Trump's revenge politics comes back to haunt him

President Trump's week started in triumph when he took out a pair of Republican adversaries up for re-election — but it's ending in a rare moment of Republican resistance, largely of his own making. Why it matters : Trump has spent the better part of a decade steamrolling congressional Republicans, but the costs of his revenge campaign — and some politically toxic priorities — have finally caught up with him. Driving the news : Just as the Senate was getting ready to take up a reconciliation bill Thursday to fund immigration enforcement, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suddenly decided he would send the chamber home until June. The move spared Republicans from having to vote on Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" to compensate people his administration says were targeted by the Biden Justice Department. Republicans also might have been forced to vote on security funding for Trump's White House ballroom. The fund idea in particular was turning into a political debacle on the Hill — a "slush fund" to critics in both parties. "Stupid on stilts" and "tyranny" was how Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) described the idea to Spectrum News. "Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think that's probably true," Sen. Ron Johnson told CNN . Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): "On May 21st 2026, Republicans finally found an ethical bridge too far." The intrigue: Trump's political vengeance campaign is only exacerbating his problems on Capitol Hill. On Saturday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lost a primary after Trump endorsed his opponent and attacked Cassidy relentlessly. A few days later, Trump flexed again when another critic, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), was defeated by another Trump-backed candidate. Trump this week also endorsed Sen. John Cornyn's Republican rival in the Texas primary, creating another GOP senator with nothing to lose. What they're saying: Thune acknowledged that the president's political activities aren't helping h...

Original source: Axios