Today's Poll Question: Is The GOP Revolt Against Trump's Slush Fund A One-Off or A Turning Point? artwork

Today's Poll Question: Is The GOP Revolt Against Trump's Slush Fund A One-Off or A Turning Point?

The Smerconish Podcast

June 3, 2026

Today's Poll Question at Smerconish.com: Is the Republican fight against Trump's $1.8 billion fund a one-off or a turning point? Michael examines the collapse of a proposed $1.
Speakers: Michael Smerconish, Brian Fitzpatrick
**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:05)
But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:08)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
For Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. It's hump day. You remember that from Morning Zoo Radio? So today is Wednesday. It's the third of June. Wow. June is here.
I am going to do something in real time. So I'm going to smerconish.com right now. Let the record reflect. It is 6 a.m. in the morning. Is the Republican fight against Trump's $1.8 billion fund a one-off or a turning point? A one-off or a turning point? That's the poll question today at smerconish.com. But the reason that I'm doing this with a little bit of flourish in real time is I'm going to cast my ballot for a one-off and then I'm going to click the vote button. But what I haven't done it yet, I haven't done it yet, because what I really want to see is how many people voted on yesterday's poll question. Because there was a significant amount of blowback of people who said, I'm not voting for either of them.
Because yesterday's poll question was essentially if you had to be in a foxhole with Trump or Netanyahu and you must pick one, who would it be? Who would it be? And the Mendoza line, I think is 25,000. Did we break 25,000 votes yesterday? The day before, just by frame of reference, was a tick under 30,000.
So I'm going to say we didn't. I last checked when I signed off air yesterday. So I really don't know. I just know we've lagged significantly behind where we normally end up. If we normally end up just at about 30,000, did we break 25,000 yesterday? I'm going to say no. And now I'm going to click on the vote button for today and shazam. Well, it shows me how many people have voted so far today. Now I go to past results and I'm right. Oh my God, 22,550.
And who won? Who won in the Donnybrook between Trump and Netanyahu? Trump, 56.95% said, if you had to stand with one, and neither is not an option. 56.95% said Trump, 43.05% said Netanyahu.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:47)
The Smerconish Podcast.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:48)
From SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (2:50)
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**SPEAKER_1** (4:24)
The Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com A non-scientific social political question designed to spark broader discussions about current issues.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:32)
Get ready to cast your ballot and leave a rating and review of this podcast on your favorite podcast app.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:38)
Today's Poll Question at smerconish.com The demise of the 1.776 billion, or we round off and say 1.8 billion dollar payoff fund, the anti-weaponization fund. I'm asking, is the Republican fight against that payout a one-off or a turning point? Does this represent some new level of challenge to President Trump from his own party? Let me walk through a couple of points about this. The first is, he has a legitimate grievance. He, President Trump, this was not the way to resolve it. Did you hear me say that? But in 2019, an IRS contractor stole his confidential tax return and leaked it to the media. The guy ended up being sentenced, I forget what happened to him, his name was Little John, and he ended up being sentenced to five years in the pokey. So, there was a genuine violation here, a federal employee breaching the confidentiality of the tax system, targeting the sitting president. Whatever you think of Trump, the leak was wrong. It was illegal. He had a grievance. The problem, there's always a problem, even when he's treated unfairly, there's always an issue with his response. And in this case, he had four years under Biden to sue the IRS. He didn't do it. He waited. He filed suit after voters returned him to the White House. And that timing matters. There's also a good comparison here because Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against his own government. And then, you know, his appointed acting attorney general was the guy who was going to have to deal with him. And that guy happens to be his former lawyer.

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