Republicans have shut down the House and Senate...

[kentuck]

Until after Memorial Day. They will return sometime in June.

They confronted Blanche about the Insurrectionists fund and their meeting sort of cascaded into hell from there.

Thune canceled the meeting with the White House and sent the Senators home until June. The House is expected to follow suit.

But, what might we expect to happen while they are gone? It is not a safe time for our country, in my opinion. What might Trump try to do in their absence?

It appears that the sh*t has finally hit the propeller.

[canetoad]

1. It's almost

As if you had no government and an elderly, crazed, despot in charge of everything.

[MustLoveBeagles]

9. It's both sad and terrifying at the same time

[paleotn]

14. Almost? It is.

[orangecrush]

34. Almost?

[H2O Man]

2. Terrible.

They betray their oath of office.

[paleotn]

15. At least they didn't pass the $70 billion dollar abomination.

Even through reconciliation, where Senate Dems can only proceduralize and delay. They couldn't stop it.

[Boo1]

41. I see this as a good thing

They are beginning to push back.


It only takes a handful of Rs in either chamber to flip the script. As more primaries close, win or lose, those reps are going to be free to do what they want. And some are going to have an ax to grind.

[Cosmocat]

43. It has to get his absurdly bad

for them to POSSIBLY start to do this actual jobs.

Johnson was going off on one of his never ending hyperobolic rants about radical leftists not funding ICE and how the great patriot Rs were going to stay and to their jobs less than 24 hours prior.

Friggen tool .,..

[Joinfortmill]

3. Yup. Stay informed and alert. We're nearing ground zero

[ananda]

4. ... the propeller of the Titanic.

...

[lastlib]

18. More like the propellers of the Gerald Ford.....

running through a major load of whaleshit.

Bastille Day in the US may be around the corner.........

[Lovie777]

5. Do nothing congress.....

[CatWoman]

6. 'Sh*tshow': Todd Blanche's Meeting With Senate Republicans Did Not Go Well

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/shtshow-todd-blanches-meeting-with-senate-republicans-did-not-go-well/

[Attilatheblond]

8. Doesn Blanche think Bondi got fired because she wasn't nasty enough?

Double Down DOJ isn't getting far.

[Attilatheblond]

7. GOP on the Hill: Congressional Eunuchs

[SergeStorms]

10. The repubLICKin controlled Congress.....

has been totally worthless to the American people since the Big Orange Fascist Pig was installed anyway.

Stay home. You're just stinking up the Capitol building anyway, you rotten, gutless, punks.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Iran, Cuba, Treasury policy

He could do a lot in 14 days.

[GiqueCee]

12. I coined the phrase...

... "The proverbial substance hit the fan with a resounding splat", to express what you wrote in your last line.
Either way, yes, we are doomed. We will survive Trump, but cleaning up his mess will take more years than I have left.
Republicans have redefined the very concept of corruption, may they all roast in Hell.

[Fil1957]

13. Maybe the sh*t has hit the fan. We won't really know until after they get back from recess next month. Until then one

can only hope.

[paleotn]

17. All I know is the $70 billion dollar nightmare didn't pass.

They haven't got the votes in the Senate to even pass it through reconciliation. Can't scrape together 50. In these dark times, I'll take small wins.

[Fil1957]

20. Yes, I'll take it as well. However I suspect that during the recess, the Republicans will be under intense pressure

to support the ballroom and slush fund from Trump and his henchmen. Will they hold or will they cave? We won't know until after the recess.

[paleotn]

22. Give how unpopular both are, perhaps not.

[Boo1]

42. What pressure can they do?

Cassidy now has nothing to lose.


Trump going after his own congressmen has essentially caused him to lose his majorities 8 months early.

[slightlv]

21. I wish I could get paid for doing nothing... for taking

month long vacations like they do! Talk about a cushy job!

[Deuxcents]

26. The Memorial Day weekend has been extended to a couple of weeks.

[Mossfern]

48. Exactly what was going through my mind while readin ths

There should be a maximum amount of days that they are permitted not to be in session.
Dock all the salaries of the majority party if they surpass that.

[GreenWave]

16. Cry babies afraid of the Epstein files and the Orange theft and are therefore complicit in its obstruction.

[Skittles]

19. such a quandary for them

how to suck Trump off while appearing to care what ANYONE thinks

[WiVoter]

23. I'd Expect

She me serious arm twisting
Another * attempt
Attack Cuba

[Bev54]

24. Sorry I have no confidence that things will turn around with the senate or the house.

If they wanted to vote it down, they would just do it and then go on break. They always go on break and get threatened or bribed and come back voting for Trump again. We have seen this over and over and over. I would love to see it not happen but the disappointment has been too often.

[Cosmocat]

44. Senate didn't pull up stakes out of fiduciary concerns

It's a political / power squabble because the lunatic didn't back their chamber member.

Throwing a fit because he did not endorse Cornyn ...

THAT is their line in the sand, they have waved on every other billion dollar grift he has run though congress.

[dave99]

25. just one lousy bullet, please

[Volaris]

27. Well if theyre gone till June, who the fuck up there is supposed to depose Bondi next Friday?

The janitors?!

[FakeNoose]

28. It sounds like everything is delayed until after Memorial Day....

There will be something posted on the house Committee website, I would imagine.

The regular staffers are still in the office, it's the Senators and Representatives that left early. I hope their salaries are held out until they return to work. That's what happens in the real world.

[FloridaBlues]

29. What is to stop him from getting the funds. He will take that slush money before they come back.

[Mad_Machine76]

30. When the tough get going

Republicans take paid vacations

[LetMyPeopleVote]

31. MaddowBlog-Republicans start walking away from own plan to spend tax dollars on Trump's ballroom

“The votes are not there,” one key GOP senator reluctantly conceded. “We will lose.”

As Republicans walk away from their own plan to spend tax dollars on the ballroom, remember:

This has nothing to do with procedural hurdles and everything to do with the fact that too many GOP senators don’t want to vote for this wildly unpopular idea in an election year.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-05-20T21:31:58.906Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-start-walking-away-from-own-plan-to-spend-tax-dollars-on-trumps-ballroom

On Tuesday, as part of a weird press conference, Donald Trump again endorsed a Republican effort to secure public funding for “security” measures related to his ballroom vanity project. A day later, a reporter asked him whether he was concerned about Congress giving up on the proposal. He said he was not.

Hours later, it became clear that he should have been. The New York Times reported:

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said [the taxpayer money] for President Trump’s White House ballroom project has been stripped from a filibuster-proof budget bill because there were not sufficient Republican votes to support the funding. “We’re back to square one,” he said, adding: “The votes are not there. We will lose.”

The entire trajectory of this fight has been bizarre for a while. For months, Republican officials in the White House and on Capitol Hill assured the public that the ballroom project would be privately financed. Two weeks ago, however, the party’s position changed unexpectedly, and GOP senators unveiled a package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which included a $1 billion provision that, if approved, would spend taxpayer dollars related to the ballroom.

The proposal was expected advance through the budget reconciliation process, which meant Republicans could circumvent the 60-vote threshold and pass the bill with a simple majority.

Roadblocks quickly emerged. In order for a reconciliation bill to advance, it has to meet a series of stringent conditions, which in this case proved to be a problem: The Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian informed GOP leaders over the weekend that the money for the ballroom would either have to be changed significantly or removed altogether....

To be sure, there’s still some fluidity to the process. But as things stand, according to a key member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republicans are walking away from their own unpopular idea. Watch this space.

[Cosmocat]

45. Its really not even that

they didn't suddenly struggle to find the money for this any more than any of his other countless billion dollar grafts until having a conniption over his endorsing Paxton over Cornyn - THAT is the line in the sand for them.

[Buckeyeblue]

32. As I've written on here before, Republicans could end this tomorrow.

But they won't. They're cowards. And they hate America. If they loved our country they would not allow Trump to shit on us every single day.

[Don1]

33. It's like telling your 3 year old that you don't think he should put his hand in the cookie jar or scribble on the walls

Then, you go on vacation for a week and leave the child at home.

[spanone]

35. They're cowards, one and all.

[SamuelAdams]

36. Do Americans not pay attention?

Every time Republicans are given control, there is chaos. They shut down the government, create massive amounts of debt to finance tax cuts for the rich, start wars, tank the economy. Americans claim to dislike all of it but keep electing them to do it again. Maybe if we gave Democrats more than two years every decade to fix the GOP mess, things might get better.

[mdbl]

38. you would think it would keep ANY repug from gaining office

Magats are stupid and manipulated.

[themaguffin]

37. A horrible combination of corruption and cowardice.

[quakerboy]

39. Expect the senators and congresspersons

To come back contrite and repentant towards their king and savior.

[AZ8theist]

40. They absolutely NEED this time off.....

So each and every one of the Republican congresspeople can conduct town halls in their districts to brag to their constituants about ALL of the major accomplishments they've achieved.......

...oh, wait....


HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sometimes I crack myself up!! I'm here all week! Tip your waitress!!

[Figarosmom]

46. I wish they had left

It open with just one person or something. I'm afraid he will put Blanche in as AG without a vote or fill other positions he needs kiss ups in.

[dalton99a]

47. Stabbing Cornyn in the back may prove to be a costly mistake.