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Republicans had a filibuster-proof immigration bill that would allocate $70 billion to immigration enforcement and fully reopen the Department of Homeland Security. But then, Trump got involved. First, he wanted $1 billion for “security” for his beloved beautiful ballroom. Then, the Department of Justice announced that $1.776 billion slush fund for Trump’s allies. After Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Senate Republicans to make the case for the slush fund on Thursday, everyone got so mad that Senate Majority Leader John Thune gave up on getting a vote together for the immigration bill and sent everyone home for the holiday. To unpack the reconciliation bill mess, we spoke to Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brendan Boyle. He’s the ranking member of the House Budget Committee.

And in headlines, Iran is reportedly reviewing the U.S.’s latest peace proposal, the Trump administration eases restrictions on planet-warming “super pollutants” used in air conditioners and refrigerators, and the Democratic National Committee finally releases its autopsy of the 2024 election.

Show Notes:

TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, May 22nd, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show deeply inspired by President Donald Trump’s total disinterest in Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding. Here he is on Thursday. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I said you know this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. That’s one I can’t win on. If I do attend I get killed. If I don’t attend I get killed by the fake news of course I’m talking about, no but he’s got a very uh person who I’ve known for a long time and hopefully they’re gonna have a great marriage. 

Jane Coaston: Interesting how the war in Iran is so important that Trump can’t go to his son’s wedding. But not so important Trump can’t say, get distracted by ballroom construction or golf. [music break] On today’s show, Trump’s potty mouth is getting worse, and the Democratic National Committee finally released its autopsy with no conclusion, quote, “provided by the author.” But let’s start with Congress, specifically Senate Republicans. Republicans had a filibuster-proof immigration bill that would contain $70 billion for immigration enforcement and finally fully reopen the Department of Homeland Security. It was going to be awesome. But then Trump got involved. First, he wanted $1 billion for security for his beloved beautiful ballroom. That did not go over well with Republicans, especially after the White House argued that approving that money would be the same as Congress approving of the ballroom itself, which Congress did not do. Here’s Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy making some observations to CNN on Wednesday. 

[clip of Senator Bill Cassidy] There’s no architectural plans, there is no environmentals, there’s no engineering, there is no sense of, when we ask, how did it happen to cost exactly a billion? 

Jane Coaston: I also have this question. That same day, Senate Republicans removed that budget request from the immigration bill. Problem solved? But then there’s that $1.776 billion slush fund for Trump’s allies. A slush fund one Republican Senator called, quote, “stupid on stilts.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Senate Republicans to try and make the case for the slush fund on Thursday. The result? Everyone got so mad that Senate Majority Leader John Thune gave up on getting a vote together for the immigration bill and sent everyone home for the holiday. Great work, Republicans. So, to talk more about the reconciliation bill mess, I spoke to Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brendan Boyle. He’s the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Representative Boyle, welcome to What a Day. 

Brendan Boyle: Yeah, good to be with you. 

Jane Coaston: So the House was supposed to vote today on this long-awaited reconciliation bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, among a bunch of other things. And it seemed like things were going great for Republicans. And that didn’t happen. Instead, Senate Republicans pushed the vote to June. How did everything go horribly wrong for Republicans? 

Brendan Boyle: Boy, I ask myself that question pretty much every week about all sorts of things. So this latest episode, you are correct. I mean, there’s no question. They had the votes, in all likelihood had the votes for what they nicknamed Reconciliation 2.0, essentially a massive amount of funding for the Department of Homeland Security, specifically CBP and ICE. Looked like the votes were there. That’s what we were gonna vote on. But then suddenly, um Donald J. Trump, their dear leader, threw them a curveball, in fact two curveballs. One, the billion dollar ballroom, and insisting that that would be added to the reconciliation bill. And then number two, this disgraceful 1.8 billion dollar slush fund for thugs. And right now, as we speak, the White House is insisting that both of those things be added to the Reconciliation Bill. It appears, and there aren’t too many times that I’ve been able to say this, it appears that enough Senate Republicans so far are standing up to the White House that they don’t have the votes to move forward, and so the whole thing got pulled down. 

Jane Coaston: I have to ask, the most striking thing about this anti-weaponization slush fund for January 6-ers, I’m using air quotes in case you’re listening to this, it wasn’t even in the reconciliation bill. So–

Brendan Boyle: Right. 

Jane Coaston: –what actually was in this bill? Do you even know what you would be voting on when this vote comes back around in June. 

Brendan Boyle: Well, the answer to that is no, but it’s not because of a lack of work or preparation on my part. It’s because they haven’t produced what exactly the it is because they’re having issues with the Senate parliamentarian. This can get really in the weeds, but basically, as we know, reconciliation is a way in which the majority party in the Senate can get around the filibuster to make it so that you can pass something with a simple majority, 51 votes, instead of 60 votes. But there are all of these uh quirky, uh kooky rules with reconciliation, what counts, what doesn’t count. And they’ve taken two stabs now at trying to, at the very least, include the $1 billion for Trump’s precious ballroom. And both times, the parliamentarian has said no, that does not comply with the rules of reconciliation. So they’re currently trying to work on a draft that both would clear muster with the parliamentarian. And also get the fifty one republican votes they need. 

Jane Coaston: As we mentioned, back in April, Republicans had a clear shot to pass this bill along party lines. Lindsey Graham was talking about how they don’t they don’t need Democrats to do this. But Trump basically got greedy and– 

Brendan Boyle: Correct, correct. 

Jane Coaston: –slam dunked his way to complete failure. And what gets me is that you’re starting to hear congressional Republicans, especially in the Senate, talking about how this slush fund is a terrible idea. This slush fund is, you know, it’s reckless. And what do you think that means for his relationship with congressional Republicans right now? Because it seems not great. 

Brendan Boyle: Well, they have to be looking at Donald Trump’s approval rating among a general election audience. But you know, I don’t want to overstate this, because I have lived through, now, the first four years of Donald Trump being president and saw how Republicans behaved. And I’ve lived through the last almost year and a half. For five and a half years, the examples of congressional Republicans standing up to this president had been few and far between. So I’m not going to quite I mean, it’s great that we’re, at the moment, um able to celebrate a victory thanks to their own gross incompetence and the president’s incredible greed in passing up what would have been, I think, a win for him and going for the billion-dollar ballroom and going for this slush fund for his January 6th mob and criminals. Um. That said though, knowing how strong Trump is in a Republican primary electorate as he’s displayed over the last couple weeks, let’s just say I’m not going to bet my future, my mortgage on the strength of the spines of congressional Republicans. 

Jane Coaston: I’m curious though, to your point about the recent primaries, you now have a host of people in the Senate, a host Senate Republicans, who they have no reason to help Trump do anything. If you’re Senator Thom Tillis, if you’re Senator Bill Cassidy, you don’t have to help Trump with anything, including the ballroom, including this slush fund. Do you think that changes the calculus a little bit here? 

Brendan Boyle: Yeah, you could almost call them the Yolo caucus. I mean, if you’re Cassidy, you know that you’re leaving, thanks in large part to Donald Trump coming so viciously after him and opposing him for for re-election. It does appear as if Cornyn is about to join Cassidy in that club. You have McConnell who can’t stand Trump and is obviously retiring, the same with Tillis. That’s four right there. And then when you add two with Murkowski and Collins. That would be six Republican senators that could stand up and say, no, we’ve already seen since last Saturday night, less than a week ago, Cassidy loses his primary. He has come out and said that he wasn’t going to vote for three different Republican priorities. That’s more no votes from Senator Cassidy announced this week than the previous six years. Um. So I hope that it continues. Frankly, I don’t know why someone like Cassidy and Cornyn would do anything, would lift a finger to help the president who just stuck a knife into their backs. 

Jane Coaston: In your view, why was it this, the slush fund, and to a lesser extent, the ballroom? Why is it these issues that seem to have been, for now, to your point, the final straw for Congressional Republicans? 

Brendan Boyle: Well, so first in terms of why the president’s going this direction, Donald Trump is a very easy person to figure out. He’s all about the griffs and the grudges. That’s what that’s what he spends most of his time on. It’s got to be some sort of grift to get his name on something or be honored in some way. Or just basically get a big bag of cash. Um. So that’s pretty clear where his motivation is. In terms of why the Senate Republicans are acting out now about this, why are some congressional Republicans even saying some negative things about it, I do think that the closer we get to this November election and it looks like the shellacking is coming for congressional Republicans and the lower President Trump’s approval rating gets, I think that actually increases the likelihood that finally Republicans are able to step up and speak out about something. I’ll also say this, I mean, you see Donald Trump’s low approval ratings of the economy, the lowest of any president since George W. Bush, at the height of the Great Recession, mind you, 20 years ago. You see um the overall increase in uh the cost of goods, cost of gas, et cetera, to then turn around and have to vote, not for anything that would help the American people deal with those increased costs, but instead vote for a billion dollars of taxpayer money? For a stupid ballroom. It is just so grotesque and beyond the pale. I think that is also part of the reason why at least a few and enough so far Republicans are balking and saying no. 

Jane Coaston: I mean, let’s talk about November. You are the ranking member on the House Budget Committee. Let’s say Democrats win the House in the midterms, then you will become chair of the Budget Committee, what do you wanna do with that power? 

Brendan Boyle: Yeah, well, it’s um I’m superstitious enough, or I’m not superstitious, but I’m a little stitious. So I’m not gonna get too much ahead of myself um with grand plans, but as you can imagine, you can’t just plan something like that come November. So I already have gone about talking about what would be a few of the priorities. And I think I would look at as sort of like parallel tracks. The first would be doing everything we possibly can and using every piece of leverage over the budget. Uh. To stop the excesses and the craziness of this administration. We have to use every single piece of leverage we have to stop this president in his tracks. I’ve seen this before in many ways this would be history repeating itself because that’s what we did in 2019, 2020, when democrats took back the house after the first Donald Trump midterm but then the other track would be okay we have a Republican President a democratic house. If there’s a possibility of some permanent, real, meaningful budget reforms, this would be the sort of calculus and the sort of math that would achieve it. So areas like the debt ceiling, which I continue to worry that we will one day breach, which would plummet the worldwide economy. I mean, it would make the Great Recession look like a field day if we were ever to breach the debt ceiling. Also, the fact that how many government shutdowns have we had over the last decade? More than we can count, I think the number is over ten. We need permanent budget reform so that way we can finally end these shutdowns once and for all that really don’t benefit anyone. So I look at it as that way. There’s the primary job of keeping this administration in check as much as possible. Yet at the same time, trying to build a bipartisan consensus to do these big meaningful things. And those two that I just mentioned, I actually think would be in Donald Trump’s narrow, short-term interest where perhaps we could get his agreement. 

Jane Coaston: Representative Boyle, thank you so much for taking the time. 

Brendan Boyle: Oh, thank you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brendan Boyle. This podcast does not cost a billion dollars, and we will not give nearly two billion to MAGA weirdos. So if you’re into that, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of unnamed news journalist] The Vice President mentioned the other day, there would be accommodations, they were willing to make accommodations with the Iranian deal. Um. Could you kind of expand on those possible accommodations? Does that include um– 

[clip of President Donald Trump] When you say a combination of what? 

[clip of unnamed news journalist] Accommodations, he’s talking about accommodations as far as making the deal, making the deal go. Is that [?]–

[clip of President Donald Trump] I don’t know, I can’t tell you. Right now, we’re negotiating, and we’ll see. But either we’re gonna get it one way or the other. They’re not gonna have a nuclear weapon. 

Jane Coaston: President Trump on Thursday told reporters something we already knew. He can’t tell you what’s going on with negotiations with Iran. Iran is reviewing the US’s latest peace proposal, according to Iranian state media. But the two countries still seem pretty far away from each other on a number of issues. For one, Iran is reportedly speaking with Oman about setting up a toll system for the Strait of Hormuz. There is also the issue of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, which neither side is budging on. On Thursday Trump said quote, “We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it.” The Trump administration is easing restrictions on planet warming super pollutants used in air conditioners and refrigerators. Trump’s team is framing the issue as a way to lower grocery prices. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin spoke during the signing session in the Oval Office on Thursday. 

[clip of Lee Zeldin] Many Americans were expressing a lot of frustration and anger of this rushed, frantic, reckless sprint by the Biden administration to phase out reliable equipment for grocery stores, for restaurants, and for homes. 

Jane Coaston: No, they weren’t. And fun fact, Trump signed a law in his first term that aimed to reduce these harmful planet warming superpollutants. The DNC finally released its autopsy into what went wrong in the 2024 election. It’s riddled with errors, missing entire sections, and raising new questions about Chair Ken Martin’s leadership. For those of you who aren’t political sickos, here’s a refresher. Martin initially promised to release the report before suddenly changing his mind, but the public pressure became too much after Martin sparked backlash by defending his reversal on Pod Save America. In a blog post on Thursday, Martin wrote that he isn’t proud of the report and that’s why he didn’t release it. Been there, buddy, but I was in high school at the time. The report dodges major controversies of the 2024 election, including the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. The words Gaza and Israel also don’t appear in the report, despite the DNC reportedly finding that former Vice President Kamala Harris lost votes because of the issue. As activist David Hogg told me on Thursday, the report was, quote, “much less an autopsy, and more than anything, a eulogy.” You can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel. Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis was censured by the state’s Democratic Party after the governor freed a 2020 election denier who was serving a prison sentence for tampering with voting machines. Former county clerk Tina Peters was serving nine-year sentences for breaching a voting system in 2021 to, quote, “prove that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.” Trump, naturally, was a big champion of Peters, reportedly even moving U.S. Space command from Colorado to Alabama in protest of her sentence. Polis commuted Peters’ sentence last week. On Wednesday, the Colorado State Democratic Party passed a motion to censure Polis with nearly 90% support. In his first press conference since freeing Peters, Polis did not answer any questions about his decision. But he did eat a carrot. Trump’s use of profanity in speeches has become increasingly profane, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Post looked at the first year and a half of both of his terms. According to the analysis, Trump cursed or used vulgar and insulting language at least once 40% of the time in Trump Term 1. This time around, however, his colorful language has appeared in 93% of speeches. Hear that, parents? Block your kids’ ears any time you see this guy on television, if you haven’t been doing that already. And that’s the news. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, take some time to relax this weekend, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, I’m not just about how this week has been a lot. We’ve had primaries and slush funds and lots of Trump talking next to various aircraft. So this Memorial Day, spend some time outside doing something nice, like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and happy Memorial Day. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Fohr, Erica Morrison, and Adriene Hill. Our team includes Hayley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]