Bulwark columnist Bill Kristol is scorching “Suckups,” those GOP lawmakers who are running in the “sycophancy sweepstakes” to praise President Donald Trump.

He began with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who said: “Those who try to destroy Trump politically, standing in the way of his agenda are going to lose.”

“This is the party of Donald Trump,” Graham added. “There is no room in this party to destroy his agenda.”

Kristol turned to U.S. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), a “wealthy business executive” who “graduated with a degree in government—magna cum laude—from Harvard,” who then “succeeded in the casino business.”

Pointing to the defeat of Indiana state representatives who opposed Trump, to the defeat of Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) who voted to impeach him, and now U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Kristol asked, “what’s there to do but to try not only to echo but to surpass Sen. Graham?”

He then mocked Congressman Fine’s Tuesday tweet: “This is @realDonaldTrump’s Republican Party. The rest of us get the privilege of living in it.”

Kristol said that “Fine had no hesitation in choosing flattery over respectability. And who can say, in the age of Trump and the party of Trump, that his choice was a foolish one?”

Kristol is a longtime conservative pundit who served as a GOP vice presidential chief of staff. He is now a former Republican who recently declared he is a Democrat.

“Today’s Republican party is no party for respectable men,” he wrote. “Georgia Secretary of State Brad [Raffensperger] and his deputy Gabriel Sterling, who courageously and honorably stood up to Trump in 2020, were crushed in GOP primaries yesterday.”

He quoted former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who became one of the most prominent Never Trump Republicans: “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible,: she said in her opening remarks at the January 6 Committee hearings. “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

Kristol concluded: “For now, Donald Trump is still here, and Republican dishonor is greater than ever.”

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Buoyed by defeating Republicans at the ballot box he deemed disloyal to him, President Donald Trump is “almost maniacally focused” on doing whatever he wants, despite the very real potential consequence that could lead to the GOP losing majority control of the House and possibly the Senate in November, Punchbowl News reports.

“Trump appears to have all but given up any pretense that he’s concerned about the increasingly fragile Republican majorities on Capitol Hill,” according to Punchbowl.

It’s not just congressional seats the president is risking, it’s the support of voters who have already given him dismal poll numbers on everything from the economy to the war in Iran.

Voters are facing tremendous health care bills, rising food costs, and a roughly fifty-percent increase at the gas pumps.

“As gas prices skyrocket due to the unpopular war in Iran, Trump says it’s a ‘very small price to pay’ as long as he believes the conflict is proceeding to his liking,” Punchbowl noted.

And the president is often focused on the White House ballroom he now calls “my gift to the United States of America.” He has yet to secure the $1 billion in funding for the security enhancements he is touting.

On Tuesday, Trump held a press conference with pool reporters, going over very specific details including revealing that the ballroom is a “shield” for a military complex underneath, which will go six stories deep. The ballroom, the president detailed, will be constructed of drone-proof glass and steel.

“Regardless of your views about the necessity of White House renovations,” Punchbowl noted, “it doesn’t take a political wiz to come to the conclusion that now might not be the best time to brag about building a plush ballroom.”

The administration this week unveiled the president’s $1.776 billion fund that will compensate alleged victims of Justice Department “weaponization” by the Biden administration. Punchbowl reports even some Republicans were “shocked.”

The president is moving forward with his Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C., which may cost taxpayers millions. That’s on top of the millions he is spending to resurface the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.

On Tuesday, the White House revealed the administration is managing “dozens” of construction projects in D.C. Punchbowl noted the administration is renovating what will become a championship golf course, and is putting the president’s name and face on several federal government buildings.

Trump is also removing thousands of troops from Europe, building “Trump battleships,” and “even letting his Defense secretary campaign against one of the president’s political opponents” — something experts say is highly unusual, especially while the nation is at war.

“Trump now has a Senate Republican Conference that includes two senators he targeted for defeat, plus a handful of vulnerable Republicans who are simply hoping to survive the midterms,” Punchbowl observed. “Getting to 51 will be very difficult for the rest of 2026.”

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A GOP senator Trump successfully ousted is now costing him a vote for his ballroom.

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who just days ago lost his primary race to a Trump-endorsed Republican, says he’s a no on the $1 billion the administration is asking for security upgrades to the $400 million ballroom.

Cassidy had voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, and the president responded by endorsing his opponent.

“I just know where I am on the ballroom,” Cassidy said Tuesday afternoon, according to Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.

The two-term Republican challenged the administration’s building process.

“They’ve not put out a bid, they’ve not done architectural, they’ve not done engineering, they’ve not done environmental, they haven’t done any of that, they’ve not done historic, which I’m sure they’re meant to do,” he said. “And so they don’t know how much money they should ask for, but they picked a number.”

“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.”

The Senate is expected to vote on Wednesday on reconciliation legislation that originally was slated to include the $1 billion funding for the Secret Service, which includes the security enhancements.

Cassidy is “noncommittal” on the reconciliation bill itself as well, Everett noted.

Senate Republicans, Politico’s Jordain Carney reports, are “currently short of the votes to include East Wing/ballroom security funding in their reconciliation bill.”

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune, when asked about funding the $1 billion, appeared to focus his attention on the main aspects of the legislation.

“The principal objective in this reconciliation bill is to ensure that ICE and CBP are funded,” he said.

The president took time on Tuesday to share specific details about the ballroom and the security construction with reporters.

“All of these columns, they go directly right to the roof of the building,” Trump said of the ballroom in remarks to the press pool. “And again, we call it a drone port. It’s set up for unlimited numbers of drones.”

“When this is finished,” he said, “my term ends shortly after that. This is really for other presidents, this is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I’m going to be able to use it very little.”

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