Trump creates $1.8bn slush fund from taxpayer money, critic says

President Donald Trump is diverting nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds to benefit allies through a legal settlement with the IRS, an agency he oversees, according to a fiery column by Guardian US columnist Moira Donegan. The agreement stems from a $10 billion lawsuit Trump filed in his personal capacity over leaked tax return documents. The Justice Department will create a loosely controlled, secretive fund of roughly $1.8 billion — an amount Donegan calls wildly outsized compared with the alleged injuries — to be dispensed to Trump allies, with administration officials not ruling out January 6 insurrectionists as possible recipients.

The so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund will be administered by four commissioners appointed by Trump’s attorney general and one appointed in consultation with congressional leadership; Trump retains ultimate control because he can fire the commissioners. The fund may issue formal apologies for alleged mistreatment of conservative political actors by previous administrations, including those prosecuted during the Biden era. Any leftover money when Trump leaves office will revert to the federal government, but Donegan doubts any will remain, noting there is no requirement for public reporting and that required reports to the attorney general are confidential. Additionally, the agreement mandates the IRS drop all audits of Trump and his family.

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — a statement Donegan notes is ironic given politically motivated prosecutions by the Justice Department since Trump returned to power. The president sued an agency he controls, represented by lawyers from a department he also controls, leading a federal judge to question whether a genuine conflict existed. She commissioned independent lawyers who filed a brief stating there was “reason to believe that the president is, in fact, exercising his control over the defendants in this litigation.” The settlement was reached just before a May 20 deadline for the parties to explain their actual conflict.

Donegan characterizes the deal as an extraordinary instance of bald self-dealing, even for an administration where blatant corruption has become routine. Trump’s second term, more than his first, has been marked by conflicts of interest and widespread use of public office for personal enrichment. She argues that national interests are being subverted to the president’s and his cronies’ finances, as a group of shameless and greedy individuals bend federal power toward those who pay them off while taking a share for themselves.

Donegan questions why Trump’s corruption has not been the preoccupying media story of his second term. She suggests it may be because it is technical and less lurid compared to his diminishment of democratic norms, mass deportation efforts, ties to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, or alleged sexual assaults — all of which Trump denies. Alternatively, the brazen and unconcealed nature of the self-dealing may have evaded notice, benefiting from a misguided public sense that a cover-up is worse than the crime itself.

She argues that the corruption facilitated by Trump is likely to be one of his most enduring legacies, setting a precedent for future administrations, degrading federal projects and policy, transferring massive wealth to allies, and instilling cynicism among bureaucrats, politicians, and voters who increasingly view the government as a self-interested scam.

“Do Americans care about being scammed so much?” Donegan asks, suspecting they would if the extent of corruption were made clear. She criticizes Democrats for poor messaging and inability to set the public conversation on platforms controlled by Trump’s allies. She urges seizing on the issue for the midterms given its simplicity: Americans are suffering economically and being mocked by a president who holds them in contempt.

“They do not like being stolen from; they do not like being played for fools,” she writes. Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist.