With President Donald Trump’s “revenge tour” against Republicans complete, he has successfully ousted several congressional Republicans — with one more possibility on the way — but by doing so he has severely imperiled his critical majority in the U.S. Senate.

“One understated reality of what Trump has done: He basically just nuked his Senate majority for the next six months,” writes political journalist Isaac Saul.

Saul explains that U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who recently lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed MAGA rival, “now has no reason to play ball.”

Cassidy this week scorched two key items on President Trump’s agenda: his $1.8 billion victimization and weaponization fund, and the $1 billion for security enhancements for his ballroom.

“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,” Cassidy wrote on Wednesday in a rare rebuke from a sitting GOP lawmaker. “This is adding to our national debt. If there needs to be a settlement, the administration should bring it to Congress to decide.”

Earlier this week, Cassidy said, “I just know where I am on the ballroom.”

He blasted the administration for what he said was not getting bids, or doing the architectural, engineering, environmental, or historic work.

“And so they don’t know how much money they should ask for, but they picked a number,” he said.

“That’s not the way to run the government,” Cassidy added. “So they just want a pot of money, and I think they need to give us more detail.”

Then there’s U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost an endorsement battle to his MAGA rival — whom Trump endorsed on Tuesday, one week before the primary runoff.

Saul notes that Cornyn “will have to navigate the runoff, but win or lose next Tuesday he comes out of that doing whatever he wants.”

He also points to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) who “is retiring and already acting like an independent.”

And U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who “have long been willing to break with POTUS.”

“All the sudden,” Saul explains, “a 53-47 Senate majority is a 48-47 majority with five live swing votes.”

As Punchbowl News reported on Thursday, Senate Republicans are “preparing to buck President Donald Trump on two of his long-running obsessions: the White House ballroom project and the ‘weaponization’ of federal agencies against his allies.”

Those are the two issues Cassidy has been railing against.

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The New York Times Editorial Board, in a strongly worded editorial, says “There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This.”

The paper of record is accusing President Donald Trump not only of “presidential corruption,” but also of “political self-dealing,” and “destroying pillars of American democracy to empower himself.”

At issue is what the Times calls the Trump Justice Department’s “$1.8 billion political slush fund.”

“Ostensibly set up to compensate those who the department claims have ‘suffered weaponization and lawfare,’ it will in fact reward loyalists willing to defy the law and commit violence on behalf of the president,” the editors charge.

They allege that the fund actually encompasses three of Trump’s “most alarming behaviors”: corruption, using the DOJ “as an enforcer to punish his perceived opponents and protect his friends and allies,” and attempting to rewrite history “about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.”

How is Trump destroying pillars of American democracy?

“He claims elections are legitimate only if he wins,” they write. “He uses federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute his perceived enemies. He purges his party of officials who defy him. He describes members of the other party and civil society as traitors and enemies.” Trump “incentivizes his supporters to break the law on his behalf and rewards them when they do,” and he “directs his allies to change election rules to keep his party in power.”

The agreement to create the fund came after Trump dropped a highly-controversial $10 billion lawsuit which reports say IRS lawyers were intending to contest.

In exchange for dropping the lawsuit, Trump and his supporters would receive “government handouts,” the Times says.

Trump and his family would gain immunity from IRS audits, and his supporters who were allegedly victimized by government lawfare would receive payments.

Times editors note that the fund holds another purpose: encouraging “future lawlessness on Mr. Trump’s behalf.”

“It sends the message that he will use his power not only to shield people who break the law from accountability,” they say, “but also to shower benefits on them. Just as punishment is a deterrent, rewards are an incentive.”

The editors urge Americans to be “cleareyed” about what Trump is actually doing: “taking their money and showering it on criminals.”

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President Donald Trump has concocted a “fantasy world” where prices were low in the months before he began his Iran war, says CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale. Prices are up and Americans are “unhappy.”

“When he’s been asked about the inflation or the unhappiness, Trump has repeatedly responded with lies — fictional stories about how low prices supposedly were before the war,” Dale reports.

He suggests that — unlike the president — consumers have a good memory of what prices were like in the days before the Iran war.

“But the president has concocted a fantasy — of sub-$2 gas, sub-2% inflation, and generally reduced prices — that bears little resemblance to the actual state of the country prior to the first strikes against Iran on February 28,” Dale writes.

For instance, on Tuesday at the White House congressional picnic, Trump told attendees that “inflation was at 1.6% for the last three months just prior to the war.” Last week, he had said it was 1.7%.

“Neither number is accurate,” Dale notes.

“The year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index was 2.7% in November 2025, 2.7% in December 2025 and 2.4% in January 2026,” he writes. “The inflation rate was 2.4% again in February 2026, for which nearly all the data was collected before the war began on the last day of the month.”

In March, it jumped to 3.3% and last month, 3.8%.

“We inherited high prices and we got the prices down, and we got them down to numbers that in some cases people have not seen before,” Trump said at Tuesday’s picnic.

“You know, when they talk about high prices, I inherited the high prices,” he told Fox News last week. “I’m getting them down; I’ve got them down incredibly.”

Dale explains that while some prices may have gone down, “the president keeps talking as if overall prices were down before the war — or even are down overall today — and that is clearly not true.”

Trump continued the fantasy with gas prices.

“We had numbers that nobody’s seen in a long time. So you had $2 a gallon,” he told reporters on May 7. “We were down — I think you were $1.85, $1.90 in Iowa, and a lot of other places.”

Dale hit Trump with a fact-check: “Nope.”

The day before the Iran war began, the national average price of gas was $2.98 a gallon, according to AAA.

“As for Iowa? Its average price for regular gas on both February 27 and February 28 was $2.64 per gallon, according to AAA,” Dale said.

Now?

According to AAA, the national average price of gas for Wednesday is $4.56.

Image via Reuters