Alex GriffingMay 21st, 2026, 3:30 pm

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) offered a strongly worded rebuke of President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion payout fund to so-called victims of government weaponization on Thursday.

Following a meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who formerly worked as Trump’s personal lawyer, Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju that the fund was a massive error in judgment.

“Ron Johnson told me the Trump administration should have focused on getting ICE/CBP bill passed and the decision to unveil $1.8B fund now (when they’re trying to pass the bill) was a giant mistake,” Raju reported of his conversation with the MAGA loyalist, adding:

Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think that’s probably true.

Senate Minority Leader John Thune (R-SD) sent the Senate home following the swift backlash to the meeting, which delayed an expected round of swift voting to pass several of Trump’s key agenda items via reconciliation – including funding ICE.

NOTUS’s Reese Gorman reported on the Republicans not being “happy” with the Trump administration over the fund, which critics are slamming as a massive “slush fund” to pay Trump allies and donors.

“They have fucked this up on too many levels to count,” one senior GOP Senate aide told Gorman. “The only thing more toxic than demanding taxpayers foot the bill for a billion-dollar ballroom is demanding taxpayers give billions of dollars to J6 rioters.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) previously hammered Trump on the issue as well, calling the fund “stupid on stilts.”

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