House Republicans feel furious — but also vindicated — after a last-minute dispute between President Trump and Senate Republicans left ICE funding in limbo.

✍️ Why it matters: The failed Senate push is hardening House conservatives' distrust of their colleagues across the Capitol.

• "The Senate is pissing me off," Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told us. "This is going on, what? Almost 100 days now."
• "Now they're playing games, talking about items that have nothing to do with that package," Donalds added.

🛑 Zoom in: House conservatives fiercely resisted the GOP's "two-track" strategy earlier this year that Senate Republicans boxed them into.

• Conservatives wanted to wait on funding the rest of the Department of Homeland Security until the reconciliation process was complete, arguing they could no longer trust the Senate to get it done.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed the DHS measure for weeks amid the standoff.
• But he eventually moved ahead anyway — after assurances Senate Republicans would quickly deliver the border enforcement package.

💣 Those assurances blew up last week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune sent lawmakers home without a vote after senators objected to Trump's newly unveiled $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization fund."

• They'll likely miss Trump's June 1 deadline to pass ICE funding.

📣 What they're saying: "We didn't like it, and we didn't trust it, and we were very vocal about that," Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) told us of the two-track strategy.

• "We made a conscious decision to allow that move to go forward, but unfortunately, our concerns are being proven to be true," Higgins added.
• "I think everybody regrets that we ever let it get separated to begin with, because that's a concern, and it's a bad precedent, but nevertheless, we are where we are," Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.) told us.
• "I am angry that the Senate put us in that situation," Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) told us. "I think that the Senate failed us."

🤼 The bottom line: This anger won't be going anywhere. There's currently no clear path out of the Senate-versus-Trump deadlock.

— Kate Santaliz

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is employing an unusual tactic to blunt what it says is Republican meddling in its primaries:

• It has teamed up with the candidates it sees as the "strongest" in key battleground districts, launching joint ad buys to squeeze out its Democratic primary opponents.

Why it matters: This practice has infuriated parts of the party, particularly the progressive wing.

• "If DCCC were a good judge of electability, then we wouldn't be in the mess we're in," said Ravi Mangla, a spokesperson for the progressive Working Families Party, in a statement to Axios.
• DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton said in a statement that "the stakes are incredibly high for the midterms," and it is "critical that Democrats have the strongest candidates possible in November to take back the House."

Driving the news: The DCCC roiled certain corners of the party this month by endorsing a slate of "Red to Blue" candidates in key battleground House districts that still had credible primary opponents:

• Jasmeet Bains, a California state Assembly member who is fighting with progressive political science professor Randy Villegas — who has led in fundraising and is neck-and-neck with Bains in polls — to take on Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.).
• Bob Brooks, the president of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association, who dispatched three relatively well-funded opponents in his primary and will face off with Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.).
• Marlene Galán-Woods, a former TV news anchor in an Arizona primary field of five other candidates, including former state Rep. Amish Shah, who defeated Galán-Woods in the 2024 primary for the same seat.
• Joe Baldacci, a Maine state senator whose primary opponents for retiring Rep. Jared Golden's (D-Maine) seat include state Auditor Matthew Dunlap and former House staffer Jordan Wood.
• Johnny Garcia, a Texas sheriff's deputy in a runoff with therapist Maureen Galindo, who finished first in the March primary but has been widely disavowed by Democrats for antisemitic comments.

Zoom in: The DCCC has now spent money in three of these primaries, launching joint ad buys with Bains, Brooks and Garcia, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Between the lines: What these races have in common is that Democrats are accusing Republicans of meddling in each one.

• An obscure new group called Lead Left PAC spent over $1.2 million on ads attacking Brooks and supporting one of his opponents, Lamont McClure, and has put another $900,000 into ads supporting Galindo.
• The PAC's website says it "stands against MAGA extremists who will infect our country with Donald Trump's agenda" but reportedly had a link to GOP fundraising platform WinRed in its metadata.

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— Andrew Solender