Two late developments yesterday may indicate that there are just enough Republicans who, for varying reasons mostly involving voter wrath, are willing to buck the Malignant Fascist after a long, supine hibernation. First, the Senate.
Trump's Golden Ballroom / Bunker Bust
Senate Republicans have officially ditched an effort to fund President Donald Trump’s ballroom at the White House.
The fate of Trump’s gilded dining hall is now in legal limbo with likely no help coming from Capitol Hill.
Money for the Secret Service and the “East Wing Modernization Project” was omitted from a new version of Republicans’ bill Republicans announced Wednesday to fund immigration enforcement operations at the Department of Homeland Security.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suggested there’s not much appetite for bringing the ballroom funding back.
“It’s not in here,” Thune told HuffPost, referring to the new bill. “I suspect if there’s something that people want to see get done there, they’d probably go through the appropriations process.”
There’s little chance Trump is getting ballroom money through the appropriations process, which is the normal way Congress writes bills funding government agencies. Regular appropriations bills require 60 votes to clear the Senate, and Republicans control just 53 seats, meaning they’d need at least seven Democrats to go along with a wildly unpopular Trump vanity project. Not much chance of that.
“Thanks to the outrage of the American people and hard-fought challenges by Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans finally gave up on funding Trump’s billionaire ballroom for now,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Wednesday.
The ballroom billion had previously been included in an immigration bill going through a special “budget reconciliation” process that only takes 50 votes. The Senate parliamentarian said the provision couldn’t stay in the bill under the special budget rules. Republicans started reworking the provision, but then gave up and left town in a furor over Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” [snip]
Trump started the ballroom project last year with the surprise wholesale demolition of the entire East Wing of the White House. He didn’t ask Congress, which has appropriated money for past major upgrades, and he didn’t ask the commissions set up to preserve historic architecture in the nation’s Capitol.
In March, a federal judge has said construction can’t continue unless Congress approves it, such as by appropriating funds, which is likely why the ballroom money suddenly appeared in the previous immigration bill. The next hearing in the case is on Friday. In the meantime, Trump has fumed from the sidelines, accusing the judge of jeopardizing security for all of America...
If, somehow, construction of the MF's golden ballroom / bunker continues despite these efforts, it must be among the first tasks of any Democratic administration to tear it down and restore to their previous state the East Wing and other public areas that he's vandalized.
The House for the first time Wednesday approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans [4!] joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a plan for peace.
The roll call Wednesday was 215-208, but next steps are uncertain. Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority. Still, the tally, with four Republicans joining Democrats, was a rebuke of the president’s war strategy, and cheers erupted in the House chamber.
“This reckless and costly war of choice needs to end today,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier in the week.
“All we need are a handful of Republicans to join us and we can end this reckless and costly war of choice — a war that has cost the American taxpayer over $100 billion — that’s extraordinary — and left our country in a weaker position relative to Iran.” [snip]
The war powers resolution from the House would not immediately stop the war, but it would provide a symbolic if not legal step against further military action.
The resolution next goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the U.S. campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote to approve or reject its own war powers resolution. [snip]
The House is also voting Wednesday on another Democratic-led effort that would authorize U.S. support for Ukraine’s military operations as it battles Russia and to help reconstruct the war-torn country. The House this week is also expected to consider a war powers resolution to block U.S. action in Lebanon. [snip]
Under the war powers act, the White House has a 60-day window to seek approval from Congress for military action. The administration, however, has indicated that because a ceasefire has been declared in the current conflict in Iran, the hostilities have ceased.
The symbolism comes somewhat late, after months of the moron Malignant Fascist's incompetent bungling, soaring gas and commodity prices, a shaken world economy, and America's further isolation. The MF's regime has already declared a war powers resolution moot by virtue of their saying Operation Epic Epstein Fury is over, despite what everyone's lying eyes are telling them.
Next up, perhaps: forcing the immediate removal of über hatchetman Bill Pulte as acting as Director of National Intelligence?
UPDATE: Giving it a try.
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