Trump Pushes Anti-Weaponization Fund as Senate Republicans Block $1.776 Billion Jan. 6 Measure

President Donald Trump’s push for an “anti-weaponization” fund met rare resistance in the Senate, where Senate Republicans “simply refused, closed up shop, and went home.”

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Axios

The dispute centered on a $1.776 billion fund for Jan. 6 rioters and others Trump believes were wrongly prosecuted, leaving the GOP’s top priority of passing a roughly $70 billion budget package in shambles for now.

Brookings

NBC News reported that “40,000 people in Southern California [were] ordered to evacuate over threat of toxic chemical explosion,” as Trump’s legislative fight played out in Washington.

PBS described how the impasse left the Senate unable to pass the budget package before Trump’s June 1 deadline to have it on his desk.

The standoff also intersected with the House, where enough GOP lawmakers broke ranks to signal support for a war powers resolution designed to halt Trump’s military action in Iran, with House Speaker Mike Johnson postponing voting to avoid confronting the president.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., challenged the premise of the compensation plan by asking, “Under what circumstances would it ever make sense to provide restitution for people who were either pled guilty or were found guilty in a court of law?”

Tillis also derided the White House move as “stupid on stilts” and “a payout for punks,” while Trump fired back accusing Tillis of “screwing the Republican Party” in a lengthy social media post.

CNN

PBS said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met for hours behind closed doors with senators over the compensation fund but left without a resolution, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the discussion likely left the administration’s team with “an appreciation for the depth of feeling on the issue.”

Mitch McConnell issued a sharper rebuke, saying, “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,” as the revolt widened.

CNN added that the settlement included a $1.776 billion fund to compensate citizens who claim they were victims of weaponized justice in the Biden administration, and it cited Susan Collins saying, “I do not believe individuals that were convicted of violence against police officers on January 6 should be entitled to reimbursement of their legal fees.”

The impasse over the “anti-weaponization” fund left Republicans’ broader legislative priorities exposed, with PBS saying the voting was postponed until Congress resumes next month and blew Trump’s June 1 deadline.

“Donald Trump is putting an overly literal spin on the words in his presidential seal — e pluribus unum, meaning, “out of many, one”

CNN

Axios framed the episode as a rare moment of Republican resistance that spared them from having to vote on Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” and security funding for his White House ballroom, while also quoting Sen. Thom Tillis calling it “Stupid on stilts.”

PBS said the result left in shambles, for now, the GOP’s top priority of passing a roughly $70 billion budget package that would fuel Trump’s immigration and deportation operations for the remainder of his presidential term, into 2029.

CNN described Trump’s settlement as including “forever” barring IRS audits into past tax affairs of the president and his family, and it said the revolt would not have happened had Trump not pursued rewarding supporters who backed his false claims of 2020 election fraud.

WSJ warned that the fracturing support for Trump’s priorities in the Senate could endanger Republicans’ legislative agenda, which relies on their ability to stick together on party-line votes “from immigration-enforcement funding to a gas-tax holiday to tens of billions of dollars for the U.S. war in Iran.”