President Donald Trump is reportedly convinced he will be able to force Republican senators to cave to his increasingly bonkers demands even after a full-on mutiny this week over his personal vanity projects.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to do Trump’s bidding in a closed-door meeting this week where he urged Republicans to get on board with the president’s $1.8 billion slush fund for his allies. But instead, Blanche got yelled at by more than a dozen GOP senators who were infuriated by the move, insiders revealed to The Wall Street Journal. The showdown, which tanked a planned vote on a partisan funding bill, further inflamed tensions set off by Trump’s endorsement in the heated Texas Senate primary.
Trump delivered a one-two punch to Republican senators this week when he endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, a widely respected figure in the chamber, then defended the so-called “anti-weaponization fund” that would give payouts to Jan. 6, 2021 rioters and money-hungry Trump supporters.
Despite the fiery pushback, however, Trump is apparently preparing to double down. Allies in the president’s orbit told CNN that Trump was unfazed, and instead emboldened by a string of Republican primary wins that flexed his grip over the GOP.
“Donald Trump runs the entire board in primaries and senators believe that means nothing?” a source close to the White House said. “The Senate opposition to this is not going to last.”
GOP operative Doug Heye told The Washington Post that Trump is likely to take a harsher approach in dealing with the mutiny when Congress returns from recess.
“Republican leadership is upset. Yes, they should be upset,” he was quoted saying. “But being upset and acting on it are two different things, especially if Trump goes all in and says, ‘I want my ballroom, and you’re funding it.’”
The revolt by Republican senators was widely seen as the first real pushback against Trump from within his own party since he returned to the White House. It came as Trump has increasingly seemed to prioritize his own pet projects over the Republican agenda, raising fears of a wipeout in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Justice Department’s newly unveiled $1.8 billion fund to pay the president’s supporters was just the latest demand after a $1 billion funding ask for Trump’s East Wing overhaul and planned ballroom, which he had initially promised would not cost taxpayers.
Blanche sought to reassure senators on the “anti-weaponization” fund in a hastily organized meeting at the Senate’s Mike Mansfield Room, the Journal reported, but the effort swiftly backfired.
“Who thought this was a good idea? Who chose this timing?” Tom Cotton, a staunch Trump ally in Arkansas, was quoted as saying.
Blanche, White House legislative affairs director James Braid, and other top aides were grilled by GOP senators in the two-hour meeting, according to The Journal.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pulled back the curtain on the tense standoff in a Friday episode of his podcast. He recounted that there were about 45 Republican senators in the room, and “at least half of them were blasting the attorney general.”
“There were fireworks at an epic level,” he said. “And I got to say, it’s one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate. There were a lot of Republican senators who were just pissed.”
“Fiery does not begin to cut it,” he went on, detailing how Senate Republicans were poised to pass a reconciliation bill that would fund the president’s agenda until the “anti-weaponization fund” was introduced.
“The entire meeting, they were screaming at the acting attorney general, and he was trying to lay out the legal basis,” Cruz said. “There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying, ‘This feels like self-dealing. This feels like Trump cut a deal with himself.’”
The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast on Saturday.
White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told the Journal that 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.”
On Thursday, however, Trump did not sound as confident about his control over Republican senators.
“Are you using control of the Senate, sir?” a reporter asked.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I can tell you I only do what’s right,” he responded.
