By Siobhan Hughes, Lindsay Wise and Richard Rubin

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans headed toward a floor showdown over the Trump administration's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, as some lawmakers sought guarantees in law that it was truly dead.

The fight over the fund has held up an immigration-enforcement bill that has been a GOP priority for months. The Senate voted 53 to 46 Wednesday on a procedural motion to advance the $70-billion immigration measure, but GOP lawmakers signaled they hadn't resolved disagreements over the "anti-weaponization" fund and the Justice Department's decision to end tax audits of President Trump and his businesses.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the fund wasn't moving forward following staunch opposition from GOP lawmakers. But critics questioned whether the money could be revived later by Trump, who declined Wednesday to confirm that he considered the fund dead.

"I'd have to ask the lawyers. I don't know," Trump said, while also praising the fund. "I love it. I think it's so important."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), who opposes the fund, said she "wants to see it dead, dead, dead." She said she would support legislative language to ensure the fund could never become operational.

A series of amendment votes is expected to start Thursday morning, and senators expect to take public positions on contentious Republican and Democratic proposals to curb the fund.

Blanche testified Tuesday before Congress that "we're not moving forward with the fund. Period." He didn't say that he would put the guarantee in writing, however, when asked during a congressional hearing; the fund was created through a written agreement between Trump, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

A handful of Republican senators said Blanche's statement was insufficient. They moved to institute stronger safeguards written into law, a step that could put party divisions on display and potentially blow up the bill to fund border patrol and immigration enforcement for the next few years. Republicans are using a special procedure to pass the measure with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes usually required, but they need to remain largely united around a final version.

"If [Blanche] says it's gone, then he won't mind specifying that in law, " Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) told reporters. Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) has taken a similar position. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, so the immigration-enforcement bill can't advance if four of them join Democrats to insist that provisions stopping the fund have to be included.

"Now we've got an acting AG saying one thing, the president saying another," Tillis said. "The only thing that gives it finality is what we can do in there" on the Senate floor.

The $1.8 billion fund has been a sticking point to passing the immigration bill because Democrats and some Republicans said it would use taxpayer money to compensate Trump's allies, as well as reward people who had assaulted police officers when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It was created not by Congress, but by Trump's decision to sue the administration over the leak of his tax returns, then withdraw the suit in exchange for the fund.

A $1 billion provision funding security related to the new White House ballroom championed by Trump already had been removed from the package following opposition from Congress.

Senate Republican leaders had hoped the commitment from Blanche on the "anti-weaponization" fund would allow them to move past the fight and avoid a confrontation with Trump.

"I think we had a pretty firm commitment yesterday from the attorney general," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said Wednesday afternoon. "Hearing it directly from him, in very clear and unambiguous terms, I thought, was really helpful."

Blanche didn't, however, back off a related order he issued that ended tax audits of Trump, his family and his businesses. Democrats indicated that they planned to seek amendment votes on the fund and the audits, and some Republicans indicated that they planned to do so as well.

"I tell Republicans, you're going to have to vote on ending the corrupt Trump slush fund once and for all," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.).

A proposal from Tillis would prevent the government from spending any money to establish, staff or operate the fund, and it would block any processing or paying of claims. The Tillis amendment would direct $1.7 billion to the Justice Department's antifraud efforts, and it would block the department from defending any order implementing the settlement agreement, which would appear to stymie Blanche's order stopping Trump's audits.

Cassidy filed an amendment that would block any money from being paid out of the anti-weaponization fund.

Sen. John Curtis (R., Utah), who has criticized the fund, said Blanche's statements promising not to implement the plan were enough for him to move forward with the immigration-spending bill. But he also didn't see this week's votes on one of the administration's top priorities as Congress's only point of leverage.

"It's not our last chance to kill it," Curtis said. "I just feel like I can't legislate against every conceivable thing that I wouldn't like."

Write to Siobhan Hughes at Siobhan.hughes@wsj.com, Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com and Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 03, 2026 17:43 ET (21:43 GMT)

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