{"id":16,"date":"2026-05-19T15:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=16"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:09:47","slug":"senate-majority-leader-signals-tough-road-ahead-for-trumps-1-7-billion-slush-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=16","title":{"rendered":"Senate majority leader signals tough road ahead for Trump\u2019s $1.7 billion slush fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Much of the criticism of President Donald Trump’s $1.7 billion “weaponization fund” is coming from Democrats, who are attacking it as a “slush fund.” But some conservatives are speaking out as well \u2014 including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), who is saying he’s “not a big fan” of the fund. <\/p>\n

Read more Conservative National Review slams Trump\u2019s $1.7 billion \u2018slush fund\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

After Trump and his allies dropped their $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), they did so on the condition that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) would set up a $1.7 billion fund to help people who, MAGA Republicans claim, were wrongly targeted for “lawfare” under former President Joe Biden and ex-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.<\/p>\n

According to The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, Thune said of the fund, “Not a big fan. I’m not exactly sure how they would use it but my understanding is that was just announced. But yeah, I don’t see a purpose.”<\/p>\n

On the right, the fund is also drawing criticism from the conservative National Review’s editorial board \u2014 which used much stronger language in a scathing editorial published on May 19.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump insider trading should prompt \u2018extensive criminal prosecutions\u2019: expert<\/a><\/p>\n

The Review editors argued that “hard-to-supervise slush funds aimed at financing well-connected political allies are exactly the sort of thing a populist presidency is supposed to end.”<\/p>\n

Trump is claiming that Biden used the DOJ to target his political enemies, and he is describing the “anti-weaponization fund” as a way to help them out. <\/p>\n

Read more Texas Republicans \u2018eat their own\u2019 in desperate bid to placate Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of the criticism of President Donald Trump’s $1.7 billion “weaponization fund” is coming from Democrats, who are attacking it as a “slush fund.” But some conservatives are speaking out as well \u2014 including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), who is saying he’s “not a big fan” of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate majority leader signals tough road ahead for Trump\u2019s $1.7 billion slush fund - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=16\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate majority leader signals tough road ahead for Trump\u2019s $1.7 billion slush fund - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Much of the criticism of President Donald Trump's $1.7 billion "weaponization fund" is coming from Democrats, who are attacking it as a "slush fund." 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