{"id":8223,"date":"2026-05-20T18:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8223"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:32:11","slug":"democratic-senators-will-test-gop-unity-with-votes-on-trumps-anti-weaponization-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8223","title":{"rendered":"Democratic senators will test GOP unity with votes on Trump\u2019s \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, KEVIN FREKING and JOEY CAPPELLETTI<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democratic senators plan to force a vote this week on President Donald Trump\u2019s new $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate political allies, testing Republican unity as Trump lashes out at lawmakers in his own party.<\/p>

Read more World Cup-bound Norway player backs calls for improved heat protocols from FIFA<\/a><\/p>\n

Republicans are expected to vote on a roughly $72 billion bill to restore funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol after Democrats blocked the money for months.<\/p>\n

But the straightforward legislation became more complicated after Republicans added $1 billion in security money for the White House campus and Trump\u2019s new ballroom \u2014 and as some GOP senators have grown increasingly frustrated with the president. Republicans have criticized the settlement fund, and many were upset by Trump\u2019s endorsement Tuesday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the party primary runoff next week against Sen. John Cornyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a hell of a bad week for Donald Trump and his Republicans,\u201d Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor. \u201cAnd it\u2019s only Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have an opening to force a vote on the settlement fund because Republicans are trying to pass the immigration enforcement bill through a complicated budget process that requires a long series of amendment votes. Democrats are considering multiple amendments on the settlement fund, potentially to block it outright or to ban any payments to Trump supporters who beat law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n

Those amendments, along with others, potentially could pass as a growing number of Republicans speak out against the fund and other parts of Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday he was \u201cnot a big fan\u201d of the new fund, which the administration announced as a part of a settlement that resolves the president\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost his seat in Saturday\u2019s primary election in Louisiana to a Trump-endorsed candidate, called it a \u201cslush fund\u201d and said \u201cyou can\u2019t just make up things.\u201d<\/p>

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Hanging over the growing GOP rift is Trump\u2019s surprise endorsement of Paxton, an intervention that has Republican senators privately fuming that it could cost them their majority in November as they view the incumbent as the better candidate in the November general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a consequence with taking on United States senators,\u201d Thune said Wednesday. Trump \u201cobviously has his favorites and people he wants to endorse and that\u2019s his prerogative. But what we have to deal with up here is moving the agenda, and obviously that can become slightly more complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n