WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans have defeated the first attempts to kill President Donald Trump’s rioter slush fund with legislation.The Senate may vote on more proposals targeting the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” on Thursday, but it’s possible Republicans are backing down from a fight with the president. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he’s not surprised. “There’s only one rule here: In the end, he gets anything he wants,” Murphy told HuffPost, referring to Trump. For a few hours on Thursday, it looked like Senate Republicans might actually vote for a motion by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to send an immigration funding bill back to a committee with instructions to outlaw the slush fund. The bill has been stalled for weeks over Republican anxieties about the fund, which Trump created through a dubious “settlement” of a lawsuit he himself filed against his own administration over a past leak of his tax returns. Trump supporters prosecuted for attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have long said they deserved cash compensation for their supposed mistreatment by the Justice Department, and the fund seemed designed for them. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted for the Schumer motion, while three other Republicans — Sens. Jon Husted (Ohio), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Bill Cassidy (La.) refused to vote one way or the other. But then Cassidy caved while Husted and Sullivan voted yes, and the motion failed 49-50. Then, the Senate resoundingly rejected an amendment from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to redirect the “weaponization” money to anti-fraud enforcement. The failed vote was 15 to 84.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the settlement last month, then this week said the administration was actually “not moving forward with the fund” thanks in large part to backlash from Republican lawmakers. Blanche’s statement, uttered during a committee hearing, was all Republican senators needed to restart their immigration bill. Even though the president himself this week seemed to think the fund is still alive, some senators used Blanche’s statement to brush off questions. “It’s a moot point,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) told HuffPost. “There is no fund.”Tillis had been one of the most strident critics of the fund, but his amendment was far weaker than Democratic proposals, such as one by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) to ban the president from suing his own government to set up sham settlements. (Trump’s deal also freed Trump, his family and his businesses from any ongoing IRS audits, potentially saving the president millions of dollars. Republicans seemed less interested in undoing that part of the settlement.)“We need to make it illegal for the president to create a slush fund,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost. “That’s our job.”Still, Tillis said there might be more Republican-supported efforts to target the fund, and he said he wouldn’t support a final immigration bill that doesn’t include anti-fund language. But he also said he didn’t want to vote for a Democratic amendment.“I want this to be a Republican-led solution,” he said.Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said the Senate could have other opportunities in the future to kill the fund and that it’s important for Republicans to stick together on funding immigration-enforcement sub-agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. They’re using a special budget process to pass funding for ICE and Border Patrol because Democrats have refused to do so since January. “If I can get an opportunity to kill the fund, I will kill it, but we need to fund these departments,” Curtis said. RelatedRepublican Politicsanti-weaponization fundslush fund