t be so easy.
The biggest RINO of all is Trump. He has sponsored wars. His extreme tariffs cost jobs and clobber small businesses.
Trump protects podophiles and rapists, attacks the Pope, and builds monuments to himself.
Oh wait. I forgot. Sponsoring wars, killing jobs, protecting pedophiles, attacking the Pope, and building statues to yourself are all Republican ideals now.
Those who don’t support such things are RINOs.
Trump Not Headed for Failure
The Journal said Trump is headed for failure. I strongly disagree. Trump is not headed for failure; he is a proven failure already.
Trump is a vindictive, pedophile-protecting liar, whose economic policy is an inflation disaster.
On top of that, he started a stupid war after claiming Democrats were likely to do so.
Ten Trump Failures
- Inflation is high and rising
- War after campaigning against it
- Tariffs are an economic disaster and very unpopular
- Job growth is flat at best, according to best data, manufacturing losses
- Deportations have been a political, moral, and economic disaster the way carried out
- Epstein, still no release of files
- Trump sounds like Elizabeth Warren on price gouging
- Lawfare and retribution, including the slush fund, Paxton, and Massie
- Self-indulgence, including the ballroom, arch, and his image plastered everywhere.
- Israel sets US policy
The only thing Trump got mostly right was sealing the border.
Tulsi Gabbard Resigns, Her Political Career Ruined by Allegiance to Trump
I received some pushback for my post Tulsi Gabbard Resigns, Her Political Career Ruined by Allegiance to Trump
Tulsi became everything she railed against, then she quit.
I stand by what I said.
I should have linked to some other supporting posts. For example, please consider my February 3, 2026, article Dear Tulsi, What the Hell Happened to You?
The Hill comments Blanche on Gabbard’s presence at FBI election raid: ‘I don’t know why the director was there’
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday he was unsure why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present during an FBI search of a Georgia election center on Wednesday.
“I don’t know why the director was there,” Blanche told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “She is not part of the grand jury investigation, but she is for sure a key part of our efforts at election integrity and making sure that we have free and fair elections.”
Reuters photographer Elijah Nouvelage on Wednesday captured a shot of Gabbard, wearing a dark jacket and baseball cap, speaking on the phone outside an election office in Fulton County. Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence committees have demanded Gabbard testify on her appearance at the facility.
Tulsi Gabbard accused of trying to ‘bury’ whistleblower complaint
Totally unrelated to the above sickening events, we now learn Tulsi Gabbard accused of trying to ‘bury’ whistleblower complaint
Classified Whistleblower Complaint About Tulsi Gabbard Stalls Within Her Agency
The Wall Street Journal reports Classified Whistleblower Complaint About Tulsi Gabbard Stalls Within Her Agency
A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.
Prior to Maduro’s capture, Tulsi was silent on Trump blowing up Venezuelan boats 2,000 miles away on made up charges the “narco-terrorists” were a threat to the US.
And there was silence when Trump bombed 7 nations.
If Tusli had any ounce of integrity remaining, she would have resigned on January 3.
Instead, Tusli participated in a nonsensical election witch hunt in Georgia. But Trump is certain to disown her at the first sign of trouble, possibly now.
Mish: February 3, 2026: “Tusli participated in a nonsensical election witch hunt in Georgia. But Trump is certain to disown her at the first sign of trouble, possibly now.“
Now it was a little delayed. It came yesterday.
Please play this video to see the Tulsi we once knew. And ironically, it is from November 2025, after Trump started blowing up boats and bombing 7 nations.
Partial Transcription
Tulsi: For decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building.
It was a one size fits all approach of toppling regimes and trying to impose our system of government on others, intervene in conflicts that were barely understood, and walk away with more enemies than allies.
The results, trillions spent, countless live lost, and in many cases the creation of greater security threats.
President Trump was elected by the American people to put an end to this. ….
That’s the Tusli I once knew. She made that speech on November 1, 2025.
What the Hell Happened?
On January 3, 2026, US forces conducted a nighttime raid in Caracas called “Operation Absolute Resolve”. They captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores and transported them to New York for trial.
Trump kept Tulsi in the dark the whole time.
Neither Trump nor MAGA (by definition actually) ever fully trusted Tulsi.
I don’t believe she resigned. I believe she was forced out. OK, she had a plausible excuse, her husband has cancer.
A Reuters source says Tulsi Was Forced Out.
A source familiar with the matter said that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson, said on X that Gabbard was departing in light of her husband’s diagnosis.
Trump has hinted in the past at differences with Gabbard on their approach to Iran, saying in March that she was “softer” than him on curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
In April, several sources told Reuters that Gabbard could lose her role in a broader cabinet shakeup.
A senior White House official said then that Trump had expressed displeasure with Gabbard in recent months. Another source with direct knowledge of the matter said the president had asked allies for their thoughts on potential replacements for his intelligence chief.
She has been absent from deliberations between Trump and his top national security advisers on major foreign policy issues, including the U.S. military operation that deposed former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Iran war and Cuba.
“She was pushed out by the White House,” the source familiar with Gabbard’s departure told Reuters. “The White House has been unhappy with her for quite some time.”
Forced out or not, Gabbard entered a Faustian bargain with Trump. One by one, she abandoned everything she preached.
In the end, it was not enough. It never is with Trump.
Mish Preliminary Senate Forecast, Democrats Pick Up Four Seats
I stick with my assessment, Mish Preliminary Senate Forecast, Democrats Pick Up Four Seats
I expect Democrats will pick up 3 to 6 seats. 4 will win the Senate.
When Senators Tom Cotton, Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz, and others are ringing alarm bells, you know there is a fire.
And that is what the polls show too. Given that Trump is Trump, he will not change.
If anything, Trump will get increasingly desperate, losing more voters in the process.
The “Save Act” is Dead going nowhere. That’s why I am confident Trump will lose nearly all the tossup races.
Please read above links for details.
Article posted with permission from Mish Shedlock
