Senate GOP Delays Deportation Funding Vote After Trump Backlash

Senate Republicans have delayed a vote on a $72bn immigration enforcement bill, in a rare sign that Donald Trump’s own party is not fully willing to absorb the political cost of his latest moves.

The chamber had been expected to vote on Thursday on funding to support Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Instead, the measure was pushed back before the long holiday weekend after two separate controversies triggered resistance inside the Republican conference.

The first was Trump’s new $1.776bn “anti-weaponisation” fund, created as part of a settlement tied to his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. Trump had sued the IRS over the leak of his tax information by a contractor around 2019, but critics say the case presented an obvious conflict: the sitting president was effectively negotiating with agencies that answer to him.

The settlement set aside money for people deemed to have been unfairly targeted by the government. Opponents say the fund could become a taxpayer-backed reward system for Trump allies.

Senate Republicans summoned acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to Capitol Hill on Thursday to explain the arrangement, which draws from Justice Department funds that usually do not require congressional approval.

Nebraska Senator Don Bacon said the lawsuit had damaged Trump’s standing with some Republicans.

“He’s lost some support in the Senate,” Bacon said. “He’s the plaintiff and the boss of the defendants. So just on the surface, it smells.”

Senator Thom Tillis was even blunter.

“I think it’s stupid on stilts,” Tillis told Spectrum News. “The American people are going to reject this out of hand.”

The second source of friction was Trump’s request to include $1bn for a new White House ballroom in the immigration bill. Trump had previously said the project would not require taxpayer money, but later pushed to add the funding, arguing the ballroom was needed for national security.

That did not land smoothly. By Wednesday, Senate Republican leaders had indicated the ballroom money would be removed.

There was also a practical reason to strip it out. If the ballroom funding had stayed in the bill, Republicans likely could not have used budget reconciliation, the special process that allows certain legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority instead of the usual 60-vote threshold.

The delay does not mean Republicans are abandoning Trump’s immigration agenda. Most still support tougher enforcement and expanded deportation funding. But the episode shows there are limits — or at least moments of discomfort — when Trump pairs major enforcement spending with personal legal settlements and a billion-dollar White House construction request.