Senate Republicans in Uproar After Closed-Door Meeting on Slush Fund |
Senate Republicans Erupt After Blanche Meeting on Slush Fund
The Trump administration is having a hard time selling the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to Republicans in Congress.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is running into strong opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill over President Trump’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Punchbowl News reported that close to 25 Republican senators spoke in opposition to the fund in a reportedly hostile meeting with Blanche Thursday. That’s considered unusually high. Senators suggested imposing requirements on how the fund’s five commissioners would be chosen, and preventing anyone convicted of violence against police officers from being eligible for payment.
Before the meeting, the White House had sent a letter to Republican senators defending the fund, saying that there are no “partisan restrictions” on who can apply for the fund and that it’s open to senators “whose records were secretly subpoenaed,” a concept likely to win over Republicans investigated in Jack Smith’s January 6 probe. Senator John Curtis still left the meeting unsatisfied with Blanche’s defenses of the fund and stressed that commissioner requirements are “not enough” to win his support.
“Our majority is melting down before our eyes,” another GOP senator texted Punchbowl reporter Andrew Desiderio. Other Republican senators believe that Trump is responsible for this level of opposition to the fund, thanks to his desire to kick out anyone in Congress who he thinks is disloyal.
This week, Senator Bill Cassidy, who just lost a primary contest to a Trump-backed challenger, came out against the anti-weaponization fund, saying it wasn’t fair to Americans struggling to pay their bills. Based on the reports from Wednesday’s meeting, Cassidy is not alone, and other Republicans might join in to oppose what is essentially a slush fund for Trump’s goons.
Where the Hell Is This Missing Republican Representative?
Representative Tom Kean Jr.’s own neighbors don’t know where he is.
Nobody seems to know where Representative Tom Kean Jr. is.
The New Jersey Republican has been missing in action since March 5, has so far missed 88 House votes, and hasn’t been seen in Washington for more than 75 days. But residents in Kean’s affluent suburban hometown of Westfield claim that the lawmaker isn’t home, either.
Three neighbors who spoke to NOTUS’s Jose Pagliery said that the lawmaker’s two-story Tudor-style house has been dark for weeks. Further still, Kean’s wife is nowhere to be found: Local residents said they couldn’t recall the last time they saw Mrs. Kean walking the family dog, or the last time her car was parked in the driveway.
Pagliery reported that a lone black Ford F-150 sat outside of Kean’s home, coated in yellow pollen. No one answered the two Reolink digital doorbells when Pagliery rang.
The silence that consumed Kean’s home was only heightened in contrast to the rest of the bustling neighborhood, where people walked their children to school, rabbits and squirrels skittered across the road, and landscapers worked away at manicuring individual properties.
But Kean has not abandoned the property. The couple actually paid their sewer bill ahead of time on March 31, and paid their property tax bill five days late on May 6, according to municipal records obtained by NOTUS.
Kean offered a meager explanation late last month for his sudden disappearance, confessing to House Speaker Mike Johnson (after a small pressure campaign fronted by journalists and tristate lawmakers effectively forced him to pipe up) that he had been dealing with an unspecified “personal health matter.”
At the time, Kean promised that he would return to work shortly. It has been nearly four weeks since then.
On Wednesday, Johnson remarked to reporters that he’d spoken to Kean “a few weeks ago now” and reiterated that Kean assured him he would return to the lower chamber “soon.”
But the clock is ticking: Johnson is in the midst of advancing a partisan budget reconciliation that faces total opposition from the Democratic Party. The speaker can spare just two Republican votes on the measure, if all Democrats are present and oppose it.
Kean was elected to represent New Jersey’s 7th congressional district in 2022, and is months away from being thrust into a contentious midterm reelection cycle. He is currently unchallenged in the Garden State’s Republican primary, scheduled for June 2, but is likely to face tremendous opposition from Democrats come November. Over the last several months, his district has shifted from a “lean Republican” advantage to a total toss-up, according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report.
Kean’s absence in the race has apparently inspired his competition: The topic practically consumed his potential competition during a Democratic debate on May 12, according to the Bergen Record.
“Stupid on Stilts”: Republican Senator Rips Trump’s Slush Fund
Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund has found yet another Republican critic.
Thom Tillis, who has represented North Carolina in the Senate for more than a decade, is retiring at the end of the year, and in recent months the Republican has become more outspoken about the leader of his own party.
In an interview with Spectrum News Wednesday, Tillis was asked what he thought of Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund, which was established last week as a result of a settlement between Trump and the IRS.
“I think it’s stupid on stilts,” Tillis said. “It will invariably put us in a position where your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, and now we’re going to pay them for that? That’s absurd. The American people are going to reject this out of hand.… When you take money from me to give to a purpose that I vehemently disagree with, that’s tyranny.”
"Stupid on stilts." Sen. Tillis rips into the new DOJ 'anti-weaponization' fund and calls it "tyranny."Full Interview: https://t.co/DQo2kNNqjK #ncpol pic.twitter.com/ll3lOvwb58— Reuben Jones (@ReubenJones1) May 21, 2026
"Stupid on stilts." Sen. Tillis rips into the new DOJ 'anti-weaponization' fund and calls it "tyranny."Full Interview: https://t.co/DQo2kNNqjK #ncpol........