Thune Casts Doubt on Trump Settlement Fund Plan

The top Senate Republican cast doubt on Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s plan to use $1.8 billion from a government fund to compensate people who claim to have been the targets of politically motivated prosecutions, saying that Congress would scrutinize the idea.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority leader, told reporters that he expected the idea would undergo a “full vetting” by appropriators, who control federal spending.

“My assumption is that based on some of the blowback that’s come since this was announced, that there would be a significant amount of attention paid to it,” Thune said.

He told Punchbowl News that he was “not a big fan” of the plan and saw no need for it.

It was not immediately clear how widespread resistance would be to the idea, which some Republicans hailed as an appropriate use of federal resources.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has staked out a position as a fiscal hawk, said he supported the administration’s plan for tapping the Justice Department’s fund.

“A lot of people have been abused by the federal government,” he said, adding that he thought they should have some way to seek recourse.

But in a hearing Tuesday with Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Appropriations Committee, raised several questions about the fund, including its legal basis, how eligibility for compensation would be determined and how amounts would be set.

She noted that the Treasury’s long-established Judgment Fund had “traditionally been used for the payment of specific claims against the government or amounts owed for the settlement of those claims, but not for future claims that have yet to be brought.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company