CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Out ‘Remarkable’ Revolt Against Trump’s ‘Iron Grip’ as Slush Fund ‘Stopped in Its Tracks’

CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called out the “remarkable” revolt against President Donald Trump’s “iron grip” as the $1.776 billion fund has been “stopped in its tracks” amid court cases and GOP pushback.

The Trump Justice Department announced the creation of a so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” last month as part of the settlement in Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leaking of his tax returns by a former official.

But the pushback against what has been widely seen as an unaccountable “slush fund” has been so fierce that he’s reportedly on the verge of abandoning it — maybe.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins opened the show with a commentary noting the “rare moment” of opposition to Trump, and calling out the ambiguity embedded in the reporting.

She pointedly told viewers that “it’s possible that the administration is merely pausing plans until the political pushback dies down”:

KAITLAN COLLINS: And as we come on the air tonight, sources say that the White House is signaling that it will back off that $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, after facing serious pushback from their own party on Capitol Hill.

The question is whether those private signals from the White House, while the President has yet to say anything about it publicly, are enough for skeptical Republican senators. The Justice Department tried to signal that that’s the plan. But right now, sources don’t seem to be taking their word for it.

For a president who has such an iron grip on his party as Donald Trump, what we are watching happening, right now in Washington, is pretty remarkable. The pushback from Senate Republicans has been so intense and, for the White House, so unexpected, that it’s a rare moment of the administration considering backing down from its position.

Now, President Trump, as I noted, has yet to confirm that they are definitely scrapping the fund. And until he does, it’s possible that the administration is merely pausing plans until the political pushback dies down.

But the plans remain essentially stalled, as we told you on Friday night, for that fund, after a pair of federal judges basically stopped it in its tracks.

One ruling came from a federal judge in Florida, who wants to know if the whole case was a sham, just to reach a settlement, out of court, between the President and the Justice Department that he controls.

The other ruling came from a federal judge in Virginia, who told the Justice Department that it couldn’t move any of the money or do anything until a court hearing in a few weeks from now about whether or not the fund itself is even legal.

After that ruling in Virginia, the Justice Department put out this statement, saying that it disagrees with the decision on the Anti- Weaponization Fund, but noting in conclusion that the Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.

Now that statement came after we saw the Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, paying a visit to the White House today, not to warn about the courts, but maybe to warn about Congress. The message that was delivered is that this fund, on Capitol Hill, is jeopardizing what could be the last of the President’s big legislative wins before the midterm elections this November. I’m talking about tens of millions of dollars for immigration enforcement through the President’s end of his term.

Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, and he was asked about the landscape that is before us between this fund and getting immigration funding passed, offered a pretty blunt statement on what he wants to see happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I’ve made my views very clear on the issue and like I said, I can’t speak for them. I do think that the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, dozens of members of the President’s own party are so angry about this that they’re refusing to move forward on that legislation. Even tonight, they seem to be getting mixed messages from the White House on what’s going to happen here.

Look at what we heard from Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida. He told reporters, quote, “I have talked to the White House. What they told me is they’re dropping it.”

But Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said, If the administration has changed its position on the weaponization fund, it should say so definitively.

Our White House sources say that the administration was so caught off guard by the level of blowback here from Republicans, especially given how the President and the acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, have said they thought this fund would be received.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, it’s been very well-received, I have to tell you. I know very little about it. I wasn’t involved in — in the whole creation of it, and — and the negotiation.

We think that those people, we think that anybody involved in that process should partake. And you’re talking about peanuts compared to the value. It destroyed the lives of many, many people.

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think if you said to the American taxpayer that there was a horrible wrong committed by your government, and now you can apply, and you can have your lawyers’ fees back, you can — you can be compensated for what you lost financially. What American would say, Oh my gosh, that’s terrible.

To the contrary, I think they do want their tax dollars spent on things like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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