What to make of the Trump administration backing down
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
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.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's consider this, where every day we go deep on one big news story. |
| 0:05.4 | Today, the Trump administration backs down. |
| 0:07.9 | We are not moving forward with the fund, period. |
| 0:10.3 | The fund being the controversial $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. |
| 0:16.5 | Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House subcommittee this week, |
| 0:19.8 | the Justice Department |
| 0:20.8 | would comply with a recent court ruling temporarily blocking the fund. Now, to be clear, |
| 0:26.5 | $1.8 billion is not a lot compared to about $70 billion of spending, which the Senate advanced |
| 0:32.8 | this week to support the Trump administration's immigration enforcement through the rest of his |
| 0:36.7 | term. |
| 0:43.8 | But Republican lawmakers were actually holding up that immigration package because of the weaponization fund. |
| 0:51.3 | Many saw it as funneling federal money to the president's supporters, possibly including January 6th rioters. |
| 0:54.9 | I led the charge against that so-called anti-weaponization fund. |
| 1:00.2 | Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick was one of those Republicans. He spoke to NPR Thursday. |
| 1:05.6 | I think about what's good for America. 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. This is not the first time in recent weeks that we have seen the Trump administration |
| 1:13.2 | reverse course. In April, the Justice Department also backed off its investigation into |
| 1:18.8 | former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, only after Republican Senator Tom Tillis held up |
| 1:25.0 | confirmation of the new Fed chair in protest. |
| 1:28.6 | Consider this. For a president who claims broad authority over nearly everything, |
| 1:33.8 | what can we make of his administration backing down? We will ask a scholar of modern authoritarianism. |
| 1:46.2 | From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Scott Detrow. |
| 1:59.4 | It's considered this from NPR. The Trump administration has gotten its way so much over the past 16 months, from Republicans in Congress especially, that it feels unusual to see it back down anywhere. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.