Controversy over Trump ballroom and $1.8B ‘slush fund’ sends Senate running from the Hill in GOP revolt

The Senate left town on Thursday without beginning votes on legislation that the GOP plans to push through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to fund ICE enforcement and removal operations.

And it was all thanks to Republicans arguing amongst themselves over the president’s plans for a White House ballroom and a $1.776 billion “slush fund” for Trump’s allies.

Senators who spoke to The Independent coming out of a GOP luncheon on Thursday confirmed that plans for a “vote-a-rama” overnight session were being spiked until after the Memorial Day holiday, and lawmakers quickly began filing out of the Capitol after the news.

Even a desperate, last-minute visit on Thursday from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to drum up support among the Senate Republican caucus appeared to net few results.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski departed the meeting and told reporters that skepticism to the “slush fund,” as critics have labeled the DOJ settlement with Trump, remained high. “Let’s just say it was a very fulsome, important discussion with the White House — and nobody held back,” the Alaska senator said.

open image in gallery

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, meanwhile, had little to say to reporters as he hurried out of that meeting on Thursday, but seemingly confirmed that the demand for the inclusion of the weaponization fund was the reason for the holdup.

“It’s a big issue,” Thune said of the so-called “weaponization’ fund.

Thune, who has been under fire from Trump, also said he hadn’t spoken with the president as the Senate prepared to skip town.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Republicans for their dysfunction during a press conference shortly before members flew out.

“Republicans are in complete disarray, they’re at each other’s throats and the American are suffering for it,” he said. “Republicans have tied themselves up in knots and torn each other to shreds over Trump’s brazenly corrupt slush fund for his billionaire cronies and January 6 insurrectionists.”

As lawmakers fled the Senate, their colleagues in the House unveiled a bipartisan amendment aimed at killing the fund that they plan to tack on to the reconciliation bill.

Sen. Thom Tillis lambasted the fund on Wednesday, and Thune had previously indicated his own lukewarm feelings — indicating that the White House may be fighting a losing battle.

Many lawmakers complained openly about the lack of concrete guardrails around the fund, which was unveiled by Blanche at the Department of Justice as a means of compensating people “unfairly” targeted for prosecution by the Biden Justice Department.

open image in gallery

The fund would use taxpayer money, and critics say it could be used to benefit the scores of now-pardoned January 6 rioters around the country. Congress must authorize that money for the DOJ to be able to use it, and the only hope for its survival is passage through the reconciliation package.

But many Republicans see this as a complication that will hinder the bill’s passage — and even Trump’s most staunch supporters, like Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), told reporters on Thursday that the fund was a “curveball” that had put delays on the Senate’s plans.

“We want to make sure we get it right. We don’t want to go in there with [senators] not knowing what they’re going to do,” said Tuberville. “Got to have everybody’s vote.”

Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota confirmed that as of yet, Senate Republican leadership didn’t have the 51 votes necessary to pass a reconcilation package given the disagreements over both the weaponziation fund and other issues.

“We’re still trying to figure out the path to 51”, he said.

Murkowski, speaking to a small gaggle as she left the luncheon, said that the lack of guardrails was her main concern. She pointed to Blanche’s inability to say, repeatedly, that people convicted of fighting with police on Jan. 6, 2021 and seeking to harm lawmakers wouldn’t be eligible for compensation under the Trump settlement.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

Tillis, a day before, teed off on the idea.

“Imagine that a fund that is set up to compensate people who assaulted Capitol police officers and other responding agencies, right” Tillis said.

“People that had pled guilty to physical acts against the president may actually be able to get compensated. How absurd does that sound coming out of my mouth?"

Minutes after the news broke of the Senate’s plans to punt the issue, the House cancelled its own plans to hold votes on Friday, effectively signaling that the matter was concluded for the week.

Further complicating the issue for the White House is the administration’s ask for funding to begin the construction of Trump’s planned White House ballroom, which despite the president’s repeated promises that the $400 million project is self-funded comes with another $1 billion taxpayer price tag for security through Congress.

Republicans are still debating a path forward on that aspect of the reconciliation bill after the Senate parliamentarian — who so often vexed the Biden White House — stripped the language from the draft legislation altogether.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies