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Friday, June 5, 2026

As Congress debates the 'slush fund', Trump turns to a familiar fixation

The "slush fund" is dead. Or is it?

With the president noncommittal on calls for him to give up his demand for a $1.776 "weaponization fund" to serve as a vehicle for payouts to his allies, the Senate is no longer taking the administration at its word.

Despite Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stating firmly this week that the fund has been abandoned by the White House, senators spent Thursday debating whether the upcoming budget reconciliation package would contain language explicitly barring the administration from putting it into place.

Nearly a dozen Republican senators supported the push. It was an unprecedented show of resistance from the Senate GOP (though the bar is very low).

Donald Trump fired off a quick rant early Thursday morning on Truth Social, denouncing the growing GOP resistance on the Hill for voting against the White House on a separate War Powers measure. By noon, he was focused on something else that has repeatedly grabbed his attention over other matters.

A 3:00 p.m. event meant to highlight an investment in "clean" coal production was immediately derailed as Trump first showed a group of assembled reporters and Cabinet officials a video of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool filling with water — for the second time in two days.

Then, he launched into his newest plan, an effort to build a riverside "promenade" on the banks of the Potomac River, next to the Lincoln Memorial. He even quipped that it may be called the "Trump Promenade".

As putting his mark on the nation's laws seems further out of reach, thanks in part to his own souring relationship with congressional Republicans, Trump is turning instead to putting his physical mark on the nation's capital.

Read more here.

By John Bowden

Reading list

Daily briefing

Trump bizarrely claims Lincoln Memorial is facing the wrong way as he floats latest D.C. transformation

Donald Trump unveiled his latest effort to physically transform the nation's capital on Thursday, all while his Cabinet secretaries stood awkwardly by ready to talk about energy investments, John Bowden reports.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

I would say I'm not his favourite person. But, that being said, he's probably a professional in some circles. He has a very good reputation, actually.

Donald Trump, desribing Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

What else you need to know

Name game: Donald Trump's efforts to tack his name on the side of the Kennedy Center has hit a snag, with a judge ruling it must be removed for now and the center's managment directing employees to remove it from the building within a week. Ariana Baio has more.
Trump's new election fraud war: The final results have not yet been tallied in California's open primary for the governor's race in November. But Donald Trump is already accusing Democrats of cheating even as his favored pick lead the field of candidates. Joe Sommerlad has the story.

Latest news headlines from Bulletin:

Trump announces another project named after himself in DC