Has Trump finally gone too far for Republicans?

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Let's start with this fear you expressed earlier in the week that Donald Trump was essentially setting up a slush fund for friendly criminals.

[00:00:09]Well, well, that's exactly what he's doing. But now, James, he is facing monumental push back from Republicans on Capitol Hill who are enraged about what many here are describing uh many analysts are describing as the most naked effort to engage in corrupt practices by any president in American history. Uh and yesterday when the acting uh attorney general Todd Blanch went to Capitol Hill for lunch with Republicans, he found himself on the receiving end uh of huge push back from more than 25 uh Republicans up on Capitol Hill telling him that this idea that Donald Trump has forced Todd Blanch to implement and remember this is what happens when the traditional but not constitutionally ally guaranteed independence of the Department of Justice is completely eviscerated by an American president who has turned the Department of Justice uh now not only into his personal office of retribution uh but also into an ATM, a cash machine uh potentially for his mates. If we just spin back, you will remember that Donald Trump's businesses and his tax returns were being audited by uh the IRS, the American equivalent of HMRC.

[00:01:35]Those some of those tax returns leaked to the American public. Donald Trump as president sued his own government for $10 billion, sued uh the government over the leaking of those tax returns. The case ran into all sorts of difficulty in court. Uh it was uh then that the Trump administration uh said to Todd Blanch, "Okay, we're going to pull these uh pull this lawsuit, but in exchange, we want this slush fund created, $1.776 billion, 1776.

[00:02:11]It's the 250th anniversary of American independence. that is going to be made available to people who claim that Joe Biden unleashed weaponized lawfare against them. In other words, uh politically motivated prosecutions. Now, the Trump family would not be eligible for that cash. We were told initially that all they were getting as out of this whole arrangement was an apology over the leaking of some of the tax returns. In fact, 24 hours later, we also learned that what the Trump family, the president himself, and the Trump organization was receiving was complete immunity, an agreement by the IRS that it would not pursue any claims uh on past tax returns. I mean, that had the potential to save the Trumps about $und00 million in possible penalties that they might have been looking at as a result of IRS. I I just just I mean why would you need that in place if you hadn't done anything wrong?

[00:03:15]>> Well, I I mean precisely and uh you know this we don't know if the audit was still ongoing. I mean certainly a couple of years ago one of Donald Trump's sons indicated that it was but then this idea also to set up this fund that anybody who can claim they were victimized and weaponized by the Biden administration could go after the cash raised huge questions about whether that meant the January the 6th uh insurrectionists would be eligible for the cash. Clearly, they would be, including some January the 6th insurrectionists who have since been convicted of other crimes and returned to jail, including one particular case of a January 6th insurrectionist uh later arrested on child molestation charges. So, me members of Congress were were sort of asking uh in open hearings the acting attorney general, would that figure be eligible for some of this cash? And he absolutely sidestepped the question. So, the Trump administration now has found that every uh camel's back has a a straw that breaks it. Every piece of this weaponization fund, it it's the it's the Republicans that are demonstrating some spine and turning around to Trump and saying, "We're not doing this."

[00:04:34]>> Why now?

[00:04:36]>> Well, because it's not the worst thing he's done. It's not It's not the worst thing he's done, is it?

[00:04:42]>> Uh, no. I mean, it's up there. certainly up there with many of the worst things that he's done. But the answer to your question is because they are angry with him. They are angry over the way in which he has purged the party uh effectively of some of their friends.

[00:04:58]Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana last week uh thrown out by Republican voters in Louisiana as the result in in a primary contest as the result of Donald Trump's intervention. They're furious about what the president is doing down in Texas, endorsing uh a scandalridden uh impeached former attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton in many ways, the Donald Trump of Texas, endorsing him over their friend, the incumbent senator John Cornin. And they're also terrified for their own skins. They're about to go home for the Memorial Day weekend. They are going to face so much anger from their constituents in their home states as we also wait to see whether the price of petrol here is going to tick up on average above $52 a gallon. The high point that it hit in Joe Biden's presidency. There's every indication that that's going to take place. Bond markets are soaring. Credits getting harder to find here. I can tell you here in Washington DC, the property market is at a complete standstill. The Fed is going to have its hands tied again by economic circumstances and won't be able to do Donald Trump's bidding in terms of dropping interest rates. So those lawmakers are terrified for their own futures as they prepare to face voters in November and realize how many of these president's policies including this sort of naked act at corruption uh is uh just resulting in enormous push back from the country. So I I mean we're not going to have time to talk about Cuba, but it's fairly easily explained as he's desperately trying to distract attention away from all the things that you're talking about by potentially starting another war or doing another Venezuela. But after we last spoke, it occurred to me that Trump's patronage is still essential to get the Republican nomination, but it is probably a net negative when that nomination, that nominee actually fights the election. So, it's as if the stamp of Trump gets you the Republican nomination, but hobbles you when you actually are up against a Democrat.

[00:07:07]>> Yeah. If you're Donald Trump, you can pick off individual Republicans that have crossed you. Yeah.

[00:07:12]>> But if we're now at the stage where 25 Republicans in the US Senate yesterday crossed you, do you really have the juice to pick all of them off? Almost certainly not.