Democrats Are Starting to Fight Back Against Trump’s MAGA Slush Fund

Three Democratic senators introduced a bill Monday to kill Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund.

Senators Adam Schiff of California, Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan introduced the “Drain the Fund Act,” which they said would block taxpayer dollars from being funneled to Trump and his allies, including individuals convicted in connection with the January 6 riot, public figures who spread election misinformation, and the leader of a violent hate group.

“As Republicans return to Washington to provide further funding for this and other mistaken priorities, we’re going to hold them accountable,” Schiff said in a statement. “And as Senators who have actually seen their government weaponized against them, we want to make it clear: We will not allow a single payout from this so-called weaponization fund to be paid.”

The bill would also ban settlements stemming from suits brought by the president or the vice president, and be retroactive to January 20, 2025. That would functionally undo the recent settlement for Trump’s failing $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Services that produced the fund, and blocked the president from future audits.

Last week, a federal judge issued a restraining order to ensure that no taxpayer dollars would be “irreversibly disbursed” from the fund before the legal battle could play out.

But the bill is only part of the plan. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that Democrats would introduce an amendment to their $72 billion budget reconciliation bill in order to shut down the fund. “If they try to bury the issue, we will force them to the Senate floor. If they try to sneak behind appropriations, we will fight them there, too. There will be no escape hatch. No fake guardrails or backroom promises to hide behind,” Schumer said.

The United Kingdom has banned left-wing streamer Hasan Piker and his uncle Cenk Uygur from entering the country because of their criticism of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Both were scheduled to speak at the upcoming SXSW London festival. 

Britain’s interior ministry said that Uygur’s and Piker’s presence in the country would “not be conducive to ​the public good.” The statement made no reference to Israel, but their planned appearance at the conference had already led to backlash from British Jewish groups. Last week, Labour member of Parliament David Taylor called for Piker to be prevented from speaking.

“I’ve been banned from the UK. I tried to get on a flight to London to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I’ve been banned for criticizing Israel,” Uygur wrote Sunday on X. “Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!”

“The UK has revoked my visa as well. All at the behest of Israel,” Piker wrote shortly after. “The west is betraying ‘liberal values’ for a genocidal fascist foreign government. Soon we will all become Israel.”

“It’s good to see the Home Office take a tough stance against those who pose a serious risk to public order and community cohesion. At a time when antisemitism is at record levels, it is completely inappropriate to give someone with a history of inflammatory rhetoric such a high profile platform,” Taylor said after news of the ban. 

This move comes just a year after the U.S. Vice President JD Vance lambasted the U.K. for cracking down on the speech of Islamophobic right-wingers like Tommy Robinson. 

The U.K. has been suppressing criticism of Israel domestically, as well, arresting at least 3,000 people since last summer simply for simply expressing support for the Palestine Action activist group, which has gained notoriety for damaging weapons manufacturing factories in the region. 

“It’s not just Israel. The UK has been escalating mass censorship under the guise of “safety” for yrs now. This is EXACTLY what every single free speech activist predicted, it’s horrible to see it come to fruition,” journalist Taylor Lorenz wrote. “This censorship is intertwined w laws like the ‘Online Safety Act.’”  

From Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk to Piker and Uygur, it’s clear that the United Kingdom and United States will happily engage in blatant suppression of speech if it means silencing a voice shouting out against genocide.

A federal judge has ordered that President Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—and that the president reopen the prestigious theater.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Friday that the name of the performing arts center can’t be changed without an act of Congress, and ordered the Trump administration to take down every sign with Trump’s name and get rid of all references to “Trump Kennedy Center” within 14 days. He also overturned the board’s March decision to close the theater for a yearslong renovation.

The board made its decision to close the center based on “an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information” that “neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions,” Cooper wrote in his ruling.

Trump put his name on the performing arts center in December after replacing board members with his handpicked appointments, who then elected him as chairman. News of the takeover caused the center’s popularity to plummet, with performers canceling events and concerts. Trump decided to close the center to save face, ostensibly for renovations, prompting a backlash from the Kennedy family (except for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.).

Considering Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing to build his ballroom, people were afraid that Trump’s “renovations” would involve demolishing the center. Now a federal judge has put Trump’s overhaul on hold for the time being. Will Trump follow the court order and remove his name from the building, or will he defiantly claim it belongs to him?

This story has been updated.

The Pentagon is mobilizing to deploy hundreds of troops—to the south-facing White House lawn.

America’s service members are being solicited to fill seats at UFC Freedom 250, a mixed martial arts tournament celebrating Donald Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14. But attending troops are not expected to get in for free.

The Defense Department is currently seeking junior enlisted personnel and junior officers, the lowest-paid members on the military’s totem poll, according to internal memos reviewed by The Washington Post Friday. Yet they’ll also be required to pay their own way, should they be admitted—neither the Pentagon nor UFC reportedly intends to pay for the soldiers’ arrangements or accommodations.

Personnel will also be required to meet height and weight requirements before they’re allowed to fill the stands, and will be required to attend in their short-sleeve dress uniforms.

One memo that made its way through the Air Force stipulated that personnel “MUST MEET CURRENT WAIST-HEIGHT RATIO and current physical fitness standard” in order to make the cut for Trump’s audience.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle did not deny that a search is underway in America’s military branches to find seat fillers for Trump’s UFC tournament.

“This will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary,” Ingle told the Post in a statement.

Trump is a lifelong fan of boxing and MMA, and has apparently used the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary as an excuse to host a fight at the executive mansion. The tournament will be the first UFC event ever hosted at the White House.

The main card will pit Justin Gaethje against Ilia Topuria for the lightweight title, and Alex Pereira against Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. UFC’s parent company, TKO Holdings, has promised that the entire event—which is expected to cost around $60 million—will be funded entirely by the sports organization and come at no cost to taxpayers.

But Trump has already made a buck off the match. The president reportedly invested up to $50,000 in TKO Group Holdings on March 25, according to his May 12 financial disclosure filing, two weeks after the tournament was formally announced.

“Using the White House to promote a company whose stock you bought while promoting it is one of the worst conflicts of interest you could imagine,” Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost. “The agenda of this administration seems to start and stop with how to make Donald Trump richer.”

Louisiana Republicans passed a new congressional map Friday that eliminates the majority-Black district that was at the center of the Supreme Court ruling overturning the Voting Rights Act.

In a state where one in three residents are Black, the new map redraws the state’s 6th congressional district, which is currently represented by Black Democratic Representative Cleo Fields. Republicans are expected to gain an additional seat in the House, giving them control of five of Louisiana’s six congressional seats.

The state Senate passed the map on Friday afternoon with a vote of 28–10, sending the legislation to Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it.

“We are being asked to take one of two minority opportunity districts in this state—where Black Louisianians are nearly one-third of the population—and to reduce that minority opportunity representation to a single seat out of six, from 33 percent of the population to 16 percent of the representation members,” Democratic state Representative Kyle Green Jr. warned during debate on the legislation Thursday. “That’s not a map. That’s a math problem with the moral answer, and the answer is no.”

Louisiana’s House primary election was originally scheduled for May 16, but Landry delayed the election in order to give Republicans time to draw a new map following the Supreme Court ruling. An estimated 40,000 people had already cast their votes before his announcement.