admin.

The revenge tour wants a taxpayer slush fund.
Those who joined his campaign insurrection mob
want compensation.
Excerpts from the paper of record -

The Trump administration is considering the establishment of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies investigated by the Justice Department under President Biden, creating an ethical, legal and political minefield for Republicans and the department’s leadership.

The unusual plan, which Democrats and former government officials criticized as a vast political slush fund financed by taxpayers, has yet to be finalized or approved, according to three people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The proposal comes in response to various claims President Trump has made against a federal government he himself controls. He has sought compensation for the leak of his tax returns during his first term, as well as the investigations into his handling of classified documents after he left office and into his 2016 campaign’s potential ties to Russia.

The idea of establishing a government fund to pay Mr. Trump’s political allies has gained traction internally as the Justice Department and White House try to resolve a $10 billion lawsuit Mr. Trump filed in January against the Internal Revenue Service. The judge overseeing that case is considering throwing out Mr. Trump’s suit because it is ridden with perceived conflicts of interest and the potential for self-dealing.
It was not immediately clear where the fund would draw money from.

A compensation fund for Trump allies but not for the president himself would offer a short-term fix, allowing the president to receive a deliverable benefit from the lawsuit before the judge could dismiss it, according to officials briefed on its details.

The fund would also address Mr. Trump’s separate pair of administrative claims against the Justice Department for its previous investigations into him. Mr. Trump has asked for $230 million for those claims.

ABC News reported the fund proposal on Thursday.

People in Mr. Trump’s orbit have for months discussed a compensation fund for his allies who incurred significant legal fees during the various investigations that ensnared Mr. Trump and his aides. It could extend to the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The move, aimed in part at compensating those Trump supporters who ransacked the Capitol, would represent the culmination of the government’s comprehensive effort to rewrite history. The proposal would, in many respects, act as a bookend to Mr. Trump’s issuance of clemency to those convicted of crimes during the Capitol riot — felons now valorized by his appointees as heroic and as “survivors” who have been victimized.


Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/us/politics/trump-allies-weaponization-fund.html