June 6, 2026

The Big Picture: Republicans Push Back (Sort Of)

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

This was the week Republicans pushed back against the president.

Some. To a certain extent. Depending on whom you ask.

The House voted this week to end the war in Iran, with four Republicans joining Democrats. That measure is not expected to advance but that level of pushback in the House is rare lately. (Trump was not pleased.)

This week also saw a Trump-backed candidate, Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra, lose his race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in that state.

And Trump announced Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Administration, would pull double duty as acting Director of National Intelligence, and the Republican response was … tepid. Pulte has been known at FHFA for pursuing mortgage fraud claims against Trump’s perceived enemies. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told NPR, “I don't see any evidence of any qualifications for that job.” Even Senate GOP leadership demurred when asked about him.

And then there’s the anti-weaponization fund, which is a more complicated story.

To back up: Just over two weeks ago, the DOJ announced it was creating a $1.776 billion fund (1776 being a nod to the founding year of the U.S., if you didn’t catch that) to compensate people whom the administration said had been victims of a “weaponized” justice system. That could mean giving taxpayer money to people who had attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats called it a “slush fund” and even some Republicans began looking for ways to kill it.

Then, a federal judge temporarily blocked the fund last week, and on Monday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the House Judiciary Committee the fund was dead.

… except was it? The president wasn’t so sure when asked later whether the fund was being paused or stopped completely: “I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don’t know.”

Amid all this, a group of Republican senators spoke up that they wanted to be sure the fund had been killed for good. At one point, it seemed that as many as 30 Republican senators might have been willing to vote to ban it, according to NPR’s Eric McDaniel.

North Carolina’s Thom Tillis unloaded his frustrations this week on CNBC, laying out how he sees the fund as one more way the White House is making Congress members' jobs harder.

“My God, you put forth this restitution fund when we’re trying to get Homeland Security funded for three years, and you think that’s going to go well?” he said, then railed against Trump’s naming of Pulte as acting DNI.

“And in the same week, you put an incendiary attack dog like Pulte on the agenda, when we’re trying to get 702 authorized,” he said, referring to a controversial spy program under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). “And he would be one of the major users of it? Whoever these people are in the White House need to get the hell out of the White House.”

Democrats had hoped to terminate the anti-weaponization fund by attaching an amendment to a bill to fund immigration enforcement. But after an all-night vote in which various amendments to kill or rein in the fund failed, the immigration enforcement funding bill passed, with … no new limits on Trump’s anti-weaponization money.

There has been a drip-drip-drip of news indicating that Republicans are finding it possible to put some distance between themselves and the president. Some divisions, like that between Trump and self-proclaimed “America First” Republicans on foreign policy (especially Israel), have been apparent for months.

Now, with five months until midterms, and voters angry about the economy and increasingly disapproving of the president, Republican lawmakers appear to be feeling the pressure. But sometimes, that pressure shows in their words more than their actions.

— Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR White House correspondent

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ICYMI: Top Stories

Mike Stewart/AP

GOP-favored map reinstated in Alabama: The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for Alabama to use a congressional district map favored by Republicans, overturning a lower court panel that ruled that the map is "tainted by intentional race-based discrimination." As voting correspondent Hansi Lo Wang reports, it’s the latest in a series of moves that has left minority voters with few options to challenge racial discrimination in voting law.

Platner says he isn’t going anywhere: With only a few days until the primary election and voting already underway, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner insists that voters will see past the numerous controversies that have dogged his campaign. This came a day after several ex-girlfriends accused Platner of volatile or threatening behavior in a report by The New York Times. “I very firmly believe that if I go out and continue to engage with people and continue to talk about the reality that Mainers are living in, the struggles of regular everyday people – that's why we're going to win this thing," Platner told Maine Public on Friday.

DOJ investigating George Santos’ Kalshi bets: The federal government is investigating former congressman George Santos for insider trading on the prediction market Kalshi. According to people with direct knowledge, Santos posted a video to social media telling followers he would attend President Trump’s State of the Union, then placed bets that he would not appear — and didn’t show up. Kalshi referred the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice, both of which opened investigations into Santos. Santos called the accusation "preposterous."

Trump and Netanyahu tensions: President Trump confirmed that he called Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" and used an expletive during a heated telephone call this week. At issue was Israel’s planned airstrikes on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. As national security correspondent Greg Myre reports, the episode illustrates how Trump and Netanyahu’s goals have diverged since the start of the war in Iran.

SAVE America Act sinks in Senate: The SAVE America Act, a far-reaching Republican election overhaul that President Trump said should be his congressional allies' top priority, failed in the Senate Thursday. The bill — would have required voters to show a document proving their U.S. citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate, when they registered to vote — had been languishing in the Senate for months, after the House passed a version in February on a near party-line vote. The election proposal would have taken effect immediately, even as voting is underway in congressional primaries.

Trump vowed to revoke hundreds of citizenships: It's proving harder to do.

— Lexie Schapitl, NPR Politics producer

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The Shot: Peace Takes Root

Stella Kalinina for NPR

John Follmer is an Iraq war vet and an adviser to Los Angeles County on military and veterans affairs, who works with homeless vets on the tough streets of Los Angeles.

But on Thursdays, he's a gardener.

Veterans volunteer every Thursday at this garden, built in 1968 on the West LA Veterans Affairs Campus. It had fallen into wild disrepair when Follmer found it six years ago and started to clean it up.

Now, there's a chain of koi ponds with giant goldfish and some newly planted Japanese maple trees. Follmer is hoping for active beehives soon.

"It's just such a peaceful place, and I think that this place truly is a deserving place for the veterans," he says. “This is proof that one year of consistency can beat back 20 years of neglect.”

— Lexie Schapitl, NPR Politics producer

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