Trump meeting with Mike Johnson after $1.7B fund ‘completely screwed’ GOP priority: report
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shake hands during a House Republican members conference meeting in Trump National Doral resort, in Miami, Florida, U.S. January 27, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo

President Donald Trump is expected to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday at the White House to address a major obstacle to a top GOP priority – one created by the president himself, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman revealed.

That obstacle is Trump’s taxpayer-funded $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” designed to award payouts to those who’ve alleged to have been unfairly targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has admitted that even those convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would be eligible for compensation from the fund.

While the fund has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge from awarding payouts, Trump has continued to support it, creating a headache for GOP lawmakers attempting to pass a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), which have remained unfunded since February.

“Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump are meeting at the White House this morning on the weaponization fund,” Sherman wrote in a social media post on X. “This fund has completely screwed up passing reconciliation -- ICE/CBP funding.”

No other details have been revealed about Trump and Johnson’s meeting, other than its focus being on the threat it poses to Republican efforts to fund ICE and CBP.