Administration abandons fund plan after bipartisan backlash

Todd Blanche ended the administration’s $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund with a blunt retreat that underscored how quickly White House-backed policy can collapse when both parties revolt. Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, the acting attorney general said the administration was “not moving forward with the fund, period,” a sharp reversal after Donald Trump had publicly backed the plan as a way to aid people he says were harmed by government weaponization.

The fund had been created under a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records, and it was designed to channel money from the federal Judgment Fund into claims from people alleging political targeting. The Justice Department’s own framework called for a five-member commission, with four members appointed directly by Blanche, to oversee compensation for claims tied to “lawfare” and “weaponization.” Critics warned the structure could function as a taxpayer-financed payout system for Trump allies, including some people convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The backlash was not confined to one party. Senate Republicans recoiled over the political optics and the possibility that violent offenders could receive government money, while House Democrats moved to block the fund and pair with Republicans willing to kill it. A federal judge also temporarily blocked the administration from creating or operating the program through at least mid-June, adding a legal wall to the political one. Blanche’s retreat came after the Trump Justice Department had already agreed to pause the program under court order, a sign that congressional pressure and judicial resistance were converging fast.

The episode is a case study in policy whiplash inside Trump’s orbit. Trump had pushed the fund as part of his broader campaign against what he calls political persecution, but Blanche now faces a different reality: the administration can announce a sweeping transfer of federal money, yet still be forced to abandon it once Republicans on Capitol Hill decide the optics are toxic and Democrats seize the same issue as an abuse of power. Blanche took over as acting attorney general in early April after Trump fired Pam Bondi, and the fund fight has become a test of whether the Justice Department is setting policy or simply absorbing the political fallout from Trump’s instincts.