By admin 
It often seems like President Donald Trump simply doesn’t care about making his party look good ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
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And two recent pushes drive that home: His insistence that the Senate pass the “SAVE America Act” (despite it apparently having no path), and his decision to dig in on Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general while defending the controversial “anti-weaponization” fund that has imperiled his confirmation.
Both efforts have increasingly riven the Senate at an inopportune time for the GOP. And Trump’s intransigence threatens the broader harmony in the conservative movement, with the GOP already deeply wounded by his historic unpopularity.
And for what? Neither Trump priority seems to carry much potential upside for him.
The Blanche nomination
The Blanche nomination has been puzzling from the start. Having already been confirmed as deputy attorney general, he could have stayed on as acting attorney general after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure. And some figured that’s what would happen.
But then Trump nominated Blanche for the full job title, forcing the Senate to reckon with the many controversial things Blanche has been involved in — from the politicized prosecutions of Trump’s foes, to his defenses of Trump’s mass pardon of violent January 6, 2021, defendants, to the bungled handling of the Epstein files.
But what’s loomed largest in recent weeks has been the highly controversial settlement between Trump’s lawyers and the government he runs. The settlement created a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could compensate those January 6 defendants and it gave Trump and those around him immunity from past tax issues.
Even large numbers of Senate Republicans publicly balked. A judge later said the whole thing was a transparent and bad-faith effort to “manipulate the judicial process.”
That set up a standoff between those senators and the administration. Blanche had said the “anti-weaponization” fund was “dead.” But two crucial votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee — Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas — have insisted that the administration put that in writing and place limits on Trump’s tax immunity deal.
To hear Blanche tell it at his confirmation hearing, that seemed like no problem.
But Trump, who suggested Thursday he could delay Blanche’s nomination until Cornyn and Tillis are gone from the Senate early next year, has increasingly dug in.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning, referring to the fund as if it’s still in play and demanding Blanche be confirmed.
Both Tillis and Cornyn have more latitude because they’re leaving the Senate soon. Cornyn, who lost his primary runoff after Trump backed his opponent, has made it clear he’s happy to wield his newfound independence. The Texas Republican has called Blanche “about as good as we’re going to get” as an attorney general pick but drawn a hard line over his demand for written assurances that the fund will not be revived and for the tax immunity addendum to be limited.
Even if Trump did withdraw Blanche and try again early next year, it’s likely that Senate will be less favorable to the GOP, if not a Democratic majority.
And Trump’s focus on the Texas Republican alone appears misplaced.
Cornyn posted on X on Thursday, “POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”
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Indeed, the standoff appears to have emboldened some of their colleagues to step forward and make clear they share Cornyn’s and Tillis’ concerns. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who also lost to a Trump-backed primary challenger earlier this year, has lodged broader complaints about Trump using the DOJ to target his foes.
The whole thing is a mess. Trump has cast a spotlight not only on the many controversial things his DOJ has done, but also his self-dealing. (The New York Times has reported the tax immunity deal could spare Trump a $100 million penalty, after all.)
And all so that Blanche didn’t have to call himself “acting.”
The ‘SAVE America Act’
At least with the ‘SAVE America Act,’ Trump has more to gain if his gambit were ultimately successful.
The bill would overhaul US elections in ways many conservatives want, including by forcing people registering to vote to provide proof of US citizenship.
The problem here, though, is that the legislation doesn’t seem to have any chance of passage. That would require either Democratic votes to clear the 60-vote threshold, or for 50 Republicans to go nuclear and eliminate the filibuster.
Neither possibility appears to be in play. Even some GOP senators have balked at the legislation, and it appears many more don’t think it’s worth getting rid of the 60-vote threshold, which they worry Democrats would exploit if they return to power.
The bill has torn Senate Republicans apart. The split is basically between the realists like Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who recognize there’s no real way to pass it, and a handful of idealists like Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who cast it as so important that it’s worth trying everything — even nixing the filibuster. Right now, the idealists are insisting that the Senate stay in session during the August recess.
It’s also led to a clash between Trump and Thune. The White House has increasingly questioned whether he’s the man to lead the Senate, and Thune has offered a few sharp comments in response (i.e. saying the White House is using “a different form of math” and that Trump “doesn’t vote in our elections”).
The main problem here is how much the whole thing has been built up for months.
Trump and his allies like Lee have cast this bill as not just important but even existential for the GOP. So while it doesn’t appear overly popular with the broader electorate, multitudes of true believers in the activist base are whipped up in a frenzy.
And if the bill doesn’t go anywhere, that’s a recipe for a base that’s already pretty dejected ahead of the 2026 election becoming even more so. And that’s to say nothing of how much heartache the Senate will go through to get to that point.
Tillis on Wednesday likened the situation to Trump questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election results, even as Republicans still needed base voters to show up for a pair of crucial Georgia Senate runoffs in January 2021 that determined the majority.
“The president needs to realize when he’s going out there and saying that our elections are in a shambles, then you’re going to have a segment, an unhealthy number saying, ‘Well, why do I even vote?’” the North Carolina Republican told reporters.
Tillis added: “That’s why I’m so angry about this, trying to tell people this is not helping our brand, and it could have the effect of having people stay at home in certain states where we need every single Republican, MAGA or otherwise, to show up.”
Even Trump has effectively acknowledged his voter fraud crusade ahead of the Georgia runoffs might have cost his party the Senate.
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But he either didn’t learn his lesson, or he doesn’t care.