Republicans may – Senate Republican leaders are expected to drop a proposal for $1 billion in security funding tied to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project after backlash from within their own party. The dispute is colliding with a fast-moving immigration enfor
For some Republicans, the problem wasn’t the idea of security—it was the timing and the price tag. This week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled that the $1 billion request for security around President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is facing “ongoing vote issues. ” and the chamber’s top Republican team is now moving toward abandoning it amid resistance from within their own party.
Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged the pushback on Wednesday as leaders tried to gauge support and determine what could survive the Senate’s rules inside a larger package roughly pegged at $70 billion to restore funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., put it bluntly: the bill was “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.”
Thune is hoping to pass the immigration enforcement bill this week and send it to the House before leaving for a weeklong Memorial Day recess. But the text still has not been released as leaders wrangled over the ballroom security proposal—and as new GOP concerns widened over the Trump administration’s $1.776 billion settlement fund.
Republican senators were set to meet with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday as they finalized the bill’s text and debated whether to put parameters on the settlement. The fund was designed to compensate Trump’s allies who believe they have been politically persecuted. Thune told reporters that senators have questions about the fund and want to know “how we might make sure that it’s fenced in appropriately.”.
The scramble is playing out as Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to fund Trump’s ballroom while voters are focused on affordability. It’s also happening as some GOP lawmakers have grown frustrated with Trump. Several Republican senators have spoken out against the settlement, which was announced this week. Many were also upset after Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the party primary runoff next week against Sen. John Cornyn.
The fight inside the bill has a second. sharper edge: the settlement fund has been described as an “anti-weaponization” fund. tied to a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Democrats said they would force votes to block it or place restrictions on it.
Democrats believe they have leverage because Republicans are trying to pass the immigration enforcement bill through a complicated budget process that requires a long series of amendment votes. Democrats are considering multiple amendments—potentially to block the new fund outright or to ban any payments to Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
On Thursday. Democrats from both the House and Senate rallied on the Capitol steps to present a united front against the push. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the amendment process “will give Republicans countless chances to do the right thing.” He added that if Republicans refused to make changes. it would show voters that “Ballroom Republicans are not working for you. they are busy fighting for Trump.”.
Republicans. facing that pressure—and growing reservations about the settlement—are now discussing last-minute additions to blunt Democratic efforts. potentially by placing parameters on the settlement and who could receive compensation. It was unclear how any Senate changes would land in the House. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that the House will pass the bill “whatever form it takes.”.
As Republicans argued over what belongs in the package, Trump sharpened his criticism of the Senate directly. In a social media post on Wednesday. he urged Republicans to fire the Senate parliamentarian. Elizabeth MacDonough. after she said over the weekend that parts of the $1 billion security proposal cannot remain in the ICE and Border Patrol bill. Trump also renewed long-standing calls for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act. a Republican bill that would require all voters to prove U.S. citizenship, and to end the Senate filibuster.
Trump warned Republicans to “get smart and tough,” adding that otherwise “you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!” Even with his pressure, Senate Republicans have resisted his repeated calls to kill the filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
The strain between Trump and Senate Republicans has also been fueled by his surprise endorsement of Ken Paxton. Several senators were privately fuming that Trump’s intervention could cost them their majority in November. with Republicans viewing Cornyn—Paxton’s opponent in the runoff—as the stronger general-election candidate.
Inside the ballroom security fight, the numbers have been hard to defend. Under the Secret Service’s request, about $220 million would fund security improvements related to the ballroom. The rest would go for a new screening center for visitors, training, and other security measures.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., called the effort to attach the security package “a bad idea.” He argued the bill should not have included the other security improvements “because it’s just giving everybody the ‘billion-dollar ballroom.’”
Other Republicans in the House and Senate echoed doubts. Senators left a briefing with the director of the Secret Service last week saying they needed a lot more information.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy—who lost reelection in his GOP primary on Saturday after Trump endorsed one of his opponents—questioned the priorities in blunt terms: “People can’t afford groceries and gasoline and healthcare, and we’re going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?”
The bargaining over the immigration funding bill has also been shaped by the fact that the bill’s baseline includes money for ICE and Border Patrol—funding Democrats have blocked for months in protest of the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown. Democrats demanded changes for the agencies, but negotiations with the White House yielded little progress.
That’s why Republicans are using reconciliation—a budget maneuver that previously helped them pass Trump’s tax and spending cuts bill last year—to fund the agencies through the end of Trump’s term with a simple majority and no Democratic votes. Still, the path depends on sign-off from the parliamentarian and unity from Republicans.
In the background, the ballroom security proposal is being treated less like a technical detail and more like a fault line—one that shows how easily internal party disagreements can derail even a fast legislative push.
Senate Republicans White House ballroom $1 billion security funding John Thune John Kennedy ICE funding Border Patrol reconciliation $1.776 billion settlement fund Todd Blanche Elizabeth MacDonough Chuck Schumer SAVE Act filibuster Ken Paxton John Cornyn