During Donald Trump’s first successful campaign for president, he famously said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody — and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

It proved to be truer than he ever would have imagined. They tolerated him bragging in 2016 about sexually assaulting women. After a campaign where he painted Mexicans broadly as drug dealers and rapists and a tenure in the White House where he separated immigrant children from their families, he improved his margins with Latino voters in 2020.

And when his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, not only did Republicans vote to acquit him, but the Republicans who voted to impeach and convict him lost their primaries.

But Trump laid down the ultimate gauntlet for Republican senators recently when he announced Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president’s former personal attorney, to lead the Department of Justice. It will determine whether Republicans can actually tell him “no.”

Last month, Blanche infuriated Republicans when he announced the creation of an “anti-weaponization fund,” to financially compensate people whom the Trump administration said had been unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told The Independent he was “not a big fan” and added, “I don’t see a purpose for that.” Specifically, Republicans objected to the idea that some of the cash could go to people who stormed the Capitol and who assaulted police officers.

The announcement caused such a fury that when Blanche came to Capitol Hill, Republicans senators relentlessly grilled them during their conference luncheon. They ultimately broke and left Washington early rather than vote on a massive spending package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

When they returned to vote on the package during a rapid-fire series of votes on amendments known as a “vote-a-rama,” one vote dragged out for hours as Republicans tried to find a way to kill it that proved ultimately unsuccessful.

It showed that even retiring Republican senators or ones who lost their primaries can only cross Trump so much. On Tuesday, the House passed the ICE and CBP funding package without any restrictions to the anti-weaponization fund.

While Blanche has said that the fund is “not moving forward”, Trump told Meet the Press this Sunday that he would be “disappointed” if Congress did not allocate money for the fund.

And let’s face It — Blanche is the face of the so-called ‘slush fund’ at this point.

This is a different moment than shortly after Trump won in 2024 and he shocked much of Capitol Hill and named Matt Gaetz, the embattled Republican congressman who had been accused of having sex with a teenage girl, to be his attorney general.

Senate Republicans ultimately killed it before Gaetz received a hearing and Trump ultimately announced Pam Bondi to be his attorney general. Every Republican — along with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — would vote to confirm Bondi.

By contrast, Republicans seem noncommittal on Blanche.

Take Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Collins voted to convict Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, represents an overwhelmingly blue state and is locked in a tight race against baggage-laden oyster farmer Graham Platner, who has been plagued by accusations of mistreatment of ex-partners that he denies and a bevy of inflammatory Reddit posts.

Voting against Blanche should be a slam dunk to show off her independent bona fides. Instead, Collins dithered when Inside Washington asked her about it on Tuesday.

“I don’t make decisions on nominees, unless I know them personally, till after the hearing, so I’ll be watching,” she said. Not even a “deeply concerned” or “troubled.”

What about Sen. John Cornyn of Texas? Trump utterly humiliated him when he endorsed the scandal-ridden Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Cornyn loathed, in the primary, leading to Cornyn’s defeat.

Cornyn should be the newest member of the “YOLO” caucus, a group of Republicans who leave at the end of this year who can vote their conscience instead of acquiesce to Trump. Well, Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said simply “we’re gonna talk about that.”

That leaves Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). The first major Republican to announce his retirement last year, a member of the Judiciary Committee and the unofficial chairman of the YOLO caucus, he’s made defending January 6 or being involved in it a red line. And as a man on his way out, he will have significant sway during the hearings.

Tillis was not present during votes on Tuesday. But as someone who helped torpedo Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary, expect him to make his voice heard during the confirmation hearing.

Still, as Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley told The Independent, the Senate voted to confirm Blanche last year. There is little reason not to confirm him now.

Trump’s decision to nominate Blanche shows that even as his popularity declines and he cannot run again, he wants to remind Republicans who leads the party. If they ultimately buckle and vote to confirm Blanche, it will be the equivalent of getting a taste of lead in New York City.