Slush fund is dead, immunity isn’t
The Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund — designed to funnel taxpayer money to Jan. 6 insurrectionists and Trump allies, with no legal basis and no congressional authorization — is dead. Acting Attorney General Blanche retracted it Tuesday under fierce public pressure.
But the deal had two parts. Buried in a separate addendum, posted quietly the day after the original announcement, was a provision permanently shielding President Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization from IRS audit and enforcement on all previously filed tax returns. That part stands.
This is not a compromise. It’s a con. The administration bet that the public would fixate on the $1.8 billion and not notice what was kept. So far, that bet is paying off.
A president already convicted of felonies has now been permanently protected from the one federal agency capable of examining his financial conduct. As Rep. Rosa DeLauro put it on Tuesday: “You just gave the President and his family tax immunity to the tune of about $100 million.”
Our representatives in Congress should:
- Publicly demand the IRS immunity provision be rescinded — not just the fund
- Support legislation barring a president from using the DOJ to settle his own personal tax litigation
- Demand a full accounting of how Acting AG Blanche came to personally sign off on this addendum
- Make clear that withdrawing the fund while keeping the immunity is not a compromise — it’s a con.