By Richard Cowan, David Morgan, Bo Erickson and Jacob Bogage
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans abandoned plans to vote on funding for immigration enforcement on Thursday in a revolt against one of President Donald Trump’s priorities: a $1.8 billion fund for victims of government “weaponization,” including those convicted of violent crimes during the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
The Senate walked away from a $72 billion bill funding Trump’s massive migrant deportation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, delaying the vote at least until June, when lawmakers return from a one-week Memorial Day holiday recess.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune had sought to focus the legislation narrowly to secure the money intended to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s presidency.
But the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and another $1 billion for building a White House ballroom were added at Trump’s behest, and became sticking points.
“It was something that was supposed to be very narrow, targeted, focused, clean, straightforward, and it got a little bit more complicated this week,” Thune said, expressing his frustration. “It makes everything way harder than it should be.”
The partisan ICE funding bill became embroiled in party politics after a Trump-backed challenger unseated two-term Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and the president endorsed a primary challenger over veteran Republican Senator John Cornyn in Texas.
Presidents usually back their party’s incumbents. Republicans said Trump’s opposition to Cassidy and Cornyn added to the mood of acrimony surrounding the debate.
“He’s lost some support in the Senate,” said Nebraska Republican Representative Don Bacon, who predicted that Senate Republicans would have to impose curbs on Trump’s fund, which the Justice Department announced as part of a court settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service.
“He’s the plaintiff and the boss of the defendants. So just on the surface, it smells,” he said.
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL SUMMONED TO CAPITOL HILL
Against that backdrop, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche was summoned to Capitol Hill to face questions from angry senators when he made his case for the $1.8 billion fund designed to compensate Trump allies and others who the administration says were victims of government “weaponization.”
Blanche has also denied that Trump set up the settlement fund.
During Blanche’s meeting, several senators insisted the money not be used to compensate people convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the Capitol riot, a person briefed on the meeting said.
Trump had already pardoned many of those convicted for crimes they committed during that deadly assault.
“I think there are people who are concerned about public relations,” Senator Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, told reporters about the meeting.
Emotions were so raw that a planned White House meeting including Trump, Senate Republicans and House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson was canceled, according to a separate source familiar with the arrangement.
A White House official said the administration appreciated the day’s conversation and feedback. “We look forward to additional conversations as needed.”
BIPARTISAN RESISTANCE TO BALLROOM FUNDING
The resistance against Trump became evident late on Wednesday when Senate Republicans said “no” to $1 billion in new security funding for the 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom Trump wants to build on the site of the White House East Wing, which he had razed last October.
For months, Trump has said no taxpayer dollars would be needed for the project. Nonetheless, a $1 billion tab to be picked up by taxpayers was presented to senators as an add-on to a $72 billion bill for Trump’s migrant deportation program.
Bacon said the White House had failed to communicate that most of the $1 billion ballroom money would fund needed security upgrades across the White House complex. “The ballroom was rolled out so badly that I’m not sure it can be recovered in the near term,” he said.
Democrats hammered away about a “glitzy,” “gauzy” “vanity project,” a preview of their midterm election pitch addressing voters’ worries about the high prices of food, housing, healthcare and particularly gasoline, which skyrocketed after the February 28 U.S. attack on Iran.
Thune, who started the week with a tense phone call with the president over his endorsement against Cornyn, told reporters after Thursday’s meeting that his party “will pick up where we left off” after the holiday recess.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is not running for reelection, did not hold back in criticizing Trump.
“I think it’s stupid on stilts,” Tillis said of the “anti-weaponization” fund in an interview with Spectrum News. “The American people are going to reject this out of hand.”
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan, Bo Erickson, Jacob Bogage and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Rod Nickel, Michael Learmonth and Edmund Klamann)
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