Trump’s IRS settlement is a distraction, and the GOP will fall in line

Lawmakers left Washington for the holiday weekend on Friday, fleeing the chaos that once again threatened to engulf Capitol Hill. As the architect of much of that chaos, the president’s motivations seem relatively clear. But what about the Republican lawmakers who, for once, appeared ready to stand up to him?

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It was just last month, during the talks to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, that President Donald Trump demanded congressional Republicans agree to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the special budget reconciliation process “no later” than June 1.

And indeed, the $72 billion funding bill appeared on the verge of being passed by the Senate, until Trump swooped in at the last minute and derailed it with the creation of his $1.776 “anti-weaponization” fund.

Senate Republicans typically offer more muted criticism, but this fund’s legal and ethical problems — or at least, the perception of those problems — was too much for some lawmakers to stomach. And they subsequently unloaded on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in an unusually frank closed-door meeting. According to Punchbowl News, “GOP senators — around 25 of them, an exceptionally high number for these closed-door meetings — took turns blasting the proposal and lamenting that they were being put in this situation.”

As a result, the vote was called off, Trump will not get his ICE and Border Patrol funding approved by the June deadline, and Republicans will have to go home to face their constituents and explain why they are fighting over ballrooms and potential payouts for convicted criminals that participated in the Jan. 6 attacks on our Capitol instead of finding ways to lower the price of gas and skyrocketing groceries.

“The White House dropped a bomb in the middle of a pretty well-planned-out reconciliation bill to help deliver on one of President Trump’s priorities,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, complained to NOTUS.

“It would’ve been nice if [the administration] consulted,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told MS NOW.

But here’s the kicker — Trump probably loves it.

Team Trump is coming off a hot primary winning streak. Trump-backed candidates won primaries against Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, although I’d bet you a Trump Coin that the president could not personally tell you much about either of the men who actually won.

Trump is also likely loving speculation that his endorsement may help secure a win for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in that state’s June 2 primary.

So, given all this momentum, why would Trump choose right now to push for this controversial IRS settlement? There’s no world in which such a “slush fund,” as many are calling the weaponization plan, would not draw intense scrutiny, setting off an instant debate about who would be eligible for taxpayer payouts.

I think the answer can be tied, as so many things are with Trump, to polling numbers.