President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would be “disappointed” if Congress failed to pass nearly $1.8 billion in funding for an “anti-weaponization fund” meant to reward persons targeted for prosecution by the Justice Department under Joe Biden.
The president spoke to NBC’s Kristen Welker for an interview on Meet the Press, and once again urged lawmakers to include funding for what some members of his own party have called a “slush fund” in the budget reconciliation legislation currently being debated on the Hill.
“If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides, think of it. People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them,” said the president.
Members of Congress are currently debating legislation that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the next three years. But the president’s demand for money that many lawmakers worry would be used to directly benefit his political allies nearly derailed that conversation as Democrats and even some Republicans derided the idea as politically toxic and a corrupt use of taxpayer funds.
Lawmakers confronted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the issue at a contentious meeting before the Memorial Day holiday last month, and eventually passed the reconciliation package through the Senate without funding for the payouts.
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