Even by Donald Trump's standards, the creation of a $1.8 billion slush fund that will reward people who committed crimes on his behalf is brazen.
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There are a couple of different ways to look at Donald Trump and the Department of Justice (DOJ) conspiring to create a $1.8 billion, taxpayer-funded slush fund with which to reward loyal supporters who got caught participating in the president’s coup attempt.
Viewed through the lens of someone who wants to win the midterms at the ballot box, it’s a terrible move. Trump’s pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists, especially those convicted of violent offenses, were highly unpopular. Now imagine how people who are struggling to pay their own bills will feel when some MAGA goon who beat up a cop walks away with $1 million of taxpayers’ money because the justice system was allegedly “weaponized” against them.
Not great, that’s how… and Democrats know it.
“This is sickening. While Americans are struggling with higher costs, Donald Trump is finding a way to funnel taxpayer dollars to insurrectionists and violent criminals,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “This fund should not exist, and not a single cent should go to Donald Trump’s family, his donors, or anyone who rioted, destroyed property, or ransacked the Capitol.”
If, on the other hand, the president wants to encourage others to commit even more crimes on his behalf, then it makes a lot more sense.
Because, while Trump does not have a great record of creating traditional jobs, he is really good at getting people to break the law for him… even without the prospect of “earning” a windfall.
Objectively, everything about this “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is odious, beginning with the frivolous $10 billion lawsuit the president filed in January against his own administration.
It also stinks to high heaven that this deal between Trump and Trump was reached before a judge could rule on whether any of it was even legal.
And while this shady agreement may have put the “con” in unconstitutional, it is certainly consistent with the president’s unmatched corruption (although this is pretty brazen even by his standards).
However, it reflects a new low for DOJ, which is really saying something in light of what has transpired over the past 16 months.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, aka the president’s former lawyer, who once said he would love Trump even if he fired him.
Of course, as long as he keeps talking like that and doing his boss’s bidding, there is little chance of that happening.
As for the weaponization of the machinery of government, former FBI Director James Comey would like a word, as would Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, and many others.
In its press release, DOJ embarrassed itself even further by talking about the “unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax.”
Even that statement could be viewed as a signal to the president’s supporters that those who commit crimes for him will get a pass. After all, what open-minded person has any faith at this point that DOJ is a fair arbiter of justice?
If it were, it would immediately start an investigation into itself and how this slush fund came into existence.
