BREAKING: Everything is falling apart for Trump today

REUTERS/Evan Vucci

Good evening, this is Really American. It is Wednesday, May 20th. Donald Trump’s day has gone from bad to worse as his vanity projects and Senate majority are in trouble.

It has been a chaotic Wednesday for Donald Trump and none of it is going his way. The Senate parliamentarian killed his ballroom funding and Trump responded by demanding she be fired — Senate Majority Leader Thune rejected the idea and called it concerning. Two Capitol Police officers who were beaten on January 6th filed suit to block his $1.7 billion slush fund, calling it a fund to arm and finance the insurrectionists who attacked them. The administration is now claiming it can build a 250-foot Arc de Trump near Arlington National Cemetery without Congress, using a 100-year-old authorization for a completely different project that was never built. And Susan Collins is losing in Maine by 7 points.

Before we get into it: the free press in America is under direct attack and the window to fight back is closing. A Murdoch just bought New York Magazine and Vox. The Ellison family owns CBS and is moving on CNN. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and called Trump mature on CNBC today. Oligarchs with direct ties to the Trump regime will soon own 78 percent of cable news in America. Really American is one of the last places left that answers to nobody but readers. We do not have a billionaire backer. We do not have corporate advertisers. We have you. Here is one way you can help right now: become a paying subscriber. If you have been reading for free, we need you to act today. Not this weekend. Not later. Right now. Choose a monthly or annual paid subscription below.

TRUMP’S BALLROOM FUNDING IS DEAD AND HE IS DEMANDING THE SENATE FIRE THE PARLIAMENTARIAN.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough blocked the $1 billion ballroom provision from the ICE funding bill last week — ruling it violated the Byrd Rule and could not pass through budget reconciliation. Trump’s response Wednesday morning was a Truth Social rant calling for her removal.

“Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced? There are many fair people who would be qualified for that vital job,” Trump wrote. He added: “The Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us.”

MacDonough became the first woman to serve as Senate parliamentarian after being appointed by former Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2012. She is nonpartisan. Her role is to assess whether budget reconciliation efforts comply with the Byrd Rule and other Senate procedures. She is not a Democrat. She is not a Republican. She is the person whose job is to enforce the rules. Trump wants her fired for doing her job.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has the power to fire and replace her, rejected the idea Wednesday. “That would create even more vote issues here if we were to try and do something like that,” Thune said, calling the move “concerning.” Semafor reported that Trump called Thune personally on Monday demanding he fire MacDonough. The White House said it does not comment on private conversations that may or may not have happened.

The ballroom itself is a cascading financial disaster. It was announced at $200 million. By December it was $400 million. Republicans tried to add $1 billion in taxpayer security funding through the ICE bill. The parliamentarian blocked it. The Senate GOP communications director said “Redraft. Refine. Resubmit.” A federal judge has separately ordered Trump to halt much of the ballroom construction until it receives explicit congressional authorization. The ballroom has no funding mechanism that can pass the Senate. Trump wants to fire the woman who enforced the rules. Thune said no.

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THE CAPITOL POLICE OFFICERS WHO WERE BEATEN ON JANUARY 6TH ARE SUING TO BLOCK TRUMP’S SLUSH FUND.

Two Capitol Police officers who defended the Capitol against the January 6th mob — and who testified before Congress about the violence they witnessed — filed suit Wednesday to block the $1.7 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, calling it a “slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence” in Trump’s name.

Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges — who was famously pinned in a doorway and crushed by rioters — named Trump, Blanche, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as defendants. The lawsuit alleges the administration exceeded its statutory authority by creating the fund without congressional authorization.

“Although Trump and his cronies have been secretive about the fund’s ends, reporting leaves no doubt that it will be used, among other purposes, to pay the nearly 1,600 people charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” the lawsuit states.

Dunn, who is running for Congress in Maryland, said in a statement that he and Hodges have already faced death threats for speaking out. “We have already been subjected to countless death threats, in addition to all the violence we faced on Jan. 6,” he said. “I guarantee you somebody is watching this right now and typing death threats against us. This will only continue to embolden — and potentially arm — a militia that Donald Trump will have on retainer.”

More than 150 officers were injured during January 6th. Some were hit in the head with baseball bats, flagpoles, and pipes. One lost consciousness after rioters used a metal barrier to push her down. Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 people involved in the attack on his first day back in office. His acting attorney general has now confirmed that those same people can apply for taxpayer-funded payouts. The officers they beat are suing to stop it.

TRUMP SAYS HE CAN BUILD HIS 250-FOOT ARCH WITHOUT CONGRESS. HIS ARGUMENT IS THAT LAWMAKERS APPROVED IT IN 1925.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it does not plan to seek congressional authorization for the president’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery — arguing instead that Congress already authorized it 100 years ago when it approved a commission report calling for a pair of 166-foot columns on the same site that were never actually built.

The administration’s argument: Congress ratified a 1924 commission report on the Arlington Memorial Bridge. That report included plans for 166-foot columns. Therefore, Trump’s 250-foot arch — which is a completely different structure, 84 feet taller, with pedestal and statuary, and topped with what until recently included four golden lions — is already authorized.

“Congress authorized the arch project when it approved the design set out in Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission’s report,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing.

Experts were not persuaded. “The notion Congress a century ago authorized construction of this 250-foot arch in Memorial Circle is absurd,” said Wendy Liu of Public Citizen Litigation Group, which represents military veterans and a historian challenging the project. “It did not authorize this arch.”

Representative Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called the argument “laughable” and said it was consistent with the administration’s “pattern of ignoring Congress” — the same pattern that produced the no-bid Reflecting Pool contract, the unauthorized ballroom demolition of the East Wing, and the attempted Arc de Trump contract piggybacked on an unrelated White House engineering deal.

The administration has removed the four golden lions from the design after feedback from the Commission of Fine Arts. The arch is still 250 feet tall. Construction has not yet begun. The administration says it does not need Congress’s approval. A 100-year-old authorization for a different project that was never built is their legal basis.

SUSAN COLLINS IS LOSING IN MAINE BY 7 POINTS.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine — one of the last two Republicans who voted to hold Trump accountable for January 6th still serving in the Senate — is trailing Democratic challenger Graham Platner by 7 percentage points in a new poll, in what would be one of the most consequential Senate upsets of the midterm cycle.

The Pan Atlantic Research poll of 827 likely Maine voters found Platner leading Collins 48 to 41 percent, with 11 percent undecided. Among women, the gap is even wider: 53 percent back Platner, 34 percent back Collins. Men favor Collins 47 to 44.

Collins has been walking a tightrope for the past several months — breaking with Trump on the ballroom provision, voting to advance the war powers resolution, expressing discomfort with the slush fund — while trying not to antagonize the president enough to draw a primary challenge. She has no primary challenger. She is losing the general anyway.

Platner’s rise comes amid broader Democratic momentum and the same national headwinds that have Republicans privately expecting to lose the House. The Maine Democratic primary is June 9th. The Democratic establishment was rattled when Governor Janet Mills suspended her Senate campaign in late April after polls showed her badly trailing Platner.

Collins and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the last two Republicans from the original seven senators who voted to convict Trump in 2021 who remain in the Senate and are still running. Cassidy is gone. Murkowski faces a tough race. Collins is down 7. The voters who beat police officers on January 6th may soon be receiving taxpayer checks. The officers who stopped them are suing in federal court. That is Wednesday evening in May 2026.

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP KEEP MEDIA TRULY INDEPENDENT

Trump’s ballroom is dead and he wants to fire the referee. The officers beaten on January 6th are suing to stop their attackers from getting paid. The administration is citing a 1925 authorization to build a 250-foot monument to itself. And the last senator who voted to hold Trump accountable is losing by 7 points. The outlets owned by billionaires with business before this administration are not going to give you that full picture. Really American will.

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