By Senate Republicans sharply challenged acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during a closed-door briefing Thursday over the Trump administration’s proposed $1.8 billion compensation fund, with Sen. Ted Cruz describing the meeting as one of the most contentious he has seen in Congress.
The private session came hours before the Senate delayed a key vote on a Republican-backed bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operations. The proposed fund has drawn bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill and exposed deep divisions inside the Senate GOP.
Cruz, R-Texas, described the meeting on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” saying Republican senators pressed Blanche over the structure and appearance of the fund.
BREAKING
Senator Ted Cruz revealed on his podcast that 4 Senators are P*SSED:
▪️Bill Cassidy
▪️Thom Tillis
▪️John Cornyn
▪️Rand PaulFrom President Trump’s endorsements to losing elections, each of these Senators — according to Cruz — is angry.
With a 53-47 majority, we can’t… pic.twitter.com/a4fslMeEME
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) May 24, 2026
“Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said. “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.”
According to Cruz, several senators argued that the proposal appeared to benefit President Donald Trump personally, according to NBC News.
“There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying this feels like self-dealing,” he said, adding that lawmakers believed it looked like “Trump cut a deal with himself.”
The administration unveiled the fund earlier this week after Trump moved to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, along with other legal claims connected to the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and the 2016 Russian collusion investigation. Justice Department officials described the fund as a mechanism “in exchange” for withdrawing those claims and as part of a broader effort to compensate people affected by alleged government weaponization and lawfare.
Democrats have been accused of weaponizing the government against conservatives for nearly 15 years, starting with the IRS targeting the Tea Party to help Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012.
The proposal has also revived an older debate inside Republican legal circles over whether settlement funds and enforcement proceeds can be used for purposes not directly authorized by Congress. During Trump’s first term, the White House praised then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for moving to end an Obama-era Justice Department practice that critics said allowed settlement money to be directed to outside groups rather than victims or the U.S. Treasury. A 2017 White House post citing a Wall Street Journal editorial described that practice as an end run around Congress’s spending power and argued that financial penalties should be used to punish wrongdoing, compensate victims, or return money to the Treasury.
Supporters describe the proposal as a remedy for people harmed by politically motivated investigations or prosecutions and have asked why Democrats like Biden and Obama are allowed to fund their activists this way. Critics, including some Republicans, argue that even a fund framed as compensation raises serious constitutional and political concerns if Congress has not clearly authorized who may receive payments and under what standards.
Cruz said he believes the administration’s legal argument is defensible, even as he acknowledged the depth of Republican anger.
“The legal basis is quite sound,” he said, while describing senators who “were screaming at the acting attorney general.”
The dispute helped delay action on the border funding package. Cruz warned that if the Senate had moved forward Thursday night, nearly half of the Republican caucus might have joined Democrats in backing amendments to restrict the fund. He pointed to “the degree of the jailbreak of Republicans who were bolting” as evidence of the proposal’s fragile support.
“They’ve got a full-on revolt in the Senate,” Cruz said.
A White House official said the administration “appreciated yesterday’s conversation and feedback” and expects additional discussions. The Senate is scheduled to return June 1, the same day Trump has said he wants to sign the ICE and Border Patrol funding legislation.
Several Republicans have already raised concerns publicly. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., called the proposal a “payout pot for punks,” citing uncertainty over whether people involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could qualify for compensation. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said “Congress has had no input.”
Democrats have been even more direct in opposing the plan. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called the possibility of compensating rioters “absurd and offensive” in a letter to Blanche.
In 2022, Joe Biden’s settlement with Native American supporters was called “the crime of the century.”
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