Where Things Stand Now

The Senate is back Monday evening and the fight is picking up exactly where it collapsed. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has formally notified his caucus they will mount a coordinated, all-out effort to strip the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund from the reconciliation package, according to The Hill.

Schumer didn't need to recruit reluctant members. Republicans handed him the ammunition themselves.

Trump Blew Past His Own Deadline

Monday, May 19 was supposed to be the White House deadline for landing the immigration enforcement funding bill on Trump's desk. Then it slipped to June 1. Both the House and Senate left for a weeklong Memorial Day recess without passing anything, according to NPR.

That's a hard deadline, missed twice — not by Democrats, but by Republican dysfunction.

The "Shitshow" Meeting That Broke the Senate

Before senators scattered for recess, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spent two hours in a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans trying to sell them on the fund. Sources described the session to Semafor as a "shitshow." Multiple GOP senators went after the proposal directly.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told NOTUS: "No one held back." Her full quote: "The White House dropped a bomb in the middle of a pretty well planned out reconciliation bill to help deliver on one of President Trump's priorities."

A Republican senator was saying the White House sabotaged its own legislation.

Thune: Nobody Told Me This Was Coming

Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed to reporters — per MS Now — that the Trump administration did NOT consult him before rolling out the fund. "It would've been nice if they consulted," Thune said, adding that they "probably would have gotten plenty of advice from lots of folks about it."

He called it "water under the bridge" but acknowledged it made their path "more complicated and bumpy than we had hoped for."

Thune is the Senate Majority Leader — the man responsible for getting Trump's agenda across the finish line — saying the White House went rogue on its own team.

What the Fund Actually Is

The Department of Justice circulated a one-page memo to GOP senators trying to defend the proposal, obtained by MS Now. It described the fund as designed to "hear and redress claims of Americans who suffered from lawfare and weaponization, defined as the use of government power to target them for 'improper and unlawful' reasons."

One GOP senator — unnamed in sources — called it a "payout pot for punks." That line came from within the Republican caucus, not from Chuck Schumer.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina separately threatened to sink the broader border bill over the fund, according to Fox News. Tillis has been one of the more vocal GOP critics throughout this process.

The Ballroom Is Gone — But the Slush Fund Is the Real Fight

The White House initially also wanted Congress to fund renovations to a White House ballroom — a project that ballooned to approximately $1 billion, per NPR. Senate parliamentarians ruled it violated strict reconciliation rules and it was stripped out.

That fight is over. The ballroom is dead. The anti-weaponization fund is not dead — and that's what this week is about.

What Happens Next

The Senate reconvenes Monday evening. Schumer's Democrats will push amendments to kill the fund. Whether enough Republicans join them is now a real possibility, not a longshot.

Thune has to either strip the fund to get his caucus back in line, or try to hold it together and risk watching the bill fail again on the Senate floor in full public view.

Trump's immigration enforcement funding was supposed to be a unifying Republican win heading into summer. Instead it became a case study in what happens when a White House treats its own Senate majority like an afterthought.

Regular Americans waiting on stronger border enforcement are watching $72 billion in ICE and CBP funding sit in limbo — not because of Democrats — but because nobody at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue picked up the phone and called John Thune before dropping a $1.8 billion fund nobody asked for into the middle of a finished bill.