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.
According to CNN, 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.
Five people familiar with the conversations told CNN that the GOPs increasingly fear will cost them control of the chamber.
One senior GOP Senate aide said, “The president is making it as hard as humanly possible. 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.
GOP strategist Barrett Marson said, “This is a ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned’ kind of moment. 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.
