Trump Rages at GOPer in Crazed Tirade as Slush Fund Prompts GOP Revolt

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Republicans are starting to break with Donald Trump’s corrupt $1.8 billion slush fund. Vulnerable House GOPer Brian Fitzpatrick announced that he’s pursuing legislation to block the fund. Other Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, are raising serious questions about it. Relatedly, Trump let out a bizarre, angry tirade about Rep. Fitzpatrick. Trump ripped him for disloyalty, snarling that this “doesn’t work out well” for Republicans. Though Trump’s anger might not have been about Fitzpatrick’s opposition to the slush fund, Fitzpatrick also opposes his ballroom. So this shows how Republicans are enraging Trump by running from his corruption. We talked to Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, who argues that Trump’s corruption will be his main legacy. We discuss new polling showing Trump at record economic lows; why the fund is deadly for the GOP; and why Trump’s pathologies don’t permit him to let Republicans get distance from him. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:31.2	Republicans are quietly starting to break with Donald Trump over his $1.8 billion slush fund.
0:33.0	This shows how toxic Trump's corruption has become, and that comes as a new poll shows him at another
0:39.0	record low on the economy, which will make GOP anxiety even worse. Trump knows this is a problem.
0:47.0	He snarled with rage over a House Republican who's been bucking him lately, which is a key tell.
0:53.1	While Trump is successfully excommunicating
0:55.7	disloyal Republicans in primaries, that's not stopping the party from breaking with his corrupt
1:01.6	schemes on numerous fronts because he's politically weak and doesn't know what to do about it.
1:07.7	Today we're sorting through all of this with Salon's Amanda Marcotte, who has a good piece
1:12.0	arguing that the only thing anyone will remember about Donald Trump in the end is his corruption.
1:17.8	Amanda, always good to have you on.
1:20.2	Thanks for having me.
1:22.1	So let's start with GOP Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, a vulnerable Republican from Pennsylvania. A reporter asks him about
1:29.8	Trump's slush fund. This is the slush fund that the Justice Department created as part of a
1:34.8	quote-unquote settlement of his bogus lawsuit against the IRS. The fund will pay off supposed
1:40.5	victims of government weaponization, including the insurrectionists. Listen to this.
1:46.6	What do you make it is $1.7 billion fund for... Bad news. We're going to try to kill it.
1:51.8	You're going to try to kill it? Wow. Okay. And how? Well, we're considering legislative options.
1:57.2	We're going to write a letter to the AG to start, but we're considering a legislative option. Okay. We're trying to unpack exactly, you know, what the legal machinations are, but can't do that. Right. Have you ever heard of any other Americans, like, other than Trump as an associate here? I haven't. Not, who are unauditable by the IRS? I've never heard that before. Okay.
2:18.3	So would that be part of the legislative?
2:19.3	Of course.
	...

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