President Donald Trump’s push for a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” compensation fund for people he said were wrongly prosecuted helped trigger rare resistance inside Congress this week, the Associated Press reported. The Senate’s Republican leadership postponed a vote on a roughly $70 billion budget package tied to funding Trump’s immigration and deportation operations through 2029, pushing the decision into next month and beyond a June 1 deadline Trump had set for getting the legislation to his desk.
The AP described the moment as an outlier for a Congress that, in recent years, has more often avoided direct clashes with Republican presidents. In this case, angry senators reached a point of refusal, with the vote being shelved rather than moved forward on the expected timetable.
A central flashpoint was Trump’s proposal for a compensation fund that the White House framed as “anti-weaponization,” a settlement tied to Trump’s own legal challenge to the Internal Revenue Service. AP said senators viewed the plan as too politically and morally fraught to fold into their top legislative priority: finalizing the budget measure intended to finance Trump’s immigration and deportation efforts for the rest of his term through 2029.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., objected to the idea of restitution for people he said had either pleaded guilty or were found guilty in court, according to AP. AP reported that Tillis derided the White House proposal and that Trump responded publicly by accusing Tillis of “screwing the Republican Party” in a lengthy social media post.
Other Republican leaders echoed the pushback. AP reported that Sen. Mitch McConnell said the White House move was “utterly stupid” and “morally wrong,” adding that he rejected the concept of what he characterized as a slush fund to pay people who assault cops. The AP account said the dispute increasingly made lawmakers question what they risked—or what they might gain—by accommodating Trump’s demands, particularly as several Republicans looked toward the next electoral cycle.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met for hours behind closed doors with senators over the compensation fund, but left without a resolution, AP reported. Afterward, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the discussion likely gave the administration’s team “an appreciation for the depth of feeling on the issue.”
AP also traced the resistance to a broader pattern inside the party after Trump’s midterm-election victories, including Republican primary upsets that removed incumbents and elevated Trump-backed challengers. The AP report said Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his Senate impeachment trial after Jan. 6, lost his primary to a Trump-backed opponent in Louisiana, and that Cassidy returned to Washington noticeably more eager to criticize Trump and more willing to support Democratic efforts, including joining Democrats in voting to rein in the war in Iran.
In the House, AP said Republicans also displayed frustration with the direction of the push, including some backing a Democratic-led war powers resolution designed to halt Trump’s military action in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson postponed voting on the measure, AP reported, after enough GOP lawmakers broke ranks to indicate the resolution could pass—an outcome Johnson sought to avoid if it would require confronting the president.
In the same week, AP reported that House Republicans and Democrats took steps around legislation aimed at blocking taxpayer dollars from Trump’s proposed “anti-weaponization” compensation fund. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick introduced legislation with Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi to block those funds, and AP said Fitzpatrick argued that the backlash among Republicans was driven by policy concerns rather than fear of Trump.
The AP report also said Trump and his party’s internal calculations appeared to shift toward managing what could be passed—or delayed—inside Congress, rather than simply forcing outcomes. The postponement of the budget vote, and the delay of war-powers action in the House, left Trump and Republicans facing uncertainty as Congress resumes next month and lawmakers try to reconcile competing priorities under the pressure of Trump’s deadlines.