What to make of the Trump administration backing down
6/5/20267 min
This week, the Trump administration did a seemingly uncommon thing – it reversed course under pressure.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House subcommittee this week that the Justice Department would not go forward with its plans to implement a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
Fellow Republicans in Congress who saw it as funneling federal money to the president’s supporters – possibly including Jan. 6 rioters – held up other legislation in protest.
For a president who claims broad authority over nearly everything, what can we make of his administration backing down?
The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, a historian of modern authoritarianism, weighs in.
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This episode was produced by Linah Mohammad, Alejandra Marquez Janse and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Patrick Jarenwattananon. Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsScott Detrow· Host0:01
It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, the Trump administration backs down.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:07
We are not moving forward with the fund, period.
Scott Detrow· Host0:10
The fund being the controversial $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House subcommittee this week the Justice Department would comply with a recent court ruling temporarily blocking the fund. Now, to be clear, $1.8 billion is not a lot compared to about $70 billion of spending, which the Senate advanced this week to support the Trump administration's immigration enforcement through the rest of his term. But Republican lawmakers were actually holding up that immigration package because of the weaponization fund. Many saw it as funneling federal money to the president's supporters, possibly including January 6th rioters.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:51
I led the charge against that so-called anti-weaponization fund.
Scott Detrow· Host0:54
Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick was one of those Republicans. He spoke to NPR Thursday.
Speaker 2· Soundbite1:00
I think about what's good for America. W- If we start thinking about what's good for the Republican Party or the Democrat Party, we've lost sight about what our job is.
Scott Detrow· Host1:08
This is not the first time in recent weeks that we have seen the Trump administration reverse course. In April, the Justice Department also backed off its investigation into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, only after Republican Senator Thom Tillis held up confirmation of the new Fed chair in protest. Consider this, for a president