The tension between President Trump’s MAGA administration and the obstructionist elements within the Senate GOP ranks continues, with the nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general serving as the newest flashpoint of conflict. President Donald Trump directly blasted Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, last week after it became clear that they remained intransigent in their opposition to confirming Blanche.
Tillis and Cornyn ultimately announced their support for Blanche’s confirmation and advanced him out of the committee hearing, but not without doing their best to obstruct Trump and Blanche. And by obstructing the MAGA agenda, Tillis and Cornyn are simultaneously doing their best to hurt Trump’s party in the upcoming midterm elections.
To get the necessary support from Tillis and Cornyn, Blanche was forced to announce that he had instructed the Department of Justice to terminate the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” This fund of $1.776 billion dollars was announced in May as part of the settlement of the civil lawsuit filed by Trump against the IRS over the 2020 leak of his tax returns.
Demonstrating his shrewd political maneuvering and an honorable, magnanimous desire to vindicate his supporters, President Trump had opted for the anti-weaponization fund to provide relief to his many ordinary American supporters instead of receiving any personal compensation for damages. The fund was intended to provide financial relief to those who could demonstrate they had been unfairly and unlawfully targeted by the Biden administration’s weaponization of the government against conservatives and especially the former president and his supporters.
The Anti-Weaponization Fund quickly faced obstacles, as leftist judges moved to enjoin the creation of the government fund and creative Democrat plaintiffs like James Comey suggested they would sue based on claims of being victims of “weaponized” government under Trump.
Tillis Opposes Trump
Tillis also signaled his displeasure with the anti-weaponization fund, and it appears his support for Blanche’s confirmation as AG (if Tillis will indeed ultimately support Blanche) became contingent upon the scrapping of the anti-weaponization fund. Tillis has become one of the most vociferous anti-Trump Republicans in the Senate, notably attacking the administration’s key policy of enforcing immigration law. Specifically, Tillis has shown nothing but vitriol for the Trump supporters prosecuted by the Biden administration in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021, and he deliberately blocked the confirmation of Ed Martin as U.S. district attorney for Washington, D.C., because of the legal support Martin provided for J6ers. Tillis also criticized the anti-weaponization fund and argued that the actions taken by the Trump administration were of the same kind as those from Biden’s weaponized government.
Similarly, John Cornyn is clearly a pro-immigration Republican, having run campaign ads in Spanish and expressed support for legal status for “dreamers” (illegal alien children brought to the U.S. by their parents). Cornyn has also expressed his support for Muslim and Indian immigration into Texas, something MAGA voters have resisted and want to reverse. Cornyn had also recently announced he would block Trump nominees until Trump restored a program to fund AIDS relief in Africa.
Repeated Obstruction
Tillis and Cornyn are simply the clearest examples of a repeated pattern of obstruction of President Trump’s agenda by establishment Republican senators who dislike Trump and the way he is remaking the Republican Party. These senators manifest their obstruction by refusing to eliminate the filibuster or utilize the talking filibuster, pass the SAVE America Act and other urgently needed legislative reforms, confirm some of Trump’s best nominees, or eliminate the outdated “blue slips” process for judicial confirmations, which only helps the left.
Reforming the makeup of the Senate GOP cannot come quickly enough. Thankfully, some of the worst anti-Trump senators have been successfully primaried. Cornyn suffered a resounding defeat in May to Ken Paxton, the pro-Trump attorney general of Texas. Paxton will likely carry the general election in November to replace Cornyn in the Senate. Bill Cassidy, a longtime anti-Trump Republican senator from Louisiana, also suffered a primary defeat to Julia Letlow, the Trump-endorsed candidate. And Tillis is retiring at the end of this term, rather than risk being primaried himself.
It is long past time for the Republican Party to field and elect candidates for Congress who will protect the rights and defend the interests of ordinary American citizens: restricting immigration, restoring law and order, and limiting foreign entanglements. For far too long, the Republican establishment — particularly the Republican senators — have been eager to sell out their voters in preference for cheap foreign labor, arming supposed “allies” in overseas conflicts, and making performative political displays in Washington while refusing to play hardball against the Democrats.
Trump has called their bluff because his 2024 victory, carrying congressional majorities along with his presidential win, has provided the Republicans with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make critical reforms, break the institutional power of the left, and ensure right-wing political power for the future. Instead, Republican senators like Tillis and Cornyn show that they would rather be part of the resistance to Trump.
Republican voters deserve better. We must keep reforming the Republican Party so that corrupt establishment candidates like Tillis and Cornyn are either forced to change their behavior or can just be forced out of office and the party. President Trump has led the way on this, and we need to complete what he has begun.
More Troubles Ahead?
Even though Tillis and Cornyn have decided to advance Blanche’s nomination to a full Senate floor vote, we are not in the clear yet. Given that Tillis and Cornyn are on their way out, have nothing further to lose, and have already made clear their hatred for Trump — what would stop them from continuing to obstruct if they really want to? Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has also just announced her opposition to Blanche’s confirmation, and there may be more trouble from other anti-Trump holdouts like Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Ultimately, this obstruction from anti-Trump GOP senators is severely threatening the Republicans for the upcoming midterms. By stalling the MAGA agenda, they are helping to impede Trump and make it harder for the administration to accumulate wins they can advertise to the public. And passing the SAVE America Act — which, after all, ought to be the Republican senators’ top priority — could easily help secure the midterm elections and all future elections against the ubiquitous threat of election fraud that so frequently favors the left.
However, if Blanche can get confirmed as attorney general, why not repay the faithless obstructionists by restoring the anti-weaponization fund (or something equivalent to it) once Blanche is confirmed, or even after the midterms or after Cornyn and Tillis leave office? The urgency of our situation and the accumulated sabotage from our Republican “representatives” would more than justify such a shrewd counterattack. The faithless Republicans don’t deserve to be rewarded with honor or respect when their repeated actions are harming the American people and functionally helping the left.
