Trump reportedly mulling retreat from $1.8bn ‘anti-weaponization’ fund | Donald Trump
Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to continue pressing for a $1.8 billion fund to provide compensation to his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday, after the justice department paused the program to comply with a court order.
Trump’s “anti-proliferation” fund has faced legal setbacks since it was announced two weeks ago. The idea has also faced growing political backlash from Republicans concerned about the lack of oversight and the possibility of payments to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Some Republicans are pressuring the White House to abandon the funding.
“I think the best way to handle this is for management to decide to close it down. [the fund] Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters:
Democrats in the US Senate had vowed to force Republicans to vote for what they derided as a $1.8 billion “Maga slush fund” set up as part of a resolution of Donald Trump’s long-running lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
The US president said the secret and loosely controlled fund was a way to pay victims of politicized investigations. Members of his own party are among those voicing concerns.
The terms of the fund do not require disclosure of how much is paid to whom. Administration officials said the creditors may include rebels who were pardoned on Jan. 6.
“Trump’s nearly $2 billion Maga slush fund is his most brazen act of self-interest yet and one of the most corrupt schemes a president has ever launched,” U.S. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to colleagues. “Senate Democrats will not allow this.”
The president sued the federal government over leaked tax returns. The controversial fund was announced last month as part of a settlement in a lawsuit against the IRS, an agency the president controls through appointees. The agency did not defend itself in the case, raising accusations of collusion and corruption. The legal and political response was swift.
On Friday, U.S. district judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia temporarily blocked the administration from transferring money from the fund after Democracy Forward sued to shut it down.
Trump’s first-term vice president, Mike Pence, said Sunday that the possibility of the federal government compensating rioters who attacked police officers and damaged the U.S. Capitol was “deeply offensive.”
“And I think that’s generally accepted by the majority of Republicans and Americans,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
California Governor Gavin Newsom recommended 100% income tax on distribution of the fund to a taxpayer in California. Similar proposals have emerged in Illinois, New York and Connecticut.
Calling the fund “corruption in broad daylight,” Schumer said Democrats would force Senate Republicans to vote on a measure that would block payments from the fund. He said Democrats will demand that the records be preserved and push for a hearing.
“If Republicans return to compromise, we will be ready to make the necessary changes to close the fund,” Schumer wrote. “If they try to cover it up, we’ll force them to go to the Senate. If they try to sneak behind appropriations, we’ll fight them there, too. There will be no escape hatch. No false guardrails or backroom promises to hide behind. There’s no justice department announcement that makes this corruption acceptable.”
