May 22, 2026:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The day arrived when the Senate just said, No.
President Donald Trump’s political revenge tour met its potential match this week as angry, upset Republican senators, pushed to a breaking point by his seemingly insatiable and outlandish demands — particularly a $1.776 billion fund for Jan. 6 rioters and others he believes were wrongly prosecuted — did the unthinkable.
They simply refused, closed up shop, and went home.
The moment was as rare as it was daring, a sudden flex from the Congress that has become a shell of its former self as a coequal branch, the Republican majority almost always more willing to accommodate the Republican president than to confront him.
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. The voting was postponed until Congress resumes next month, blowing Trump’s June 1 deadline to have it on his desk.
Trump, asked during an event at the Oval Office if he was losing control of the Senate, shrugged.
“I really don’t know,” the president said.
It all caps a bruising week after the president swept midterm primary elections, taking down one Republican after another — Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, and endorsing the challenger to Sen. John Cornyn in Texas — turning the might of his Make America Great Again movement against those who have stuck to their own views, rather than yield to his.
And it wasn’t just the Senate. In the Republican-led House, for the first time this year, enough GOP lawmakers broke ranks to signal support for a war powers resolution from Democrats designed to halt Trump’s military action in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson postponed voting until he could ensure an outcome that avoids confronting the president.
The endgame leaves Trump and the party exposed in new ways.
While the president is winning with his handpicked candidates, many are untested heading into general elections this fall. Trump’s own approval rating sits at a low point, and he is spending his political capital, alienating his would-be allies and threatening to derail GOP priorities as they try to persuade voters to keep them in office.
Anger in the Senate over Trump’s ‘payout for punks’
Trump’s announcement of nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for those the president believes were wrongly prosecuted came with little warning, and less support, blindsiding senators already fuming over his push for $1 billion to provide security for his new White House ballroom.
The audacity of the arrangement — Trump negotiating a settlement to his own lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service that would set up the compensation fund for those perceived to be wrongly prosecuted — proved too toxic for the Senate to bear.
“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?” steamed Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
Tillis derided the White House move as “stupid on stilts” and a “payout for punks.” Trump fired back Friday morning, accusing Tillis of “screwing the Republican Party” in a lengthy social media post.
GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former majority leader, who tends to keep his own counsel, issued his own a statement in the aftermath.
“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,” McConnell said.
The political calculations were becoming apparent: The more Trump bullies and badgers the Congress, the more they are left questioning what they have to gain, or lose, from trying to appease him, especially for those already heading for the exits.
“I think it’s hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in the political atmosphere around us,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met for hours behind closed doors with senators over the compensation fund, but left without a resolution.
Afterward, Thune said the discussion likely left the administration’s team with “an appreciation for the depth of feeling on the issue.”
Trump’s victories come at a cost
While Trump-backed candidates defeated Republican incumbents in the House and Senate this week, showing his command of the party faithful, some in Congress saw the defeats of their colleagues differently.
“You don’t want to have a totally loyal party that’s in the minority. And that’s maybe where we’re headed,” said Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring at the end of his term.
It began Saturday, when Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his Senate impeachment trial after Jan. 6, lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger in Louisiana. He returned to Washington days later noticeably more eager to criticize Trump — and more willing to vote against him.
“Congress should hold the executive branch accountable,” Cassidy said Monday. A day later, he joined Democrats in voting to rein in the war in Iran.
Then came Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton over Cornyn in Texas, a move many Republicans viewed as both personal and politically reckless. Trump said Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
“There’s a lot of folks in our conference that are disappointed because we appreciate working with John Cornyn,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
Others worried the divisive Texas primary could jeopardize a seat Republicans cannot afford to lose.
“He made the wrong pick,” Tillis said. “It’s going to be a lot more expensive to hold that seat.”
Frustration extends beyond the Senate
In the House there were also signs of Republican discontent.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., joined Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in introducing legislation that would block taxpayer dollars from being used for Trump’s proposed “anti-weaponization” compensation fund.
Fitzpatrick also drew Trump’s ire after the president complained publicly that the congressman “likes voting against Trump” and warned, “You know what happens with that?”
But Fitzpatrick insisted the backlash inside the party was driven by policy concerns, not political fear.
“People have the right to free speech in this country,” Fitzpatrick said. “But what we do here is all about policy.”
At the same time, Fitzpatrick and Republican Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett were expected to side with Democrats in voting for the war powers resolution to rein in Trump’s military campaign in Iran.
GOP leaders pulled the measure at the last minute when it became clear Republicans lacked the votes to defeat it.
Bacon, who spent some 30 years on active duty in the Air Force, said he believed much of the Republican pushback to the war could be resolved if Trump consulted Congress more.
“You sit down with somebody, and work with them instead of threatening, bully and yelling,” said Bacon. “It don’t work.”
May 19, 2026, update:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government will permanently drop tax claims against President Donald Trump, according to a settlement document made public Tuesday (May 19, 2026), in an extraordinary use of executive power that could effectively help shield the president from further examination of his finances and legal conduct.
As part of the settlement deal meant to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, the U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax issues, according to a one-page document posted to the Justice Department’s website.
The White House referred Associated Press inquiries to the Justice Department, and the U.S. Treasury did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.
The settlement refers only to existing audits, not future examinations, the Justice Department said in response to a request for comment on the expanded settlement.
The move comes after the Trump administration announced Monday, as part of the lawsuit settlement, the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted, an arrangement that Democrats and government watchdogs derided as “corrupt” and unconstitutional.
The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” of $1.776 billion will allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to apply for payouts, creating what acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
Blanche, who was grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, would not rule out the possibility that people who carried out violence during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol will be considered for payouts from the new fund.
Democratic lawmakers and ethics watchdogs slammed the creation of the fund, saying it was corrupt, opaque and had the potential to become a “slush fund” for the president and his allies. Even Republican lawmakers have expressed signs of discomfort about the fund’s creation, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who told reporters that he’s “not a big fan.”
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the fund is dedicated to “reimbursing people who were horribly treated.”
Daniel Werfel, a former IRS Commissioner during the Biden administration, said he was unaware of the IRS agreeing in advance “to permanently forgo examination of previously filed tax returns for a specific person or business.”
He said the arrangement granted Trump and his family separate tax rules from other Americans.
“Whether you are the president or Joe the Plumber, people expect the same tax rules and enforcement framework to apply to everybody.”
The fund was announced after Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization agreed to drop their lawsuit against the IRS and the Treasury Department. The lawsuit alleged that a leak of confidential tax records caused them reputational and financial harm and negatively affected their public standing, among other allegations.
According to a separate settlement agreement posted to the Justice Department website Monday, Trump will receive a formal apology from the U.S. government but “will not receive any monetary payment or damages of any kind” from the settlement.
Kathleen Williams, the judge handling the lawsuit, dismissed the case on Monday and, in her filing, admonished the government agencies, notably the Justice Department, for failing to be transparent about the settlement.
She said no agency “submitted any settlement documents nor filed any documents ensuring that settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed.”
May 19, 2026:
UNDATED-AP- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will appear on Capitol Hill for his first congressional testimony since taking the reins at the Justice Department, as the agency faces intense scrutiny over its plans to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay allies of President Donald Trump who believe they were targeted politically. Also, Trump said he’s holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday (May 19, 2026) because “serious negotiations” are underway to end the war. Trump said he had planned “a very major attack” but put it off. He said America’s allies in the Gulf asked him to wait for two to three days because they feel they’re close to a deal with Iran.
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