US President Donald Trump’s US$1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged government “weaponisation” has been put on hold after the White House faced fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress, three sources familiar with the plan said on Monday.
The extraordinary rebuke of Trump underscored an increased appetite to flex political power among some Republican senators against the president’s actions, particularly after his endorsement against two of their Senate colleagues ahead of a crucial midterm election.
The proposal was dropped as senators returned to Washington after their Memorial Day break and faced an impasse with the president over a US$72 billion bill to fund ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Border Patrol operations. Speaking to reporters, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he made clear to the White House the fund needed to be killed.
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“They gave us an ultimatum,” a White House source said, describing how Republican lawmakers negotiated with the White House over the fund.
The fund emerged from a legal settlement between Trump and the Justice Department to resolve an unprecedented lawsuit in which the president had sued the Internal Revenue Service for US$10 billion over the alleged mishandling of his tax records. The US$1.776 billion was meant to pay people who said they had been the subject of government abuse.
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The fund sparked swift legal challenges and political uproar, including from Senate Republicans, who expressed anger that people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, could receive taxpayer-funded payouts. Critics condemned it as a slush fund.
On Friday, federal judges in Virginia and Florida dealt the administration a pair of blows, issuing orders that temporarily halted the fund until June 12 and called for further review.