U.S. President Donald Trump talks on the phone as he departs the White House for Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, U.S., May 31, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz
President Donald Trump just got a "fast lesson in political gravity" by retreating from his most recent plot to pay his supporters with federal money, according to one analyst.
On Tuesday, reports indicated that the Trump administration is backing down from its plan to create a nearly $1.8 billion so-called "anti-weaponization" fund that would pay people who claimed they were wrongfully prosecuted by the government. The fund received sharp bipartisan criticism after multiple Trump allies and former advisors publicly said they intend to seek compensation from the fund.
Brian Tyler Cohen, a progressive YouTuber, said in a new reaction video that Trump's retreat from the anti-weaponization fund should serve as an important lesson for the president.
"Trump might have thought that he could act with impunity, but he is learning a fast lesson in political gravity, specifically the fact that it still exists," Cohen said.
Throughout Trump's second term, he has acted as if political norms and rules simply don't apply. For instance, Trump directed his former Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to prosecute people such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, and sought to unilaterally impose a tariff regime on America's largest trading partners.
Cohen added that Trump's ability to misguide and mislead his followers illustrates his fatal conceit.
"These people have so much contempt for their own supporters that they will lie to them on a minute-by-minute basis instead of just acknowledging objective reality that their plans are insane, aggressively unpopular, help no one, make us all less safe, and couldn't even garner support in a political party full of Trump's colon dwellers," Cohen said.