Axios Hill Leaders

May 20, 2026
😵💫 What a day! Tonight's edition is 921 words, 3.5 minutes.
- 🛞 The wheels fall off
- 😬 Dems' Galindo scramble
🚨 Scoop: Sen. John Fetterman's chief of staff resigned today, a source familiar with the move told Axios' Holly Otterbein. Go deeper.
1 big thing: 🛞 The wheels fall off
Congressional Republicans are countering President Trump's meddling in their primaries with a revenge tour of their own.
Why it matters: Politically, Trump had a successful week, picking winners and settling scores. Legislatively, it's turning into a disaster.
- 💣 He's on the edge of an Iran war rebuke: House Democrats are one step closer to finally getting a successful Iran war powers vote as their last holdout plans to flip and at least one Republican says they may follow suit.
- 💰 His "anti-weaponization" fund is taking heat: Republicans in both chambers put him on notice that the nearly $1.8 billion carveout will be subject to legislative scrutiny.
- 🕺 And the ballroom money is out (for now), but there's still an open question about whether any of the other funding for the Secret Service will survive.
🛑 Zoom in: The anti-weaponization fund is "kryptonite" for Republicans, and they are exploring ways to restrict — or regulate — it, according to one GOP senator.
- Questions about the fund — where the money is coming from and whom it can be paid to — were repeatedly raised during a closed-door Senate GOP lunch today.
- "There's going to be an attempt to address the questions that are out there on it," agrees Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). He adds that the questions and potential amendments would be coming from "our side" rather than from Democrats.
🔪 In the House, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) says he will "try to kill" the fund.
- Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) says he will "likely" sign a discharge petition from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) to force a vote to impose restrictions on the fund.
🤗 Between the lines: House Speaker Mike Johnson brushed aside concerns about party conformity today. He told reporters that lawmakers shouldn't be "trying to carve out their own lane and do something that's destructive."
- "You have to give up your personal preferences sometimes, because you're in a deliberative body," Johnson added.
👎 But Johnson's members are pushing back: "A yes-man mentality, it's not good for the president, it's not good for our party, not good for Congress," retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) tells us.
- "We don't report to any party or any person here in D.C.," says Fitzpatrick, who was the target of barbs from Trump today over failing to be in lock-step.
- Fitzpatrick says he's not worried about Trump finding a primary challenger to run against him.
- "He should make his case and not threaten [Fitzpatrick]," Bacon tells us, about Trump.
⚡️ What's next: Senate GOP leaders are expected this evening to release the text of a roughly $70 billion package to fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next 3 1/2 years.
- "We're focused on a very narrow bill," Rounds says.
- Democrats are preparing amendments aimed at imposing restrictions on the "anti-weaponization" money — what they are calling a "slush fund."
- The vote-a-rama could begin as soon as tomorrow.
— Hans Nichols, Kate Santaliz and Andrew Solender
2. 😬 Dems' Galindo scramble
House Democrats are in a mad dash to isolate Texas Democratic congressional candidate Maureen Galindo, who has said she wants to turn an ICE facility into a "prison for American Zionists."
Why it matters: Galindo finished first in the Democratic primary in Texas' 35th district in March and is now in a runoff with sheriff's deputy Johnny Garcia.
The latest: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said in a joint statement, "If, for some reason, Maureen Galindo wins ... as soon as she is sworn in, we will force a vote to expel her every day she is here."
- "Maureen's insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country," they said.
Driving the news: Galindo's campaign wrote in an Instagram post last weekend that, if elected, she would turn the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center into "a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers."
- It's the latest in a series of inflammatory comments by Galindo, who told us she would introduce legislation to have "all American candidates and elected officials who have ever taken Israeli money tried for treason."
Zoom in: A mysterious PAC is spending hundreds of thousands to boost Galindo, which Democrats allege is a Republican attempt to ensure the GOP candidate in that district faces a weak opponent in November.
- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DCCC chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement last night that "House Republican leadership must immediately cease propping up this antisemitic candidacy."
- Galindo did not respond to multiple requests for comment, with a spokesperson for the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund declining to say if the GOP is behind the PAC spending on her behalf.
What we're hearing: There has been a behind-the-scenes push for Democratic leadership to take a more active role in trying to sink Galindo's candidacy.
- "Many members have brought issues about this race to DelBene," one House Democrat tells Axios, adding that they "get the sense that [the DCCC] is going to spend, invest some resources."
- DelBene and members of the Texas delegation have been asking colleagues to donate to Garcia individually, according to multiple lawmakers familiar with the entreaties.
- A second House Democrat, speaking to us on the condition of anonymity, says it is "unique" for the DCCC to make a "solo ask as opposed to [a] group" ask on behalf of Red to Blue candidates.
— Andrew Solender
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