Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was dispatched to Capitol Hill to present details of President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion fund to compensate alleged victims of “weaponization” by the Biden DOJ.

According to reports, the meeting with Senate Republicans “did not go well.”

CNN’s Manu Raju reported that Blanche faced “stiff resistance.” He added that he was “told most senators voiced opposition to the fund — hardly any came to its defense.”

“Blanche struggled Thursday to quash GOP concerns over a newly announced $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund,” Politico reports. “Blanche met privately with Senate Republicans as the administration and GOP leaders tried to defuse the controversy over the fund.”

“Nearly 2-hour meeting with Acting AG Todd Blanche and Senate Republicans was incredibly hostile, per multiple attendees,” Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio reported.

“As many as 25 GOP senators spoke (this is very rare for these meetings), all in opposition to weaponization fund,” he noted.

For their part, Republicans “pitched specific ideas such as dictating how the 5 commissioners are chosen,” and “not allowing people convicted of violence against cops to be eligible for a payout.”

One prominent Senate Republican, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, confronted Blanche “about the weaponization fund at the Senate GOP meeting,” reported Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.

“Meeting being described as a ‘s——’ per people familiar with it,” Everett noted. He added that the senator “hates the fund” and called it “stupid on stilts” earlier today.

Not only did the meeting not go well, the D.C. Examiner’s Ramsey Touchberry said that he hasn’t heard that any Republican changed their minds. The D.C. Examiner’s David Sivak described the Senate GOP as “super tight-lipped after the Blanche meeting.”

Earlier on Thursday President Donald Trump was asked if he is “losing control” of Senate Republicans.

“I don’t know,” the president replied.

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As more and more Senate Republicans break ranks with him, President Donald Trump says he’s not sure if he still has control over them.

Republican Senators are increasingly pushing back on key elements of President Donald Trump’s agenda, especially the $1 billion for security enhancements to his White House ballroom project, and his $1.8 billion “weaponization” of the DOJ fund for alleged victims.

At an Oval Office event on Thursday, reporters asked the president if he’s losing control of Republicans.

“Mr. President, with many Americans concerned about affordability ahead of the midterms, there is some backlash from the Senate Republicans to some of your other priorities: the ballroom and the anti-weaponization fund,” a reporter said. “You clearly still have a stronghold on the Republican Party, and your candidates did very well during the primaries.”

“But are you in control of the Senate, sir?” the reporter asked. “Are you losing control of the Senate, Senate Republicans?”

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I really don’t know.”

“I can tell you, I only do what’s right,” he continued, before launching into great detail about the ballroom.

“I don’t need money for the ballroom. You know I’m making a gift of the ballroom. This is the biggest misreporting that I’ve ever seen. The ballroom is being built. It’ll cost, it was gonna be $200 million, I’ve doubled the size of it, ’cause we need it, and it’s being done in conjunction with the military and with the very much in conjunction with the military and Secret Service. We’re on time, on budget, it’s going beautifully.”

“We’re making a gift to the United States,” he said. “The ballroom is paid for. It’s a gift.”

When asked about the $1 billion in security enhancements, and what would happen if Congress does not approve the funds, Trump was matter-of-fact.

“Then the White House won’t be a very secure place,” he lamented.

Q: “Are you losing control of the Senate, Senate Republicans?”

President Trump: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I only do what’s right. I don’t need money for the ballroom…if they want to spend money on securing the White House I think it would be very, very much a good… pic.twitter.com/YGTyvRgjBB

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 21, 2026

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Longtime Republican political consultant Karl Rove is warning that President Donald Trump’s own actions could be “helping Democrats” take back the House, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the GOP’s midterm chances are at risk, as Mediaite reports.

“Gerrymandering helped Republicans. But the president’s actions are helping Democrats. That could give Democrats the House,” Rove wrote.

He noted that “Democrats lead on the generic congressional ballot by 6.6 points in Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin average of recent polls and by 11 in the latest New York Times/Siena survey.”

Rove suggested President Trump — and his approval numbers — are to blame for the “widening gap,” Mediaite notes.

“The GOP’s chances will get worse if President Trump’s approval numbers keep declining. They’re already dangerously low. Wednesday, his approval hit 39.8% in the RealClearPolitics average, the lowest of his second term so far,” Rove wrote.

The GOP “needs better White House message discipline on the Iran war,” he explained.

“Making things worse are Mr. Trump’s erratic late-night missives. The president comes across more as a heckler at a UFC match than as a reassuring wartime commander in chief,” Rove charged.

Trump is also “mucking up his domestic messaging.”

Rove praised Trump for announcing Monday he is reducing healthcare costs via TrumpRX.com.

“But long after the memory of that announcement fades, voters will recall Tuesday’s news conference at the White House ballroom construction site,” he said.

The president spoke at length about very specific details of the ballroom and the military complex, including a hospital, that he wants to build underneath it.

Trump’s $1 billion request for security enhancements “won’t convert voters.”

“Nor will bragging that ‘there will never be another building like this,’ especially with Americans upset about $5-a-gallon gasoline, which Mr. Trump dismissed as ‘peanuts.'”

Rove suggests Trump stay off the road and not campaign during the midterms, and let Republicans distance themselves if they like.

“Better that he’s chief executive right now than campaigner-in-chief,” Rove suggested.

“The more undisciplined the White House messages on war and the economy, the more at risk GOP candidates will be,” Rove wrote. “The more Mr. Trump thrusts himself into the campaign, the more damage he’ll do to Republicans and his own cause.”

Image via Reuters