Trump Sued His Own Government, Settled With His Own Government, and Created a Slush Fund With Your Money.

Walk through this slowly, because it requires attention to fully appreciate how audacious it is.

Donald Trump, as president of the United States, sued the Internal Revenue Service in his personal capacity. The IRS is part of the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department is part of the executive branch. Trump runs the executive branch.

So the president sued himself.

His own Department of Justice, which he controls, and which is run by Todd Blanche, who was until recently Trump's personal defense attorney, settled the case.

So the president settled with himself.

The settlement paid out $1.776 billion from the Judgment Fund, which is a standing appropriation of taxpayer money used to pay legal claims against the federal government.

So the president paid himself with your money.

And then the $1.776 billion went into a new fund called the Anti-Weaponization Fund, controlled by Todd Blanche, to "redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare."

So the slush fund is run by Trump's former personal lawyer.

What the Lawsuit Was Actually About

Trump's original suit, filed earlier this year in Miami federal court and seeking $10 billion, alleged that the IRS mishandled his tax returns, leading to their improper disclosure to media outlets in 2020.

The leak of Trump's tax returns was a real thing. It happened. ProPublica published details from IRS records on multiple wealthy Americans including Trump. Whether the government bears legal liability for that leak is a legitimate question.

What is not a legitimate question is whether the president should be able to sue his own government in his personal capacity, have his own hand-picked DOJ settle the case at maximum favorable terms, and redirect the payout into a discretionary fund controlled by his own appointee.

Those are three separate conflicts of interest stacked on top of each other.

The Anti-Weaponization Fund

The $1.776 billion does not go to Trump directly. He and his family receive, per the settlement, no monetary payment. They receive a formal apology.

The money goes to the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which will be used to compensate "others who suffered weaponization and lawfare." Todd Blanche will determine who qualifies.

Todd Blanche, to be clear, spent years as Trump's personal criminal defense attorney before being appointed Acting Attorney General. He is now in charge of $1.776 billion in taxpayer money designated to compensate people the administration decides were treated unfairly by the government.

The administration gets to decide who was treated unfairly. The administration controls the money. The administration's former personal lawyer runs the process.

CREW, the nonpartisan ethics watchdog, called it the most brazen act of self-dealing in the history of the American presidency. That is a competitive category. They still gave it the top spot.

The Part That Should Be Louder

The Judgment Fund exists to pay legitimate legal claims against the federal government. It is funded by taxpayers. It has paid out billions over the years for things like wrongful termination suits, contract disputes, and civil rights violations.

It has never, to anyone's knowledge, been used to fund a discretionary political slush fund controlled by the president's former personal attorney following a lawsuit the president filed against his own government.

There is no court that reviewed the fairness of this settlement independently. The DOJ represents the government in litigation. When the president controls the DOJ and is personally a plaintiff in the case, the DOJ is simultaneously representing the defendant and serving the interests of the plaintiff. There is no adversarial process. There is no check.

$1.776 billion left the Judgment Fund. It will be dispensed at Blanche's discretion to people the administration has decided deserve it.

That is a slush fund. Built with your money. In plain sight.

Stay Frustrated.