The Dictatorship

Senate Republicans fall in line with Trump and pass reconciliation bill

Published

4 weeks ago

June 5, 2026

Jun. 5, 2026, 5:38 AM EDT

After a marathon session of votes Thursday and Friday, senators passed a roughly $70 billion reconciliation bill funding immigration enforcement, as more moderate Republicans abandoned efforts to constrain President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund — and a host of other controversies — and advanced the legislation without imposing any new restrictions on the president.

After more than 18 hours of voting, party loyalty ultimately prevailed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., successfully navigated a series of politically fraught amendments that could have forced Republicans into direct confrontations with Trump.

At 4:52 a.m., senators voted 52-47 to pass the bill, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, as the lone Republican to oppose the final measure.

The legislation now goes to the House, where it faces further drama. GOP leaders initially planned to vote Friday in order to send the measure to Trump’s desk before the weekend. But facing potential attendance problems, House Republicans canceled Friday votes and are instead eying passage next week.

While some Republican critics of Trump broke with their party on individual amendments — and, in Murkowski’s case, on final passage — there were never enough defections to push Democratic proposals over the finish line. Depending on parliamentary rulings, amendments needed either a simple majority or 60 votes to pass. And amendments that required 60 votes received up to 54 votes in favor, while measures that only required a majority stalled out at 49.

It was either a fortuitous stroke of luck for GOP leaders or an intentional display of bipartisan theater, depending on who you asked.

At one point, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., asked to change a mistaken “nay” vote to a “yea” after it was already clear the outcome wouldn’t change. The switch allowed him to register support for a Democratic proposal barring federal or private funds for Trump’s planned East Wing ballroom. The Senate agreed unanimously, nudging support from 52 senators to 53 — still well short of the 60 votes required.

Cassidy was the most persistent Republican holdout. About 17 hours into the amendment marathon, he offered a measure to redirect the $1.8 billion settlement fund to law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That measure garnered 52 votes in support, short of the 60 required.

“I was hoping that we could both have money to protect the border, but still do that which I hope to achieve,” Cassidy told reporters midway through the votes, referring to his efforts to block Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund.

The bill’s passage highlights a persistent clarity of purpose among Republican lawmakers, despite several weeks of drama.

“We’ve sort of lost sight of our ultimate objective here,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters ahead of the votes on Thursday. “The objective is to get DHS funded, and we’ve had some — some unrelated issues that have been thrust into the process, and they’ve got to be dealt with.”

The biggest point of contention throughout the votes was Trump’s proposed settlement fund, stemming from his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. Democrats and a small group of Republican holdouts argued that Congress should prohibit the fund outright, regardless of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s promise to abandon it. But the GOP-controlled Senate repeatedly refused to take action.

Senators first rejected a proposal by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to send the bill back to the Judiciary Committee with instructions to block Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund. That measure failed 49-50, short of the majority needed.

After expressing serious concerns about Trump’s settlement fund, Cassidy voted against that amendment and allowed the bill to move forward.

Next, members voted on an amendment from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., to redirect the funds to anti-fraud enforcement, a proposal that drew complaints from Democrats who viewed it as simply shuffling money around. That measure failed 15-84, well short of the 60 votes necessary.

Cassidy spent hours trying to draft an amendment to address the Trump settlement fund so that it would only need a simple majority. He was ultimately unsuccessful. And when he failed, there were no repercussions for GOP leaders when his amendment suffered the same fate as all the other proposals.

Democrats were able to force votes on a number of hot-button issues.

A proposal by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to bar federal funds for Trump’s East Wing ballroom — and to ban private donations unless authorized by Congress — drew 53 senators in support and 46 opposed, still well short of the 60 votes needed.

The close votes gave vulnerable Republicans and occasional Trump critics an opportunity to distance themselves from the administration without jeopardizing either the immigration funding package or Trump’s support.

The three most vulnerable incumbent Republicans in 2026 — Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska — all supported Tillis’ unsuccessful amendment to redirect Trump’s settlement money.

Husted, a Trump ally who rarely bucks his party, trailed Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown by eight percentage points in a Fox News poll released Wednesday. Husted voted for all three key measures to block Trump’s settlement fund Thursday and Friday.

Mostly, however, the amendment votes gave Democrats an opportunity to force Republicans onto the record. Democrats sought votes to block Bill Pulte from serving as acting director of national intelligence, increase home construction, require unannounced inspections of the Delaney Hall detention facility and prevent settlement-fund payments to Tina Peters, the former Colorado county clerk convicted of leaking voter data.

Republicans also took the opportunity to vote again on the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. The measure failed 48-50, short of the 60 votes required. Collins, Tillis, Murkowski and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined Democrats in opposition.

For Democrats, the votes offered fresh material for an argument they have been making for months: that the private reservations Republicans express about Trump rarely translate to action when it counts.

Democrats have repeatedly pointed out that the Republican case against legislatively blocking the $1.8 billion fund — that it’s unnecessary because the Trump administration has already killed it, and that doing so could incur Trump’s veto — is self-violating. (Either the fund is dead and Trump shouldn’t care that Congress statutorily blocks it, or he’s trying to preserve his options as some lawmakers fear.)

But for Republicans, the immigration enforcement money was simply too important. And the amendment votes may have even worked to their advantage, as vulnerable Republicans could display their independence — even if that independence was largely symbolic.

With immigration enforcement funding hanging in the balance, most GOP lawmakers concluded that preserving party unity — and avoiding a direct confrontation with Trump — was more pressing than erecting new guardrails around the president.

The result was a familiar outcome. Republicans aired their concerns, Democrats forced uncomfortable votes, and Trump emerged with the legislative outcome he wanted.

Mychael Schnell and Lillie Boudreaux contributed to this report.

Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University.

The Dictatorship

Trump filing shows he took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year

Published

6 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump filing shows he took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year, a federal filing released Tuesday shows, locking in profits while his investors were socked with losses.

Mere startups when he took the oath of office, the new ventures have now eclipsed in revenue much of his vast property portfolio that took him decades to accumulate. Fueling their rise were billionaire investors and Trump’s own move to quash a federal crackdown on the industry.

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens,” according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics. It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face.

Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.

Trump also took in millions last year from selling Trump-branded Bibles, sneakers and other small items in another unprecedented move for the presidency. The sale of Trump-branded watches alone brought in $4.7 million.

The 927-page disclosure form paints a stark, if incomplete picture of the massive growth of the president’s wealth since taking office last January through a web of business interests — many of which have benefited from the policy moves of Trump’s own government. Trump has insisted that his sons direct his finances but the arrangement rejects the conflict of interest protections that his recent predecessors in office had instituted.

Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $6 billion, up from $2.3 billion in 2024.

The Trump business is growing abroad

The rise of crypto relative to Trump’s property is especially noteworthy because he first rode to office boasting of his property wins. It’s also remarkable because that mainstay business also boomed last year. Trump took in tens of millions in fees from a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas that amounts to the biggest property expansion ever in the century since the family business was founded.

Many of those countries were negotiating with the U.S. over tariffs, military aid and other important matters while the family business was striking the deals.

A property in the United Arab Emirates generated $10.4 million for the Trump business last year. One in Saudi Arabia being built by a real estate developer close to the ruling family sent the president’s company $9 million. And one in Bucharest, Romania, and another in Qatar sent him $5 million each.

One of his prominent domestic properties, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, notched big growth last year, too.

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Trump took in $77 million from the property, a 50% jump from the year earlier when he was just another citizen, as heads of state and business people flocked to it in his new term.

The disclosure report doesn’t give profit figures, just revenue, so it’s impossible to know how much he is earning.

Trump is now the billion-dollar crypto man

Trump said Wednesday that most of his gains last year came from the stock market and he’s just riding along with everyone else.

“We’re all profiting,” he said. “I’m profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash.”

But crypto was clearly the big revenue generator last year in part due his own moves since taking office — pushing policies friendly to the industry and reversing a Biden administration regulatory crackdown.

The regulators are still worried. Before Trump’s World Liberty began selling “governance tokens,” they issued warnings about this new kind of crypto asset, saying that unlike stocks, the tokens offer no ownership stake in the issuing company, just voting power on certain corporate policies, and are difficult to value.

Buyers pounced anyway, including a Chinese billionaire who spent $75 million on the tokens and $200 million on the souvenir coins. In February last year, a federal lawsuit charging him with duping investors was paused before being settled for a $10 million fine.

The billionaire, Justin Sun, has repeatedly denied his spending on Trump businesses had anything to do with his federal case, while World Liberty has dismissed the notion of a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, investors have seen the value of their Trump-tied holdings drop significantly.

The price of World Liberty tokens has fallen 80% since they started trading in September. And the Trump souvenir coins that spiked to more than $74 in the days after launching in January 2025 now sell for $1.68.

The White House says Trump only acts in the public interest

The White House has repeatedly said Trump put his business in a trust managed by his sons and is not involved in its decisions and that there are no ethics issues to discuss.

“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people.”

The Trump umbrella company, the Trump Organization, has said its deals overseas were with private companies, not with governments.

Still, it is difficult to know what is truly private in countries ruled by authoritarians, royal families and one-party governments.

For a new Trump resort in Vietnam, the report shows Trump took in $5 million last year after the ruling Communist Party sent its deputy prime minister to sign off on the deal and, according to The New York Times, pushed farmers off the land to make way for the construction.

Whether the deals played any role in changing U.S. policies in ways these countries sought is nearly impossible to know, but the countries did get what they wanted.

Vietnam got tariff relief. Qatar got access to advanced U.S. technology previously off limits, and Saudi Arabia got U.S. fighter jets it had coveted for years.

___

AP White House reporter Josh Boak contributed from Washington.

The Dictatorship

‘REGIME CHANGE’ sold 300,000 copies…

Published

6 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

It turns out readers still want to learn more about President Donald Trump after all.

“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” the l atest book on the Trump presidencywritten by political journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has sold more than 300,000 copies in its opening week, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.

They’re the kind of sales that numerous works about Trump reached during his first term, but had been rare during his second term. Publishers had speculated that the public had tired of Trump books, believing there was little left to know.

The total figures include preorders, print book sales, ebooks, and e-audiobooks and orders that have yet to be fulfilled because of demand, the publishing house said. Simon & Schuster said the book is into its third hard copy printing, with 200,000 copies on order, after it sold out quickly in bookstores and on Amazon. It’s the best first-week clip of any hardcover nonfiction book in 2026.

The book covers the first 14 months of Trump’s second presidency and takes readers inside the West Wing, White House residence and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, aboard Air Force One and on foreign trips with the president.

Trump, who has a long history with Haberman from her days covering him as a New York City business and society figure, has trashed the book as “mostly made up.” Haberman and Swan are now New York Times reporters.

Their manuscript depicts meticulous details of Trump’s military decisions, how he’s wielded the power of the Justice Department against his political opponents, his conversations with other power players, and the time and attention he’s devoted to remaking the aesthetics and structure of the White House.

The book spells out a thesis that Trump himself believes: Had he not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as powerful in his second term as he is now — emboldening him to trample norms, dismantle established institutions and push the limits of presidential power.

Haberman and Swan have been featured regularly across news talk shows promoting the book and sharing details of their reporting, including a sit-down with Trump in which he boasted about being compared to some of history’s great villains.

Sean Manning, vice president and publisher at Simon & Schuster, said the book “has entered the national conversation” and will hold up as “a work of historic importance.”

The Dictatorship

Vance contradicts Trump about bipartisan cooperation on housing bill

Published

13 hours ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Vance contradicts Trump about bipartisan cooperation on housing bill

As a rule, JD Vance seems to go out of his way to say whatever Donald Trump wants him to say, but from time to time, contradictions emerge between the president and the vice president.

Take the recently passed housing bill, for example, which arrived at the White House earlier this week.

As part of an interview Tuesday night with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, the Ohio Republican said, “Frankly, Laura, I would love it if Democrats were willing — you know, not that they will agree with Republicans all the time — but if they were willing to work with us on lowering housing prices, on lowering gas prices, on actually making the lives of American citizens better. You know, we could have some real bipartisan compromise. That’s not what they’re talking about.”

I realize the vice president must be very busy, but it really isn’t that difficult to keep up with the basics of current events. In this case, when Vance said Democrats are unwilling to work with Republicans on priorities such as “lowering housing prices,” he turned reality on its head. It was literally last week when Democrats offered unanimous support for a bipartisan bill to address housing prices — legislation that members such as Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts helped to write.

Democrats recognized that doing so would offer the GOP some election-season bragging rights, but Democrats did it anyway because they have prioritized governing and “actually making the lives of American citizens better” over partisan considerations.

But Vance didn’t just contradict reality; he also contradicted his boss.

Just one day before the vice president brazenly misled a national television audience, Trump was asked about the pending housing bill. “It’s very bipartisan; that means the Democrats like it,” the president saidwhile acknowledging that he hasn’t yet decided whether to sign it.

In other words, when Vance said policymakers “could have some real bipartisan compromise,” he seemed indifferent to the fact that we’ve already had some real bipartisan compromise — a detail that even Trump was willing to acknowledge a day earlier.

Whether the vice president will suffer for publicly contradicting the president remains to be seen.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”