WASHINGTON – US Senate Republicans abandoned plans to vote on a bill to fund US immigration enforcement operations on May 21 in a political revolt against one of President Donald Trump’s priorities: a US$1.8 billion (S$2.3 billion) fund for victims of government “weaponisation”, including those convicted of violent crimes during the US Capitol riot on Jan 6, 2021.
The Senate walked away from a planned vote on a US$72 billion bill funding Mr Trump’s massive migrant deportation led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), delaying the vote at least until June, when lawmakers return from a one-week Memorial Day holiday recess.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune had sought to focus the legislation narrowly to secure the money intended to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Mr Trump’s presidency.
But at Mr Trump’s behest, the US$1.8 billion “weaponisation” fund and another US$1 billion for building a White House ballroom became sticking points.
“It was something that was supposed to be very narrow, targeted, focused, clean, straightforward, and it got a little bit more complicated this week,” Mr Thune said, expressing his frustration. “It makes everything way harder than it should be.”
The battle over the partisan ICE funding bill came after a Trump-backed challenger unseated two-term Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and the president endorsed a primary challenger over veteran Republican Senator John Cornyn in Texas.
Presidents usually back their party’s incumbents. Republicans said Mr Trump’s opposition to Mr Cassidy and Mr Cornyn added to the mood of acrimony surrounding the debate.
“He’s lost some support in the Senate,” said Nebraska Republican Don Bacon, who predicted that Senate Republicans would have to impose curbs on Mr Trump’s fund, which the Justice Department announced as part of a court settlement between Mr Trump and the Internal Revenue Service.
“He’s the plaintiff and the boss of the defendants. So just on the surface, it smells,” he said.
Against that backdrop, Acting US Attorney-General Todd Blanche was summoned to Capitol Hill to face questions from angry senators when he made his case for the US$1.8 billion fund designed to compensate Trump allies and other victims of government “weaponisation”.
During Mr Blanche’s meeting, several senators insisted the money not be used to compensate people convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the Capitol riot, the person said.
Mr Trump had already pardoned many of those convicted for crimes they committed during that deadly assault.
“I think there are people who are concerned about public relations,” Senator Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, told reporters about the meeting.
Emotions were so raw that a planned White House meeting between Mr Trump, Senate Republicans and House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson was cancelled, according to a source familiar with the arrangement.
The resistance against Mr Trump became evident late on May 20 when Senate Republicans said “no” to US$1 billion in new security funding for the 90,000 sq ft ballroom Mr Trump wants to build on the site of the White House East Wing that he had razed in October 2025.
For months, Mr Trump has said no taxpayer dollars would be needed for the project. Nonetheless, a US$1 billion tab to be picked up by taxpayers stared senators in the face as an add-in to a US$72 billion bill for Mr Trump’s migrant deportation programme.
Mr Bacon said the White House failed to communicate that most of the US$1 billion ballroom money would fund needed security upgrades across the White House complex. “The ballroom was rolled out so badly that I’m not sure it can be recovered in the near term,” he said.
Democrats hammered away about a “glitzy”, “gauzy” “vanity project”, a preview of their midterm election pitch addressing voters’ worries about the high prices of food, housing, healthcare and particularly petrol, which skyrocketed after the Feb 28 US attack on Iran.
Mr Thune, who started the week with a tense phone call with the president over his endorsement against Mr Cornyn, told reporters after the May 21 meeting that his party “will pick up where we left off” after the holiday recess.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is not running for reelection, did not hold back in criticising Mr Trump.
“I think it’s stupid on stilts,” Mr Tillis said of the “weaponisation” fund in an interview with Spectrum News. “The American people are going to reject this out of hand.” REUTERS
