Senate Republicans need to stop acting like a country club and start acting like a governing majority.
They’re packing up and heading out of Washington until June while the reconciliation bill funding the United States Department of Homeland Security remains stalled — effectively blowing past the deadline to address an agency that’s been crippled by months of Democrat obstruction and shutdown theatrics dating back to Presidents’ Day weekend.
This is exactly the kind of weakness Republican voters are sick of.
At the same time, some Senate Republicans are clearly rattled by the political reality unfolding around them. Donald Trump endorsed Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas Senate runoff, sending a blunt message that the old establishment protection racket is over.
Then came the political execution of Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. Cassidy voted to impeach Trump and spent years pretending there would never be consequences for betraying the Republican base. There were. GOP voters showed him the door.
For some Senate Republicans, though, the pressure apparently became too much.
Between the reconciliation fight, the White House ballroom funding battle, and the United States Department of Justice’s proposed anti-weaponization compensation fund, cracks inside the GOP conference started showing fast.
Instead of standing and fighting through the political heat, many Republicans simply bolted for the exits and left town:
The most urgent reason for the delay is boiling anger among Senate Republicans at the president’s $1.8 billion fund of taxpayer money for people who allege they’ve been targeted by the government. That includes, potentially, rioters who participated in the 2021 Capitol attack.
But the bill is slowing down for other reasons, none of them related to immigration: Trump is unsuccessfully pushing for security funding for his White House ballroom renovation, and his goodwill with GOP senators is at a second-term low as he seeks to defeat his second Republican incumbent in as many weeks. Republicans had little appetite for giving Trump what he wanted this week, according to senators and aides.
Broadly speaking, Trump’s sway over the Senate GOP is lower than it’s been at any point in his second term, those Republican sources said — even as his influence in party primaries peaks.
The White House had indicated to Senate Republicans this week that Trump could veto any party-line immigration bill that didn’t contain his unrelated priorities, including the East Wing money and unrestricted use of his “anti-weaponization” fund, according to four people familiar with the matter. A White House official denied to Semafor that such a message was sent.
That bold talk of vetoing a top priority came after Trump helped oust Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in his primary before endorsing scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who’s beloved among his GOP colleagues. The president also attacked the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian for ruling that the East Wing security funding could be filibustered, a broadside that many senators viewed as a low blow. …
Republicans “were upset going into the meeting and probably were no less upset coming out of the committee, because there was no remedy. There was some frustration,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Politically speaking, he added, the fund is “unexplainable. That’s the problem.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., upbraided Blanche over the fund in the meeting, and Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Blanche firmly that the administration needs to consult more closely with Congress ahead of decisions, according to people familiar with the meeting.
“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong; take your pick,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
The meeting was described as an “absolute sh*tshow” by two people briefed on it.
Senate Republicans clearly need a breather after this week, and they may be able to reassemble the immigration bill. They may even find a way to get back in sync with Trump, who has a unique ability to get his way even when it seems impossible.
On the other hand, Trump is getting deep into his second term with low approval ratings and more focus on foreign policy than on domestic issues. Republicans may be realizing that they need a path to success — at legislating and campaigning — in a post-Trump party.
It could be a rough 2026 as they figure that out.
Senate Republicans are doing an awful lot of complaining for a conference that still refuses to use the power voters gave them.
At some point, endless excuses stop sounding strategic and start sounding pathetic.
This is a chamber filled with lawmakers who love talking tough on cable news but fold the second real political pressure arrives. Republicans technically hold the majority, yet a small bloc of habitual holdouts and self-important agitators continues to sabotage major pieces of the agenda from within.
Even worse, GOP senators spent months indulging Senate Democrats during the fight over United States Department of Homeland Security funding, pretending bipartisan cooperation would somehow produce good-faith negotiations. Instead, Democrats ran circles around them and extracted delay after delay while Republicans accomplished virtually nothing.
No wonder Trump views them as eunichs who are worthless, as they just proved again.
Pretty neat how the GOP eunuchs have no problem handing out money to every leftist program known to man but the prospect of maybe helping some of their most dedicated voters a little bit even once is where they draw the line. https://t.co/YCBkvbrVnA
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) May 22, 2026
Remember, some of these same Republicans had no problem voting themselves $500,000 in ‘damages’ after being spied on by Biden’s DOJ. But for average Americans abused by the same DOJ? Nada.
They couldn’t be more despicable.
