The Memo: Trump battered by sea of self-inflicted troubles

President Trump is beset by troubles as he heads into Memorial Day weekend — and, to the frustration of his party colleagues, several of them are of his own making.

The setting up of a roughly $1.8 billion compensation fund, purportedly to provide restitution for victims of “weaponization” of the justice system, is the latest furor.

Critics call the measure a slush fund, warning it will be used to funnel money solely to Trump supporters, perhaps including people convicted of Jan. 6-related offenses.

They also highlight the fund’s murky genesis as part of a deal to end a legal case Trump took against his own administration, seeking $10 billion over an earlier leak of his tax records.

The proposed fund has sparked outrage even among some in the GOP. 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), called the idea “stupid on stilts” when he spoke with reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

The following day, he complained on social media about “stupid stuff” that was hurting the party’s chances in November’s midterms — including “using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate convicted felons and thugs who attacked police.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), speaking on his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” on Friday, said that a meeting between skeptical GOP senators and Trump’s acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday, largely about the fund, had been “one of the roughest meetings that I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate. There were a lot of Republican senators who were just pissed.”

The compensation fund sits alongside other efforts that give ammunition to Trump detractors who contend he has taken his eye off the issues that matter to the general public. The president’s new White House ballroom and his proposal for a large monument — which critics have nicknamed the “Arc de Trump” — are also part of this narrative.

Veteran GOP pollster Whit Ayres told this column that........

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