A Republican senator just put two of Trump's most controversial ambassador picks on notice, and he has the power to torpedo both nominations before they even reachA Republican senator just put two of Trump's most controversial ambassador picks on notice, and he has the power to torpedo both nominations before they even reach
2 controversial Trump nominees get warning shot from GOP senator: 'Radar is up'
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A Republican senator just put two of Trump's most controversial ambassador picks on notice, and he has the power to torpedo both nominations before they even reach the Senate floor.
Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), who recently floated quitting Congress to run for governor, told Punchbowl News on Tuesday that his "radar is up" on Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano's nominations for ambassador to Jamaica and Slovakia, respectively, citing their election-denying backgrounds.
Curtis sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which processes ambassador nominations. A single GOP no vote is enough to deadlock the committee and sink a nomination.
“I have some first impressions, and I don’t mind telling you they’re not the best,” Curtis said. “But I’m open to what the role is, what the country needs, what they tell me about how they feel about positions they’ve had before that might be problematic.”
Lake's nomination to Jamaica follows a string of controversies. She denied the 2020 presidential election results, refused to concede her own 2022 loss to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, and lost a 2024 Senate race despite Trump carrying her state. Her tenure overseeing Voice of America was marked by mass layoffs that a federal court later ruled unlawful.
Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator, was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He lost his 2022 gubernatorial bid to now-Gov. Josh Shapiro by nearly 15 points.
Even if both nominees clear Foreign Relations, more trouble awaits. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has already told the Washington Examiner he'll likely vote no on both — citing Mastriano's Jan. 6 views and Lake's "history."
Four Republican "no" votes on the Senate floor would end either nomination.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) engaged in a heated confrontation with Attorney General Todd Blanche Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations hearing over the Department of Justice, or DOJ's, anti-weaponization fund and whether a pardoned child molester could receive compensation.
Van Hollen pressed Blanche about a Trump pardon recipient who allegedly molested two children after receiving clemency and promised the victims money he expected from the DOJ fund. When demanding that Blanche commit to excluding the individual from payouts, Van Hollen was met with a combative response.
Blanche accused Van Hollen of "obviously lying" and used air quotes around "slush fund," prompting Van Hollen's sharp rebuke.
Blanche argued the fund didn't exist when the individual made those statements. But Van Hollen rebutted, arguing the fund was designed to help President Donald Trump's friends and advised Blanche against lying to Congress.
The controversy reflects Democratic concerns about the $1.776 billion fund Trump announced yesterday.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) got all he could manage from tabloid-turned-Washington watchdog TMZ as one of its reporters pressed him for answers.
"I'm a little bit concerned that January 6 rioters, violent January 6 rioters who were convicted then pardoned, I'm a little bit worried that they're going to be entitled to taxpayer money," TMZ reporter Charlie Cotton said to Cruz, referring to Trump's $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization fund" that's expected to enrich his allies.
"Do you think they should be eligible for this sort of slush fund?" Cotton asked Cruz.
"I'm not surprised you're worried about that, but were you worried at all when Joe Biden was weaponizing the Department of Justice?" Cruz responded, deflecting the question.
"I don't want to talk about Joe Biden," Cotton shot back.
"I know you don't," Cruz said, now upset. "I understand you got a political agenda."
"I just don't want to pay January 6 rioters," Cotton said.
Cruz insisted he was just trying to answer Cotton's question, but then he went back to make his point about Biden.
"Do you think January 6 rioters should be eligible for this money?" Cotton repeated. "Yes or no?"
Cruz went right back to talking about Biden, and when Cotton again said, "I'm not talking about Biden," the senator looked frustrated and defended January 6 rioters as "peaceful protesters" who were "deliberately targeted" by Biden's Department of Justice.
When Cotton asked the question one more time, Cruz quietly entered an elevator and watched the doors close on the reporter.
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A foreign minister accused of a slew of crimes, including stealing from a fund for crime victims, was able to flee his country with the help of a Trump official, according to a new report.
Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro faces more than two dozen charges in his country related to alleged misuse of funds for political gain, according to reporting by Reuters. He was a member of Poland's right-wing nationalist Law and Justice Party.
Ziobro originally fled his country in 2025 to live in Hungary, where the Trump-endorsed authoritarian former Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave him asylum. Soon after Orban lost his election in April to a pro-EU rival, Ziobro came to the U.S. in May, per reporting by Reuters.
According to three sources who spoke to Reuters, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau "instructed senior State Department officials to facilitate and approve a visa for a fugitive former Polish cabinet minister."
The new Hungarian prime minister, Peter Magyar, "had said that he would extradite him to Poland on his first day in office," according to Reuters. Landau was able to secure a visa for Ziobro just ahead of Magyar's swearing-in on May 9, Reuters added.
"While the Trump administration has made it a priority to support conservative views in Europe, granting a visa to a politician facing criminal charges by a U.S.-allied government is highly unusual," according to Reuters. "
Reuters described Ziobro as "the architect of changes to the Polish judicial system that the EU has said undermined the rule of law during the 2015-2023 rule of the conservative Law and Justice party."
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters on Tuesday that "we will certainly be very consistent, and no one can expect us to give up" on trying to bring Ziobro into Polish court, according to Reuters.
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