President Trump on Friday tried to defend his administration's creation of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund expected to benefit his allies, including those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Critics call the Justice Department plan a Trump-directed slush fund using taxpayer money and say it is a blatant case of self-dealing.
The settlement calls for Trump and two of his sons to receive an apology from the government but no monetary payments — but it also bars the Internal Revenue Service from pursuing audits of Trump and his business. Those probes, which the president has criticized as politically motivated, reportedly could have resulted in a $100 million penalty if the IRS found wrongdoing.
Trump on Friday insisted that he was being charitable in accepting the settlement and dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns and other claims against the government.
“I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward,” the president wrote on his social media site. “I could have settled my case, including the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal BREAK IN of Mar-a-Lago, for an absolute fortune. Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE!”
Earlier this week, Trump had claimed that he was not involved in the settlement. “I know very little about it. I wasn't involved in the whole creation of it and the negotiation," he said Monday.
His claim that he stood to reap a fortune from the IRS doesn’t line up with reports that the lawsuit may have been on the verge of being thrown out by the judge overseeing the case. The Justice Department’s settlement also came despite IRS officials’ reported assessment that the government should move to dismiss the suit and had a good chance of winning it.
Trump’s defense isn’t likely to carry much weight on Capitol Hill, where the “anti-weaponization fund” has been met with staunch resistance, even among some Republicans, who are pushing back on presidential priorities they fear could cost them with voters.
“The more Trump bullies and badgers the Congress, the more they are left questioning what they have to gain, or lose, from trying to appease him, especially for those already heading for the exits,” write Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti of the Associated Press.
Wild June awaits: Congressional lawmakers left the Capitol on Thursday for their Memorial Day recess after punting on some tough votes, including one in the Senate on a Republican plan to fund immigration enforcement and another on a House resolution curbing President Trump’s ability to continue the war against Iran. That means June is now shaping up to be a wild and busy month for Congress — and it could be a risky one for Republicans as they are forced to grapple with a number of Trump’s politically treacherous priorities.
As we told you yesterday, Senate Republican leaders were forced to put off a planned vote on a $70-plus billion immigration-enforcement funding package amid intraparty opposition to the "anti-weaponization" fund.
Some Republicans had already pushed back on a plan to provide $1 billion for the Secret Service, including $220 million for President Trump's new ballroom project, as part of their immigration funding bill. And GOP senators were also perturbed by Trump’s political payback against two of their own: Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was defeated in a primary contest last week, and Sen. John Cornyn, who Trump snubbed by endorsing a Republican challenger, Ken Paxton. Those move and others in which Trump sought to flex his control over the GOP and exact revenge against those lawmakers who he deemed insufficiently loyal led many analysts to suggest that the president was undermining Republican chances in November.
With their frustration building, GOP senators reportedly grilled acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the $1.8 billion compensation fund during a lengthy meeting on Thursday. Several made their opposition to the idea very public. “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops?” Sen. Mitch McConnell said in a statement, referring to the rioters who attacked the Capitol in 2021. “Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick.”
On the House side, Republican leaders faced the prospect yesterday that a vote on a war powers resolution would result in a defeat for the president. So they postponed the vote until after the holiday break, when Speaker Mike Johnson can better ensure that Trump won’t face an embarrassing rebuke.
“Let’s be clear: Republicans pulled this vote because they knew they were going to lose it,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “They know that as Americans head into Memorial Day weekend paying over $4.50 a gallon at the pump, they cannot go home and explain they voted to keep this war going. So instead of casting that vote, they ran from it.”