The end of Trump's 'weaponisation' fund is another sign Republicans are fighting back

Senate Republicans criticised the fund in a contentious private meeting on 21 May with Blanche, two days after it was announced. Republicans were "blasting the attorney general," Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said the day after the meeting on his podcast Verdict.

"There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying this feels like self-dealing," Cruz said.

The pressure campaign from Republicans to abandon the fund only increased from there.

Republicans stalled progress on legislation to fund US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), sending Trump a message that this planned fund could unravel a long-delayed spending plan for two key immigration agencies. When lawmakers returned to Washington this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged the administration to end its plans for the fund.

"The best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves," Thune told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.

The mounting Republican opposition came as Democrats vowed to hold up the immigration bill over the fund, and as several groups filed lawsuits in court to block the programme.

It was a rare - but of late increasingly frequent - moment of bipartisan anger in Washington directed at Trump. The outrage from Democrats was not a surprise, as the party has opposed Trump at nearly every turn in his second term. But among Republicans, who have largely been stalwart supporters of the president regardless of controversy, few rushed to defend him in public.

The uproar also sparked another test for the courts, where numerous legal battles have played out over Trump's expansion of executive power since he returned to power. In a ruling on Friday, a federal judge ordered the justice department to suspend the fund to allow for a lawsuit against it to move forward.

The justice department on Monday said it was temporarily suspending the compensation scheme, citing the court decision. But critics, including some Republicans, demanded the administration go further and make clear it was giving up on the idea altogether. Blanche finally pulled the plug on Tuesday, telling House lawmakers: "We're not moving forward with the fund."

But that likely isn't the end of the saga. Much as the administration may want to move on, the issue won't disappear anytime soon. Blanche also told lawmakers he wasn't "committing to putting anything in writing", a sign some interpreted as leaving the door open to return to the issue in the future. And even before Blanche's announcement, critics on Tuesday vowed to press forward with legal challenges.

"Litigation provides a safeguard to make sure" Trump doesn't revive the idea, said Norm Eisen, the co-founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund, a group representing plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against the administration.

Democrats have also vowed to introduce amendments to the immigration bill that would prevent presidents from using taxpayer dollars to reward political allies. The issue has already become a flashpoint on the left and will surely feature in Democratic campaign ads against Trump this fall ahead of the crucial midterm elections.

On Tuesday evening, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber's top Democrat, said the administration's promise to end the fund was not enough.

"Blanche and Trump's words are worthless," Schumer said in a social media post. "The only way to stop Trump's nearly $2 billion MAGA slush fund and his blank check to commit tax fraud is to abolish it by law - permanently."

He added: "Senate Democrats will force a vote on the floor to end Trump's corrupt scheme for good."