Mike DeBonis

👀 Some Tillis-Trump back-and-forth after our story this morning, where Tillis talked about his relationship with Trump, his views on some of the president's advisors, the midterms, future of GOP and more: politico.com/news/magazine/…

NEW: Tillis, in a lengthy interview, says he would "love" for Pete Hegseth to be fired But his real goal is keeping GOP majority and he believes there are "people in the White House who couldn't care less about what happens in November, and that goes to show you how stupid they are." He also says he has a "professional" relationship with Trump but "I'm not going to kiss this man's ass or anybody else's when I believe he's not in a good place" He also says Congress should "nuke" the DOJ weaponization fund and predicts more of his colleagues will start disagreeing with Trump as we get past the primary cycle READ: politico.com/news/magazine/…

Uhhh what happened today was Senate Republicans did not have 51 votes to proceed with theirown agenda...

Rights, said the publisher, are just "ink on paper unless they're exercised."

That escalated quickly... politico.com/live-updates/2…

🚨 Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) are working on legislation to kill the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” DOJ fund that could pay allies of President Donald Trump, per sources they've drafted text and are taking steps to unveil soon. still awaiting answers back from DOJ - but they will likely have to trigger a discharge petition to get it to the floor w/ @kelseybrugger politico.com/live-updates/2… via @politico

Todd Blanche will be meeting with members at 11 am per a source Comes as Rs are still working to finalize their recon bill

Judge Leon, who has shown little patience for the admin yadda-yadda-yaddaing itself past Congress on the ballroom

NEW — Republicans on Capitol Hill are coming to grips with an emboldened President Trump who is determined to flex his power over the GOP, at seemingly any cost. “It seems like he’s given up on holding the majority and focusing on loyalty in the minority,” one House Republican said. The president, fresh off crushing a series of GOP foes in primaries, even openly threatened Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick today — a key swing district Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders quickly tried to defend from Trump’s attacks. “Look, Brian Fitzpatrick has a very difficult district — he has an independent streak, as we all know — but he’s a very close friend and colleague of mine,” Johnson told @politico, adding that he was “working hard to get him reelected.” Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who leads the House GOP campaign arm, noted that “holding that seat is really important for holding the majority.” More w/ @jordainc @MyahWard politi.co/43mLhVU via @politico

NEW: Thomas Massie’s most important role in Congress wasn’t as a Trump critic. It was as the resident Crank, the guy willing to be the “1” in a 434-1 vote. Congress has always had that person, and they often play a valuable role, guarding against the groupthink of their day.

It's a done deal @jordainc reports: No ballroom money in Recon 2.0 politico.com/news/2026/05/2…

Interesting comment from @SpeakerJohnson today. He said Republicans need members of Congress who are looking to advance the America First agenda, not trying to "carve out their own lane and do something that's destructive, or counterproductive to the agenda." In response to the Massie primary defeat

A concrete legacy for Barney Frank: His name is on the last piece of landmark legislation titled for its lead sponsors. Not really done anymore. But people will be saying "Dodd-Frank" as long as they've been saying Taft-Hartley or Glass-Steagall. politico.com/news/2026/05/2…

The entire $1 billion Secret Service earmark is at risk as multiple Senate Republicans air qualms about Trump ballroom funding, report @jordainc @JAscholtes politico.com/news/2026/05/1…

John Cornyn's political career ends in one Faulknerian sentence

Watch this space: Todd Blanche refuses to rule out payouts to convicted violent Jan. 6 rioters given multiple opportunities to do so today @Hailey_Fuchs politico.com/live-updates/2…

Good @riley_rogerson dive on the below-the-radar D.C. delegate race, where the winner will have the chance to remake the office for the first time in 36 years politico.com/news/2026/05/1…

Full story here w/ @JAscholtes: politico.com/news/2026/05/1… Rs reiterating tonight that they are already working on redrafting the language + Dems vowing they will keep challenging with parl plus will try to strip it on the floor even if it clears the Byrd bath As a reminder: HSGAC markup scheduled for Tuesday Budget Wednesday Rs are planning to do vote-a-rama Thursday and send this to House by Friday

@drewharwell @RossBarkan Seems like they added credit?

This tweet, for a @RossBarkan story that copied my lede and reporting, now has more than 10x the views of the original. Ross hasn't apologized or acknowledged it; maybe he's just waiting for me to shut up. Without any explanation, I'm left to wonder how many times he's done this

NEW: Trump's pet project is hanging in the balance on Capitol Hill Rs are discussing making changes to the Secret Service/East Wing language amid pushback and as they wait for parl ruling Thune told me convos are about "how do we get 50 votes in the Senate for something" and parl decision will have a big impact Judiciary Cmte (including the ballroom-related language) is in front of the parl today politico.com/news/2026/05/1…