Trump says he’s not sure if ‘anti-weaponization’ fund is really dead: ‘I’d have to ask the lawyers’

Donald TrumpTrump says he’s not sure if ‘anti-weaponization’ fund is really dead: ‘I’d have to ask the lawyers’Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the Justice Department was “not moving forward” with the $1.8 billion fund.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00President Donald Trump didn't permanently shut the door on the fund, which has drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats.Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 3, 2026, 9:31 PM EDTBy Kyla Guilfoil and Raquel Coronell UribePresident Donald Trump injected fresh uncertainty over the status and future of the “anti-weaponization” fund Wednesday, a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department would no longer pursue the $1.8 billion fund, which has sparked bipartisan blowback.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Asked in the Oval Office whether the fund was dead or just on hold, Trump responded: “I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don’t know.”“The weaponization fund, as far as I’m concerned, was a beautiful thing,” he told reporters. “I love it. I think it’s so important.”The Trump administration signaled Monday that it was going to back off creating the fund after a federal judge temporarily blocked it. The Justice Department said in a statement Monday that while it “disagrees strongly with the decision,” it will “abide by the Court’s ruling.”Pressed about the matter Tuesday, Blanche said at a congressional hearing that the Justice Department was “not moving forward with the fund, period.” He declined to put the commitment in writing.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington on Tuesday.Daniel Heuer / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAfter Trump’s comments Wednesday, his first public remarks about the fund since the Justice Department’s court filing, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on X: “This is EX...