President Donald Trump’s relationship with Senate Republicans has hit a new low after a revolt over his $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund surfaced deep divisions over the direction of the party and its priorities.
Trump and his close allies were fuming over the rebuke on Friday, while on Capitol Hill, GOP senators and aides blasted the fund as the latest in a series of damaging White House blunders that they increasingly fear will cost them control of the chamber, according to five people familiar with the conversations.
“The president is making it as hard as humanly possible,” said one senior GOP Senate aide. “This is a true unified front. All 53 Republican senators are not happy right now.”
And with six months to go until the midterm elections, Republicans exasperated by the infighting are warning it might only get worse from here.
The standoff over the “anti-weaponization” fund capped a disastrous period that derailed Republicans’ bid to pass a major immigration package by June 1, as Trump had demanded, leaving their agenda in the lurch.
It also further underscored lawmakers’ long-simmering fears that rather than helping bolster their political standing by focusing on economic issues and touting key policy wins, Trump was instead weakening their chances come November through his preoccupation with personal projects and a wide-ranging retribution campaign.
“This is a ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned’ kind of moment,” said GOP strategist Barrett Marson. “The things that Trump, and to some extent Congress, are focusing on right now are not things that help Americans — and time is running out to change the narrative.”
In just the last week, Trump celebrated the ouster of GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who his allies had poured funds into primarying as revenge for voting to convict Trump in his impeachment trial five years ago. The president then endorsed against well-liked Texas Sen. John Cornyn in next week’s GOP primary runoff, opting instead to back Ken Paxton, a challenger who senators had openly warned could cost Republicans the race.
All the while, the White House was pressing Senate Republicans to authorize $1 billion for Trump’s new ballroom and the Secret Service, elevating a personal project many lawmakers fear is only reinforcing voters’ perception of the GOP as out of touch, Senate aides and others familiar with the matter said.
When the Senate’s parliamentarian ruled that the money couldn’t be included in Republicans’ broader legislative package, Trump publicly called for her firing — a move that many senators viewed as inappropriate and unwise, the people familiar said.
“Even the must-pass stuff is starting to get hijacked by things like the ballroom,” said one person familiar with the Senate dynamics. “From a morale standpoint, that doesn’t help.”
Against that backdrop, the creation of Trump’s $1.8 billion fund amounted to a breaking point, GOP aides said, prompting an outpouring of public criticism that culminated in a tense closed-door meeting over the arrangement with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Republican senators in the hours since have sought to make clear in public and private that there is little support for the fund — and that Trump continuing to pursue it could jeopardize the party’s broader agenda.
“Unless there’s some sort of come to Jesus moment in the White House, I don’t know how the calculus changes,” the person familiar with the Senate dynamics said. “The rebellious nature has really ticked up this week.”
Trump officials brushed off the setback and have insisted that there will be no changes to the fund. Trump tried to defend the fund on Friday morning, casting the settlement as a personal sacrifice and saying he’s “helping others” who claim they’ve been unfairly targeted. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales also rejected any suggestions that it had strained the White House’s relationship with Republican lawmakers.
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican party and he is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress to continue delivering wins for the American people,” she said.
The White House also sent statements from seven Republican senators attesting to the party’s continued unity behind Trump, though none made mention of the “anti-weaponization” fund or the White House ballroom.
“Senate Republicans need to be in lockstep with him to finish implementing his agenda for the American people — whatever it takes,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said in one of the statements. “President Trump is the head coach, and he needs a team that’s working together with him in the Senate.”
Trump and his top aides are eventually expected to work with Senate Majority Leader John Thune to chart a path through the conflict, though there was little immediate sense how exactly they planned to do it, GOP aides said.
In a notable sign that officials are eager to ease tensions, White House officials have largely declined to publicly attack individual senators over their criticisms of the $1.8 billion fund. Asked on Thursday whether he was losing his grip on the Senate, Trump said simply: “I really don’t know. I only do what’s right.”
But within Trump’s orbit, allies insisted that the president remained unbowed by the pushback — and to the contrary, appeared more emboldened after a string of recent Republican primary victories showed he retained his grip on the broader party.
“Donald Trump runs the entire board in primaries and senators believe that means nothing?” said one person close to the White House. “The Senate opposition to this is not going to last.”
Still, others warned that the dynamics could worsen in the coming months if Republicans’ midterm outlook erodes further.
Trump is already polling at historic lows and showing no signs of an imminent turnaround, potentially hastening the arrival of his lame duck status. He’s refused to pivot away from pet issues like the ballroom and toward a more sustained effort to address the cost-of-living issues hampering GOP candidates.
And in backing efforts to push out incumbent senators over long-held slights and grudges, he’s expanded the number of so-called free agents within the Republican conference: retiring senators that are suddenly more willing to speak their mind and oppose his priorities.
After Cassidy lost his primary, the Louisiana Republican promptly voiced opposition to Trump’s ballroom funding, disparaged the “anti-weaponization” fund and voted for a measure aimed at forcing the US out of its war in Iran.
“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,” Cassidy wrote on X on Wednesday.
Multiple people familiar with the matter said the post expressed an opinion that many other GOP senators held but could not voice on their own. But even by that point of the week, the mood in the chamber was darkening.
During an appearance in the White House briefing room on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance defended Trump’s fresh effort to push Cornyn out of his Texas Senate seat by arguing that it was an effort to install lawmakers who “fight for the good” of the people.
Trump wants “people who can’t be bought by corporate lobbyists, who can’t be bought by Wall Street, who can’t be bought by special interests,” said Vance, who previously served alongside Cornyn in the Senate and as a college student had briefly worked as his legal clerk.
The swipe quickly circulated among dismayed Hill Republicans, who even days later remained offended by the insinuation against a former member of Senate GOP leadership.
“Referring to Sen. Cornyn, who is a leader within our conference, in that way is disgraceful,” the senior GOP Senate aide said. “Unless there is a pattern change or behavior change from the White House, it’s not going to get any better.”
