Alex GriffingMay 21st, 2026, 5:49 pm

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delighted in the Republican majority abandoning its plans to shove through a spending bill to fund ICE and other Trump agenda items as a result of infighting over the president’s $1.8 billion payout fund.

Schumer held his weekly leadership press conference on Capitol Hill and took a small victory lap. “So this afternoon, Republicans, so divided, so dysfunctional, so disorganized, are fleeing Washington. Their majority can’t melt down fast enough, not when America’s financial situation is melting down every day. Republicans are in complete disarray,” crowed the New York Democrat, adding:

They’re at each other’s throats, and the American people are suffering for it. Republicans are divided over things that Americans don’t want, but Democrats are united around things that the people do want—for us to lower their costs, rein in the chaos, fight the corruption that is endemic to this administration. Republicans have tied themselves up in knots and torn each other to shreds over Trump’s brazenly corrupt slush fund for his billionaire cronies and January 6th insurrectionists.

They have soiled their reputation by fighting to fund Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom at taxpayer expense. And all the while, Republicans haven’t lifted a finger to lower Americans’ costs. Trapped in a corner by their own president, Republicans have their backs to the wall with no way out, nowhere to hide, no end in sight.

The only way for Republicans to get out of this box is to stop backing the slush fund, stop pushing the ballroom, and as soon as we get back, join Democrats in fighting to lower Americans’ costs on health care, on housing, on power, on childcare, and on so much else, and to join us in fighting the corruption that Trump just revels in. Republicans are in retreat. But Democrats are moving full steam ahead to fight Trump’s costs, chaos, corruption.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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