Congress
Senate GOP could ditch Secret Service funding tied to White House ballroom
President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is on the brink of being ejected from the GOP’s fast-moving immigration enforcement bill.
Four Republican senators have raised public objections to spending taxpayer money on the project, possibly enough to kill it given the broad Democratic opposition. A larger group of Republicans is privately opposed to the funding, according to five people granted anonymity to disclose internal deliberations.
While one idea being discussed is reducing a $1 billion earmark for the Secret Service, some Republicans are privately pushing to simply remove the provision altogether from a bill that is otherwise focused on immigration enforcement, according to three of the people.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday that, barring new information, he will not vote for funding related to the ballroom.
“They don’t have a bid, they don’t have engineering, they don’t have architecture. …They just kind of made that number up,” he said. “So from what I know now, I will not be voting for the ballroom fund.”
“I do not think the case has been made,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said about the possibility of funding the ballroom project.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said, “One billion in ballroom funding is just not going to fly, right? It’s just not going to fly.”
Their comments come after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told colleagues Monday that he would oppose the overall immigration enforcement bill this week if it includes the ballroom-related money.
He will support the bill, a spokesperson said, if the line item is removed.
Senate Republicans were already discussing how to revise the $1 billion provision for Secret Service security after the chamber’s parliamentarian ruled Saturday it did not comply with the strict rules governing the party-line budget reconciliation process.
Even if Senate Republicans manage to get it past their rulekeeper, leadership is still facing private concerns from a swath of members and have been talking with rank-and-file members about potential changes, as POLITICO first reported Thursday.
The administration, which told senators last week that about $220 million of the $1 billion could go toward “hardening” the East Wing project, held a briefing for some senators at the White House on Tuesday. Collins said she was not able to attend.
The White House and GOP leaders could seek to scale back the funding or insert guardrails, but time is scarce. The Senate is hoping to start voting on the package as soon as Wednesday, with both chambers hoping to approve it ahead of a weeklong Memorial Day recess.
“If there are legitimate, discrete pieces that are tied to the security, I think there is room for discussion, but my view of it is that the administration has just decided that they’re going to move through all of their priorities for Secret Service and some of the agencies just in this one … big, broad package,” Murkowski said.
Asked if she had heard from colleagues who share her feelings, she said, “I don’t think I’m alone.”
Removing the specific mention of the East Wing Modernization Project would be a blow to the White House, which is eager to get congressional approval for the security funding as it fights litigation challenging ballroom construction. The administration could argue in court that the funding amounts to approval for the project as a whole.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pointed to Wednesday as a cutoff for Republicans to make a decision on the ballroom funding dilemma.
Asked if he had the votes to include East Wing security funding, he grimaced before adding that there are “ongoing conversations.”
GOP Rep. Max Miller insisted in a BLN interview Tuesday that he will continue to seek reelection to his Ohio House seat as he battles domestic abuse allegations, comparing himself to President Donald Trump in refusing to yield to calls to step aside.
“People have asked me, what are you going to do? Are you going to drop out of this race? Are you going to resign? You know, are you going to get out before the deadline?” Miller told interviewer Jake Tapper. “And my answer to you, Jake, is no.”
“No one has told me to get off the ballot, and that’s because they know I can win this seat,” he added.
Miller is facing claims of abuse from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno. Miller has denied any wrongdoing, including accusations that he poured hot water on Emily Moreno and held a gun to her head.
But the accusations — and Bernie Moreno’s decision to go public Sunday with a denunciation of Miller — have thrust his House race into the national spotlight ahead of a deadline later this week to replace him on the ballot.
The White House is privately pushing for Miller to drop his bid for reelection over fears that his candidacy could cost Republicans an otherwise safe seat, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Miller said Trump told him Monday morning that “it’s going to be a tough race” but did not explicitly ask him to end his campaign. Before being elected to Congress, Miller worked as an aide to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns — and Miller said he compared the president’s races then to his current race.
“I reminded him of the same resilience that he had when people told him that he was going to struggle in 2016, and he became the 45th president of the United States,” Miller said in the interview. “And I have the utmost confidence that my constituents back home know me. This race is a home race. This isn’t about what the national media thinks.”
He told Tapper at another point that Trump in 2016 “faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day, and people in the media, very much like yourself and others, said that he would have no shot at winning.”
“But guess what?” Miller said. “He stayed in and he was resilient.”
Miller continued to attack Bernie and Emily Moreno for lying about what he described as “politically motivated” allegations. Spokespeople for Bernie Moreno and Emily Moreno did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Miller also said that Speaker Mike Johnson, who has been publicly silent, is privately “standing behind me.” A spokesperson for Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House Ethics Committee said earlier Tuesday it would investigate the claims against Miller, shortly after the lawmaker said he would ask the panel for a probe that he said would clear his name. Besides the domestic violence allegations, the committee said it would look at possible “illegal drug use.”
Asked about that allegation by Tapper, Miller said he has not used illegal drugs in “several years.” He attributed reports of needles he had to testosterone replacement therapy.
“The last time I had illegal drugs would have been, I don’t know, several years ago,” he said. “I mean I don’t have a time frame on it. … I don’t use illegal drugs.”
Amid an ongoing tiff with President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune recently joked that public service might be losing its thrill.
“If he could find somebody else to do this job, it might be a big relief,” he told reporters last week after Trump declined to voice confidence in Thune as Senate GOP leader.
But Thune said in an interview that he, for now, anticipates continuing his three-decade congressional career by seeking reelection in 2028.
“My assumption is, going in, that I am,” he said last week after he was asked when he would make a decision about a fifth Senate term representing South Dakota.
But he also left open the possibility things could change as he deals with a mercurial president, a precarious political environment for Republicans and questions that have bubbled up within corners of the GOP about whether he would pursue reelection.
“You know, every election has an impact on that, so we’ll see how it comes out in November,” he added, before reiterating that “the assumption” is that he will run.
Thune’s early assessment of his 2028 plans come as he fights to win elections set to take place this year — the midterm contests that will determine if Republicans keep the Senate majority and the subsequent closed-door, secret-ballot leadership elections that will determine if he remains top leader for another two years.
Thune, according to most GOP senators, is secure in that job, even as Trump sowed doubt in an Oval Office gaggle last week when he was asked about his views of Thune’s leadership.
“We’re going to find out, and I’ll let you know,” said the president, who has repeatedly pushed Thune to pass legislation, the SAVE America elections bill, that does not have the votes to advance.
Even before the latest back-and-forth between the two men, private speculation has swirled around the Capitol about whether Thune might decide to give up his Senate seat just a few years after realizing his long-fought dream of leading the Senate GOP.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if John Thune has had enough,” said one GOP senator who added that “no one would blame him” if he decided to retire in 2028. Like others quoted in this story, the senator was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Two other Senate Republicans, who both claimed no special knowledge of his intentions, predicted that Thune would retire in 2028. Another GOP senator accused Thune’s right-wing critics in the GOP of trying to use the SAVE America Act controversy to drive down his popularity back in South Dakota, while another Republican chalked any talk of retirement up to “gossip and speculation” versus credible information coming from inside Thune’s orbit.
That’s not to say that Thune isn’t mindful of the obstacles he could face should he choose to seek another term. One is the possibility that Trump could endorse against incumbents in 2028 as he has this year, essentially driving Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas out of Congress.
The 2028-cycle Republican thought to be most at risk is Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, but Thune in the interview jokingly acknowledged his own potential vulnerability.
“I mean, if it were today, he probably — I’d probably be on that list,” he said with a laugh.
Speaking about 2028 incumbents generally, Thune said that while Trump’s endorsement “makes a huge difference … a year from now, we could be in a totally different political footing than where we are now, and the world could look a lot different, so it’s hard to say” what effect the president might have.
Without prompting, Thune also made note in the interview of his state’s history for high-profile Republican retirement announcements. President Calvin Coolidge, he recounted, traveled to South Dakota in 1927 and announced there he would not seek reelection to a second full term in 1928.
“I’m not hinting that that’s something impressive that I might follow,” he added.
Some Senate Republicans are openly encouraging Thune to run again.
His GOP delegation mate, Sen. Mike Rounds, described Thune’s standing in South Dakota as “positive.”
“You’ve got two things: You’ve got social media out there, which is driven by a lot of outside sources and some real whack jobs,” Rounds said. “And then you’ve got normal people that see John, respect him, know him, and know what he’s all about — and those are the people that vote.”
“If he decides to run again, and I hope he does, if he does, [the] people of South Dakota will support him,” he added.
Michael Card, a professor emeritus at the University of South Dakota, predicted that Thune would have to spend more time back in the state but that he was in “good shape” if he decides to run for reelection.
“As long as he is seen as pushing the farm bill forward, I don’t think there will really be any real strong candidate,” he added. “And even if they were a strong candidate, they wouldn’t be as strong as John … who knows everybody.”
It’s not the first time fellow Republicans have wondered privately about Thune’s future.
Frustrated by Thune’s lack of support for his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election, Trump backed a primary challenge to Thune ahead of the 2022 midterms. After Thune made comments to the Black Hills Pioneer in December 2021 that his wife wanted him back home and he was seriously considering retirement, GOP senators made a crash lobbying effort to convince him to run for reelection.
Thune decided to run, no credible primary challenger emerged, and he earned nearly 70 percent of the vote in the November 2022 general election.
Thune and Trump repaired their relationship in the lead-up to the 2024 election, with Trump staying out of the race to choose Mitch McConnell’s successor as Senate GOP leader. The two worked closely last year to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and confirm hundreds of presidential nominees — including by changing the chamber’s rules to approve them faster.
But the two men’s relationship has since seen public splits as Trump has applied a single-minded focus to passing the SAVE America Act — including by nuking the filibuster, something Thune claims is off the table for most Senate Republicans.
Trump told reporters last week that his relationship with Thune was “fine” and that they have a “good relationship” even as Trump hammered him to “get his job done” and pass the GOP elections bill. Some GOP senators have privately predicted that Trump will continue to ramp up the pressure on Thune, though they believe how far he goes will depend on what happens in the midterms.
Some online conservative activists have floated the idea of trying to recruit a 2028 primary challenger for Thune. But the South Dakota Republican Party rejected an attempt earlier this summer to censure Thune over his “failure in regards to the SAVE America Act.”
Thune told reporters Tuesday he had spoken to Trump earlier in the day about “issues that he cares about.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m isolated, no,” Thune said, while adding that he has “been very clear about the prospects for the SAVE America Act.”
Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday she will vote against Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general.
The Maine Republican, who is facing a difficult race for reelection, said in a statement she would oppose Blanche, citing “several actions that have further eroded the Department’s independence.” She specifically mentioned his role in a controversial IRS settlement with President Donald Trump and over having “promised an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication to women nationwide.”
Two other Republicans — Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — are known to still be undecided; Blanche needs one of their votes to secure confirmation.
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