Top Republican Is “Begging” Trump to Stop His Vanity Projects

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pleading with the White House to nix Donald Trump’s so-called “anti-weaponization” slush fund in order to pass Congress’s behemoth budget reconciliation bill.

Thune called the White House Monday to ask it to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion fund for alleged MAGA victims of political targeting. Shortly after, the Department of Justice announced it would suspend its plans (after a major court loss).

Still, the South Dakota Republican told Punchbowl News Monday afternoon that additional assurances that the fund was dead would be “helpful” toward rallying Republicans to pass the $72 billion budget reconciliation bill.

“Confining the bill to its original intent, which was a very narrowly focused reconciliation bill that just addresses the funding for [ICE and CBP], is the clearest path to ultimately getting a bill on the president’s desk,” Thune said.

Punchbowl reported that Thune was “practically begging” the Trump administration to shutter plans for the fund entirely, believing it is the only way to prevent Republicans from defecting on the vote and siding with Democratic-led amendments. Consequently, Thune also said that a $1.5 billion fund for a wide range of projects at the DOJ would be dropped from the budget bill.

Ahead of the midterms, it seems that Thune is desperate to rein in Trump’s rampant spending and keep the president’s personal vendettas out of his legislative agenda—but it’s Republicans who have already allowed him to get away with so much who are responsible for the nation’s spiral out of control.

Republicans are slinging mud at the wall trying to counter Graham Platner’s popularity in Maine.

Lacking any competitive, ideological alternative, Kellyanne Conway suggested Monday night that Democrats should be forced to step away from Platner, who has been polling with a tremendous lead for the state’s Senate seat over Governor Janet Mills. (Mills ended her campaign in April, but she is still on the primary ballot.) But the language Conway chose to express her complaint was particularly odd—particularly as she tried to liken the working-class oyster farmer’s intraparty prominence to that of David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and what she perceived to be an unfair double standard.

“Remember, everybody who’s a Republican anywhere had to disclaim David Duke,” Conway told Fox News. “I want every single Democrat who’s running as United States Senate candidate this year to step away from [Platner], to tell him to get off the ticket.

“This guy needs to go and take care of his family. They’ve been married two short years, he’s bored already,” Conway added.

Platner has recently been at the center of several controversies that have created some anxiety amid the higher echelons of the Democratic establishment. The first involved Platner’s tattoos, which included a skull-and-bones symbol that resembled Nazi imagery. Platner claimed in October that he had covered up the tattoo and eventually planned to remove it.

Platner told the Associated Press at the time that “going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while.”

That same month, Platner apologized for resurfaced Reddit posts that revealed some of his unfiltered thoughts, such as messages that minimized the experiences of military members who had been victims of sexual assault, and posts in which he referred to white rural Americans as racist and stupid, among other topics.

Another scandal emerged Saturday when The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, had warned the oyster farmer’s team, days into his campaign, that he had previously sent sexually explicit text messages to other women.

Gertner told CNN that she was “deeply hurt” that their marital problems had become public knowledge. She has decided to stand by her husband anyway.

“We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy,” Gertner said in a statement provided by Platner’s campaign. “And we came through it, not in spite of how much we’ve been through, but because of how much we love each other and the life we’ve built. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before.”

Platner still has a cadre of progressive figureheads standing behind him, including Senators Bernie Sanders, Ruben Gallego, and Martin Heinrich.

“We got a housing crisis. People can’t afford health care, they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks. And I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,” Sanders told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I wish their marriage the very best. But right now, I think we should be focusing on the crises facing the working class and electing people of the guts to stand up to the oligarchs who control our country.”

Representative Tom Kean Jr. just earned the president’s endorsement—despite the fact that the New Jersey Republican hasn’t been seen in three months.

Kean has been missing in action since March 5, has so far missed 104 House votes, and hasn’t been seen in Washington for more than 89 days. He has offered up thin excuses for his prolonged, mysterious absence, vaguely claiming that he has been dealing with an unspecified “personal health matter.”

Yet despite being completely gone from the picture, Kean still has Donald Trump’s support.

“A Tremendous Advocate of our America First Agenda, Tom is working tirelessly to Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Grow our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Champion Small Business, Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Support our Brave Military and Veterans, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Monday.

Kean retweeted the endorsement and circulated his own message on his official X account, thanking Trump for the midterm blessing.

“Thank you for your support, President Trump! Primary Election Day is tomorrow—get out and vote!” Kean posted. His primary election is Tuesday night.

Who knows if Kean actually wrote the missive, however? The lawmaker’s staff has been issuing newsletters and fundraising messages from his office for weeks, all written in the first person so as to suggest that the lawmaker is still capable of not just his job but also running for reelection.

Kean told The New Jersey Globe last month that his health prognosis was “good” and that he would be transparent about his illness soon. He also said that he planned to return to Washington—and the campaign trail—in the coming weeks, though he has so far failed to do either.

Yet the political intrigue around Kean’s sudden disappearance goes deeper. Although he’s supposed to be sick, the 57-year-old took Amtrak rides and used several ride-share apps around San Francisco during the month of April, according to pre-primary reports that Kean filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Kean’s staff have also been traversing the country with their boss’s express approval. His chief of staff, Dan Scharfenberger, obtained Kean’s signature in early March for at least two trips funded by special interest groups. They include a jaunt to Las Vegas, paid for by the Republican Main Street Partnership, and a trip to Middleburg, Virginia, for a “spring issues conference” sponsored by bipartisan policy organization Center Forward, reported NOTUS.

Kean has also been trading stocks during his prolonged absence, buying and selling shares of Amcor, Chubb Limited, First Citizens BancShares, Johnson & Johnson, and PepsiCo, according to congressional financial records obtained by NOTUS. The combined value of the trades ranges from $50,008 to $190,000.

MAGA isn’t happy with Michael Flynn after discovering he’s a registered foreign agent.

Far-right blogger Scott McMahan posted a Foreign Agents Registration Act form Monday that was dated October 2025, and stated that Donald Trump’s former national security adviser was now making $100,000 per month from the Republic of Srpska. The confederated entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina is run by Milorad Dodik, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“$100,000 per month?” right-wing troll Phillip Buchanan, known as Catturd, wrote on X in response.

Sebastian Gorka, the pugnacious far-right influencer angling to be the next head of the National Counterterrorism Center, pointed out that Flynn may very well have broken the law.

“A reminder: When I joined the first Trump Administration, I was asked to sign two documents. In one I promised to not work as a lobbyist for a decade. In the second, I promised to never work for another government,” Gorka wrote in a post on X. “I was happy to do sign both. I presume GEN Flynn also signed similar documents.”

Flynn previously alleged he was wrongfully prosecuted for making false statements to federal agents as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election—even though he pleaded guilty to lying, twice.

If MAGA is upset that Flynn is working on behalf of a Russian ally, just wait until they realize all the ways Trump has stuck his neck out for Putin—and he’s doing it for free!

President Trump has appointed Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence following Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation last week. 

Trump announced the move in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, and said Pulte would keep his existing jobs as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as head of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency. 

“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago,” Trump posted. 

It’s an odd choice for the sensitive position, which concerns foreign intelligence and would appear to require a military or intelligence background, which Pulte doesn’t have. Instead, he has built up a reputation of targeting Trump’s political enemies using his authority at the housing agency, and has become unpopular among Republican lawmakers for working his way into Trump’s inner circle. 

Last month, Pulte drew the attention of Democrats in Congress for a suspicious charity donation that may have funneled money into Trump’s pockets, and for sharing an AI image with the president depicting Trump as Jesus Christ. Trump then posted the image on his Truth Social platform, causing a backlash from across the political spectrum, particularly from Trump’s supporters on the Christian right.

Pulte will now be holding a sensitive intelligence position while juggling  his other positions. It’s more evidence that Trump prizes loyalty above competence and experience, but could also indicate that Trump is planning a more sinister use of Pulte’s authority. Gabbard was involved in investigating election fraud conspiracies during her tenure as Director of National Intelligence, and Pulte could pick up where she left off. 

This story has been updated.