BREAKING: Trump's entire strategy is collapsing

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Good morning, this is Really American. It is Thursday, May 21st. Donald Trump’s strategy appears to be falling apart massively this morning.

Trump’s $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund appears to violate a policy directive his own attorney general signed on her first day in office — and Republican House leaders learned about the fund’s existence from news reports. A Pennsylvania Republican congressman is vowing to kill it. The ICE funding bill is in chaos as senators say the ballroom security provision is dead, the votes aren’t there, and the whole thing may be back to square one. And Republican senators are openly warning that Trump’s retribution tour — ousting Cassidy, destroying Massie, and now targeting Cornyn — is going to cost him the votes he needs to pass his own agenda for the rest of his presidency. Bottom line: Trump is in trouble.

Before we get into it: the free press in America is under direct attack and the window to fight back is closing. MAGA is censoring the news. The FCC is cracking down. Murdoch owns Fox. The Ellison family owns CBS and is moving on CNN. 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.

THE SLUSH FUND VIOLATES TRUMP’S OWN BONDI DIRECTIVE. REPUBLICANS LEARNED ABOUT IT FROM THE NEWS.

The $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund announced Monday appears to directly contradict a policy directive that former Attorney General Pam Bondi signed on her first day in office in February 2025, according to reporting by the New York Times and legal experts who reviewed the arrangement.

Bondi’s memo, titled “Reinstating the Prohibitions on Improper Third Party Settlements,” said that except in limited circumstances, the Justice Department should not use settlements “to require payments to nongovernmental, third-party organizations that were neither victims nor parties to the lawsuits.” The memo was intended to prevent the kinds of arrangements the Obama administration made with large financial institutions that directed settlement money to outside organizations. The new fund appears to be structured to do exactly what Bondi’s memo prohibited — steering money to third-party claimants who have not filed suits and may never file suits.

“I have never heard of the department ever being willing to grant blanket immunity,” said Jennifer Ricketts, a former branch director in the Justice Department’s civil division. “That seems blatantly corrupt. It’s a shocking gift to the president.” A former DOJ lawyer who worked on the Obama-era settlement Blanche cited as a precedent said the comparison was false. “This is decidedly not a fund for the plaintiffs,” he said. The $1.776 billion figure itself appears to have been chosen for patriotic symbolism rather than any legal calculation — an unprecedented approach to determining a settlement amount.

The fund’s existence also came as a complete surprise to Republican leaders who are supposed to provide oversight. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he does not know any of the details. House Oversight Chair James Comer said he learned about it from news reports. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole told CNN he was not consulted or given any heads up. “I don’t know anything about it. I haven’t seen it yet. I don’t know what it is legislatively,” Cole said. Blanche’s own attorney general policy prohibited this. His own party’s congressional leaders found out about it by reading the newspaper.

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A REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN IS VOWING TO KILL THE SLUSH FUND. HE SAYS HE IS “100 PERCENT” COMMITTED.

Pennsylvania Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick became the first member of his party to publicly reject the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund outright and vow to stop it, telling reporters Wednesday he is “100 percent” committed to preventing the fund from moving forward.

“Once we get to the bottom of the source of the funding, we’re going to put legislative text together. We got to figure out what we have jurisdiction over. That’s the first question,” Fitzpatrick said, following up by sending a letter to the Justice Department demanding answers.

Fitzpatrick represents a Philadelphia-area district that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. He has previously bucked Trump on the East Wing ballroom funding — a move that prompted Trump to threaten backing a primary opponent against him. He is doing it again. He is the first Republican to publicly commit to legislative action to kill the fund. He will not be the last.

Senate Majority Leader Thune said he expects scrutiny to come through the appropriations process for the next fiscal year. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins pressed Blanche at Tuesday’s hearing on how much each claim will pay, the legal basis for decisions, and whether recipients will be publicly disclosed. Blanche said the fund “is unusual” but not unprecedented. It violates his predecessor’s own directive. His party’s congressional leaders found out from the news. A Republican congressman is now trying to kill it. The fund is 72 hours old.

THE BALLROOM SECURITY MONEY IS DEAD. THE ICE BILL IS IN CHAOS. KENNEDY SAYS IT IS BACK TO SQUARE ONE.

The Senate’s roughly $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding bill is in serious trouble Thursday morning as Republican senators say the $1 billion ballroom security provision is almost certainly dead — and without it, the votes may not be there to pass the bill at all.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana put it plainly Wednesday. “The votes are not there,” he said. Without the security money, he said, the bill would be “back to square one.” Senator Thom Tillis called the effort to add the security package “a bad idea” even at a reduced cost, saying he did not think there was enough backing to pass it. Axios reported that Tillis would not support the bill if it came to a vote this week.

Senate Majority Leader Thune acknowledged “ongoing vote issues” on Wednesday as leaders scrambled to count Republican support, and “ongoing parliamentarian issues” as they tried to determine what provisions would survive Senate rules. The Senate had hoped to pass the bill this week and send it to the House before leaving for Memorial Day recess. That timeline is now in serious doubt.

The White House has set a June 1st deadline to get the bill on Trump’s desk. House Speaker Johnson is already discussing the possibility of keeping members in session over part of the Memorial Day holiday to make it happen. The ballroom provision that started the chaos — $1 billion buried in an immigration enforcement bill to fund a personal vanity project — has been ruled out of order by the parliamentarian, rejected by multiple senators, and is now threatening to sink the entire bill. The president wanted the ballroom funded by taxpayers. The result may be no ICE bill at all.

GOP SENATORS ARE WARNING TRUMP HIS RETRIBUTION TOUR IS GOING TO COST HIM HIS OWN AGENDA.

Republican senators are issuing increasingly direct warnings to President Trump that his campaign to punish GOP lawmakers who have crossed him — ousting Cassidy, destroying Massie, and now targeting Senator John Cornyn of Texas — is going to leave him without the votes he needs to pass anything for the rest of his presidency.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Trump’s tactics, laid out the math in blunt terms. “Why are you creating a structural vote count that could prevent you from getting almost anything done with a supermajority going forward?” he said. “Why would anybody think that that makes sense? I count votes.” Tillis warned that if Trump costs Cornyn his Senate seat, he would be left with “a structural five or six votes in the Senate GOP conference that can stop anything from a simple majority for the remainder of his term.”

Asked directly whether there is a growing group of Republican senators who could block controversial legislation — including the ballroom — Tillis answered: “Yeah.”

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she does not understand Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton over Cornyn, calling it “working against his own team.” “I don’t think that it benefits the president at all,” she said. “I don’t understand his calculus in being personally vindictive toward Republicans.” Thune told reporters there is “always a consequence associated with taking on incumbent United States senators” and said Trump’s endorsement decisions could make moving his agenda “slightly more complicated.”

The irony is stark. Cassidy — who Trump just helped destroy — was the senator who confirmed RFK Jr., helped craft Republican healthcare policy, and provided crucial political cover on multiple difficult votes. Days after losing his primary, Cassidy voted to end the Iran war and denounced the ballroom and the slush fund. Trump spent millions destroying one of his most useful senators. The senators still standing are watching. The vote counts are shifting. The retribution tour is winning primaries and losing the Senate.

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP KEEP MEDIA TRULY INDEPENDENT

The slush fund violates Trump’s own policies and his party found out from the news. The ballroom is dead and the ICE bill is in chaos. Republicans are warning Trump he is destroying his own agenda. And a congressman from his own party is trying to kill his corruption fund. 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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