Friday, May 22Friday, May 22Trump’s Political Maneuvering and Republican Resistance President Donald Trump has faced growing resistance from within his own party over his proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund", designed to compensate individuals his administration claims were unfairly targeted by the Biden Justice Department. The fund, which critics—including Republican senators—have labeled a "slush fund," sparked a revolt in the Senate, leading Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to adjourn the chamber early to avoid a vote. Senators like Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) condemned the proposal as "stupid on stilts" and a "galactic blunder," while Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called it an "ethical bridge too far" . Trump’s response included a late-night post on Truth Social sharing an old newspaper clipping celebrating his State of the Union, seemingly dismissing the backlash .
The controversy extends to other Trump priorities, including a $1 billion request for Secret Service funding and a White House ballroom project, which Republicans have also resisted. The Senate’s abrupt adjournment left legislative efforts on immigration enforcement and deportation plans in limbo, with no clear path forward . Trump’s revenge politics—endorsing primary challengers against Republican critics like Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas)—has further strained relations, with a growing bloc of GOP senators (including Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins) increasingly willing to oppose him .
Federal Reserve and Economic Perceptions Trump swore in Kevin Warsh as the new Federal Reserve chair, replacing Jerome Powell, whom he had frequently criticized. In his remarks, Trump suggested the Fed had become "distracted" under Powell’s leadership. A recent poll found that most Americans believe Trump is not focused enough on the economy, despite his claims to the contrary . Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) acknowledged that the administration’s ongoing reduction of U.S. troops in Europe—initiated at the start of Trump’s second term—would continue, though he did not specify a timeline .
Trump’s Financial Conflicts and Legal Immunity
Trump has publicly and aggressively monetized the presidency, setting unprecedented precedents for presidential self-enrichment. Key developments include:
Immigration and Denaturalization Efforts The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans, transferring immigration lawyers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to the Justice Department to handle denaturalization cases. The DOJ has shortlisted 385 individuals for potential denaturalization, with 35 cases filed since the start of Trump’s second term, including 12 in May 2026. Critics argue the process is legally burdensome, requiring "clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence" of fraud, but USCIS chief Joe Edlow has framed it as a priority to "root out fraud" . The crackdown has contributed to declining Latino support for Trump, with many voters citing his ICE policies as a reason for abandoning the GOP .
AI Policy and Cybersecurity Trump canceled a draft executive order on AI and cybersecurity, leaving the future of government access to AI models and safety regulations uncertain. The decision has left industry and administration officials scrambling to determine next steps .
Read the AI executive order thwarted by Trump tech allies Here is the draft executive order on cybersecurity and AI as it stood before President Trump pulled the plug on it Thursday.State of play: The industry and administration are scrambling to figure out whats next as key questions remain unanswered on the future of government access to top AI models and general AI safety.
axios · about 3 hours ago
Trump claims Federal Reserve had become distracted as he swears in new chair Kevin Warsh – US politics live President makes veiled criticism of outgoing chief Jerome Powell, whom he attacked frequently, at White House ceremonyMost Americans think Trump is not focused enough on economy – pollSign up for the Breaking News US emailTheres broad recognition there are going to be eventually less US troops in Europe than historically, Rubio saysRubio said he didnt set the timeline for reducing the number of US troops in Europe, but it has been an ongoing process that started from the first day of this administration. Continue reading...
theguardian · about 3 hours ago
Trump to swear in new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh – US politics live President to host White House ceremony that ends tenure of Jerome Powell, who face repeated attacks from TrumpMost Americans think Trump is not focused enough on economy – pollSign up for the Breaking News US emailTheres broad recognition there are going to be eventually less US troops in Europe than historically, Rubio saysRubio said he didnt set the timeline for reducing the number of US troops in Europe, but it has been an ongoing process that started from the first day of this administration. Continue reading...
theguardian · about 3 hours ago
Trump lashes out at Republicans who oppose his anti-weaponisation fund President says senators who object to his $1.8bn fund for alleged victims of lawfare are screwing the Republican Party
financial times · about 3 hours ago
Trump breaks silence after GOP revolt over his $1.8B slush fund sees Congress head for vacation Republican Senator Thom Tillis called the $1.8 billion fund beyond the pale and encouraged colleagues to speak up against it
independent · about 5 hours ago
Trump Wins Gold? President bizarrely shares very old front page in late-night post after Senate GOPs slush fund revolt It was unclear what prompted the president to post the three-month-old newspaper clip celebrating his State of the Union back in February, but it came hours after the Senate bolted DC over his planned $1.8B DOJ weaponization fund
independent · about 6 hours ago
Utterly stupid: Controversy over Trumps $1.8B slush fund and ballroom sends Senate running from DC in GOP revolt Republicans leave town with no legislative text or plan for a reconciliation bill to fund Trumps deportation plans or ballroom dream
independent · about 7 hours ago
Ill never vote Republican again: Latino voters ditch Trump over ICE crackdown Donald Trump made significant inroads with Latino voters during the 2024 elections, securing support that helped propel him to a second term in the White House
independent · about 9 hours ago
Trump is cashing in on the presidency like no president ever has Never in 250 years has America witnessed a sitting president shield himself and his family from tax scrutiny, after leveraging policies that benefit his own businesses and personal portfolios, as Donald J. Trump has done.Why it matters: This isnt a hidden scandal. Trump has done this publicly and proudly. Last year, we called it the most unprecedented presidency in 250 years.In doing so, he has set a precedent — once so unfathomable as to be laughable — that its OK for presidents and family members to make billions off deals affected by government decisions, then use the Justice Department to secure lifetime protection from scrutiny of their past tax returns.Trumps crypto venture alone has been a windfall unlike anything in the history of presidential business, generating more cash for the Trump family in 16 months than the entire Trump real estate empire produced from 2010 through 2017, according to The Wall Street Journal.I let my kids ... do business, Trump said in a January interview with The New York Times. I prohibited them from doing business in my first term, and I got absolutely no credit for it.We were debating how to capture just how unprecedented Trumps actions are, when every week of every year seems filled with unprecedented words and actions. Lets try this. Imagine America put these questions to a public referendum:Presidents and their family members, unlike other U.S. citizens, shall be granted lifetime immunity from federal audits and criminal investigations of their past tax returns.Presidents and their family members can maintain active ownership of global business empires, profiting when government decisions directly benefit those specific businesses.Presidents, while in office, can maintain massive personal crypto and stock portfolios that buy and sell hundreds of millions of dollars in industries directly regulated by their own administration.How would you vote? Its hard to imagine more than single-digit support for any of these. Yet Trump is doing all three and paving the way for future presidents to do the same. Thats why precedents by presidents often matter as much as laws themselves.Between the lines: This is more than just a Trump problem. Look at the astonishing number of lawmakers trading and making money off stocks, often with insider knowledge of looming congressional action.Pollsters have asked how Americans feel about officials trading stocks while in office, and its one of the rare genuinely bipartisan issues in politics today. Flashback: After Watergate, modern presidents from both parties built elaborate legal and ethical structures designed to separate public office from private enrichment.Jimmy Carter placed his peanut farm into a blind trust. Ronald Reagan, both Bushes and Bill Clinton followed suit. Barack Obama held only diversified assets like Treasury bonds and index funds. Even wealthy businessmen entering politics generally treated direct entanglements as toxic.Over the same decades, congressional stock trading and post-Citizens United money normalized self-enrichment around political power. Trump pushed that trajectory into terrain previous presidents viewed as untouchable.Lets dig deeper on each of our three questions:1. Tax audit immunity clause: The Justice Department quietly added a sweeping addendum to a settlement resolving Trumps $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over past tax leaks — a case in which Trump was effectively both plaintiff and defendant, suing his own administration in his personal capacity.Signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trumps former personal attorney, the directive states the federal government is FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from pursuing or examining tax returns filed prior to the May 2026 agreement by Trump, his family and the Trump Organization.2. Business entanglements and global branding: Ongoing domestic and international operations by the Trump Organization have repeatedly collided with active administration policies. The Trump Organization has 25 Trump-branded real estate projects under development in 12 foreign countries — more than triple the number of Trump properties operating abroad before he returned to office, according to a CREW analysis. They include a $1 billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and a $500 million Trump International in Oman. Vietnams government has moved to fast-track a Trump project despite legal objections.Current federal ethics laws dont explicitly mandate that a sitting president divest from personal business entities. Thats why precedents matter.The Trump Organization says management of the family business has been handed over to the presidents adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric. The Trump Organization maintains that foreign leaders and private entities patronize Trump properties based on quality and brand prestige.3. Crypto and stock trading: Trump last year signed the GENIUS Act, a regulatory framework for stablecoins that legitimized and expanded the crypto market at the same time that he and his family actively profited from it.Among World Liberty Financials most lucrative foreign dealings was a secret $500 million investment backed by the UAEs national security adviser, signed four days before Trumps inauguration, The Wall Street Journal reported. Two months later, the administration approved UAE access to roughly 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips a year — a sale the Biden administration had stymied over fears the technology could reach China.At the same time, Trump has become the most active stock trader in presidential history, executing roughly 3,700 trades via independently managed accounts during the first quarter of 2026. His stock trades included Nvidia, whose advanced chips the Trump administration approved for sale to China. His portfolio also bought stock in Palantir weeks before he praised the company on Truth Social, and in Pentagon contractors helping supply the Iran war, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.Vice President Vance said during a White House briefing this week: The president doesnt sit at the Oval Office on his computer on his, like, Robinhood account, buying and selling stocks — thats absurd. He has independent wealth advisers who manage his money. ... Hes not making these stock trades himself.The bottom line: Trumps net worth today is $6.1 billion, Forbes estimates, up from $5.1 billion last year, $4.3 billion in 2024 and $2.4 billion in 2021.Axios Zachary Basu and Shane Savitsky contributed reporting. 📈 If youre a CEO or on a CEOs team: Ask to join Jims new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.Go deeper: Trumpworlds presidential gold rush, by Axios Zachary Basu.
axios · about 9 hours ago
Scoop: Trump escalates citizenship crackdown The Trump administration is temporarily moving immigration lawyers to the Justice Department to speed up efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans, Axios has learned.Why it matters: Denaturalization cases have a very high burden of proof, but theyre a priority for Trump officials who are searching for fraud in the legal immigration system. Zoom in: Lawyers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the office for legal immigration services, are being temporarily transferred to U.S. attorneys offices to work on denaturalization cases, four former agency officials tell Axios. One source said staffers were being volun-told to move offices. A second source describe the transfers as lawyers being force volunteered.Its not necessary that they have prior trial or denaturalization experience, just that they have an active law license, a third source said. We are proud to support this critical effort by providing the Department of Justice with a team of our most skilled immigration law attorneys, said USCIS Spokesman Zach Kahler.Between the lines: The Trump administration tried to accelerate the number of denaturalization cases in his first term, creating a dedicated team of 10-15 lawyers. The cases identified by that team are still kicking around, USCIS chief Joe Edlow said last September.Theres a reason why denats have never really taken off, one source said. Its really hard to prove ... the standard is really high, and you need good evidence. A lot of cases, its just its not there.The legal burden requires proving clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt in civil cases where someone willfully lied on their application.In cases where someone illegally got citizenship that they werent eligible for, there can be criminal charges filed.The big picture: Justice Department officials have shortlisted 385 people for denaturalization charges, according to a New York Times report from April. In Trumps first term, USCIS claimed to have identified 2,500 potential cases but referred just a fraction to DOJ.The Trump administration filed 35 denaturalization cases since the start of the second term, including 12 as recently as this month, according to a DOJ spokesperson.A Justice Department memo from June 2025 also listed denaturalizations as a top priority for the Trump administration.Outlining the benefit of bringing these cases, the memo says pursuing denaturalization supports the overall integrity of the naturalization program.In a statement to Axios, a DOJ spokesperson said it welcomed the assistance from USCIS lawyers to advance the Presidents mission to promote public safety and root out fraud.The bottom line: Increasing the number of denaturalization cases has long been a goal in Edlows crusade against suspect fraudulent immigration applications.I think its just as useful to have a decentralized denaturalization process, Edlow said when asked about the denaturalizations unit in Trumps first term last September at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies.If that gives rise to the need for a denaturalization, were going to move forward. I dont need it specially sent to an office. I want every office using this as a benchmark, he added.
axios · about 10 hours ago
Trumps revenge politics comes back to haunt him President Trumps week started in triumph when he took out a pair of Republican adversaries up for re-election — but its ending in a rare moment of Republican resistance, largely of his own making.Why it matters: Trump has spent the better part of a decade steamrolling congressional Republicans, but the costs of his revenge campaign — and some politically toxic priorities — have finally caught up with him.Driving the news: Just as the Senate was getting ready to take up a reconciliation bill Thursday to fund immigration enforcement, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suddenly decided he would send the chamber home until June.The move spared Republicans from having to vote on Trumps $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to compensate people his administration says were targeted by the Biden Justice Department. Republicans also might have been forced to vote on security funding for Trumps White House ballroom.The fund idea in particular was turning into a political debacle on the Hill — a slush fund to critics in both parties.Stupid on stilts and tyranny was how Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) described the idea to Spectrum News.Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think thats probably true, Sen. Ron Johnson told CNN.Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): On May 21st 2026, Republicans finally found an ethical bridge too far.The intrigue: Trumps political vengeance campaign is only exacerbating his problems on Capitol Hill.On Saturday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lost a primary after Trump endorsed his opponent and attacked Cassidy relentlessly.A few days later, Trump flexed again when another critic, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), was defeated by another Trump-backed candidate.Trump this week also endorsed Sen. John Cornyns Republican rival in the Texas primary, creating another GOP senator with nothing to lose.What theyre saying: Thune acknowledged that the presidents political activities arent helping his legislative cause. Its hard to divorce anything that happens here from whats happening in the political atmosphere around us, Thune said. You cant disconnect those things.Between Cornyn, Cassidy and Tillis — plus Sens. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — a growing bloc of Senate Republicans is emerging to give Trump heartburn on a regular basis.For the record: The Administration appreciated todays conversation and feedback, a White House official said of the Republican objections to the weaponization fund. We look forward to additional conversations as needed.That was an apparent reference to a heated hourlong meeting between Acting Attorney General Todd Blanches and Senate Republicans about the proposal.Whats next: Republicans are also pushing back on Trumps $1 billion request to fund the Secret Service and security for his planned White House Ballroom.And Democrats are closing in on the votes to pass a war powers resolution to rein in Trumps authority over the war with Iran. House GOP leadership scrapped a vote on a war resolution Thursday after it became clear they lacked the votes to defeat it.The bottom line: Trumps consequence-free presidency may be coming to an end.
axios · about 10 hours ago
Trumps new slush fund for his pals | Politics Weekly America This week, Donald Trump dropped a personal $10bn lawsuit he had against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for a so-called anti-weaponisation fund. The $1.8bn fund will be used to compensate those who think they have been unfairly investigated by the government in the past. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the legal analyst Kristy Greenberg about why critics are calling this fund corruption on steroids Continue reading...
theguardian · about 12 hours ago