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Perps, Not Victims: The Big Lie At The Heart Of Trump's Slush Fund

The Orwellian 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' Trump has created — the legal equivalent of twirling the combination lock on Fort Knox and driving off with gold bars — purports to be righting a wrong. The bogus (and badly written) "settlement agreement," which is laughable as there was no true lawsuit, claims to be compensating those who were victims of the "sustained use of the levers of government power by Democrat elected officials." It goes on like that, accusing Democrats of "lawfare" and "weaponization."

Even more than usual with Trump, this foul fund represents a total inversion of reality. It's as if he's trying to create a handy shorthand for projection. Trump, after more than a year of subjecting his critics and opponents to wrongful prosecution, firing and other harassment, now insists that he and his allies have been the victims of lawfare and weaponization. It's upside down.

When asked whether convicted rioters from January 6 should be eligible for taxpayer dollars, Trump responded with his familiar drivel about how "horribly they've been treated," about how their lives had been destroyed, about their legal bills, and closed with, "And they were right!"

No, they were fed a damnable lie and acted upon it. Millions of other Americans were credulous enough to believe the lie, too, but they didn't fly to D.C. to erect gallows and hunt for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. That required a certain criminal disposition. Dozens of the insurrectionists had prior records of criminal violence, and scores have been rearrested since receiving Trump's January 2025 pardon. One "patriot," Andrew Paul Johnson, was arrested in October 2025 for sexually abusing two children (one was 11). Confident in the character of the president for whom he climbed through a broken window on Jan. 6, Johnson somehow came to believe he was owed $10 million as part of his pardon, and used that anticipated windfall to try to buy the silence of one of his victims.

In no way were the January 6 rioters victims of "lawfare" or politicized prosecution. They assaulted Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers, causing five deaths and at least 150 injuries, including concussions, traumatic brain injuries, cracked ribs, heart attacks, spinal damage, loss of an eye, stab wounds, taser burns, and other severe trauma.

For Trump, it wasn't enough that even the most violent received unconditional pardons. No, now he proposes to enrich them with taxpayer funds. Those deserving of punishment get rewarded. The victimizer becomes the victim. The criminal becomes the patriot.

Letitia James, New York's attorney general, was indicted on mortgage fraud charges just a couple weeks after Trump publicly called for her to be charged with something. (She had successfully sued him for civil fraud.) It should go without saying that presidents are never supposed to demand that individuals be charged with crimes, far less those against whom the president has a personal vendetta.

Needless to say, the evidence was extremely thin, but neither a judge nor jury got the opportunity to rule on that. After U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert apparently signaled that he wouldn't pervert justice by bringing the politically motivated sure loser of a case, Trump replaced him with the inexperienced, hapless Lindsey Halligan — but did so illegally. Case dismissed. Undaunted, the Justice Department then attempted two more times to bring charges against James but was thwarted by grand juries who refused to indict.

Halligan, during her illegal tenure as a federal prosecutor, also indicted former FBI Director James Comey on the dubious charge of lying to Congress. When that case too was thrown out due to Halligan's illegitimate appointment, the Justice Department returned to the well and indicted him for threatening the life of the president — by posting a photo of seashells. If eye-rolling were a crime, every judge in America would be guilty.

Jerome Powell, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, was subjected to a criminal investigation due to ... cost overruns during a building renovation. Any high schooler could tell you that the true reason for the investigation — and the accompanying stress, expense and distraction — was Powell's refusal to set interest rates to serve Trump's short-term political agenda. (See also Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was fired when her agency reported accurate jobs numbers that displeased the president.)

Speaking of the Federal Reserve, let's not forget that Trump attempted to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, again on charges of mortgage fraud (the projection is almost too obvious to point out — almost). She fought back, and her case is before the Supreme Court. A decision is expected by June.

Sometimes the lawfare goes the other way. Trump directed that all charges be dropped against former New York Mayor Eric Adams, though the prosecution had him dead to rights. One of the top prosecutors in the case resigned, alleging a direct quid pro quo between the decision to drop charges and Adams' newfound willingness to use city resources to support Trump's political agenda.

Trump has also used the withdrawal of security clearances as a form of weaponization of government. Leading law firms need those clearances to represent clients, as do any number of former government officials. Among those who were targeted: the firms of Covington and Burling, Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, and Wilmer Hale. Among the individuals whose credentials were pulled were Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Mark Milley, James Clapper, and Sam Vinograd, among many others.

Trump has attempted to use the Federal Communications Commission to silence critics. It's Weaponization 101. When Jimmy Kimmel made a tasteless joke about Charlie Kirk's death, the FCC strong-armed ABC into firing him. Only a public backlash persuaded Disney (ABC's owner) to reverse course.

Kimmel came out fine, arguably stronger, from that brush with authoritarian government. Larry Bushart had a much tougher time. A 61-year-old former Tennessee law enforcement officer, Bushart posted a couple of Kirk-related items to social media, including reposting a quote from Trump after a school shooting, "We have to get over this." Bushart was arrested and held in jail for 37 days. Dozens of people were fired and several were prosecuted for saying the wrong things in the wake of Kirk's murder. The perpetrators of this lawfare were not Trump officials, but they were MAGA-adjacent and egged on by Vice President JD Vance.

The list of Trump critics or adversaries who've been investigated, indicted or fired in the past 18 months is staggering.

Who can forget "sandwich guy," who was charged with a felony for tossing a Subway sandwich at a National Guard member? Or the FBI officers fired for having participated in the search of Mar-a-Lago and other Trump cases? Or the widow of Renee Good, who was investigated after Good was shot and killed by ICE? Or Cassidy Hutchinson, the star witness in Trump's second impeachment, under investigation as of April 2026 by the Justice Department's Civil Rights division? There are hundreds more.

That is what lawfare and weaponization look like. Trump's fund is not just blazingly corrupt and unjust, it is also a massive exercise in gaslighting. Trump and his followers are not victims, they are perpetrators.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators

Discerning The Grim Reality Behind Trump's Fog Of Wartime Lies

For anyone who believed Donald Trump's promise to be a "peace" president, his regime becomes more confusing every day.

Having started a war with Iran for no intelligible reason, Trump now alternates between threatening to bomb them back to the Stone Age and overseeing a ceasefire in which the firing hasn't actually ceased. Yesterday, US forces launched what the Pentagon called “self-defense strikes” after Iran fired missiles and drones against the destroyers USS Truxton, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason, as well as attacking with small boats.

Trump insists the ceasefire is still in place and that negotiations toward a peaceful resolution continue. Meanwhile to avoid the Constitutional requirement for Congressional authorization, he has called the war an "excursion," a "military operation," a "conflict," and most recently a "skirmish."

But having issued repeated orders to strike boats allegedly carrying narcotics in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which most of the world regards as a violation of international law, Trump and his Pentagon stooge Pete Hegseth claim that we're "at war" with the supposed narco traffickers on those vessels. According to their twisted logic, those accused smugglers are combatants, and thus not entitled to arrest and trial instead of summary execution.

In the real world -- which bears little resemblance to the Trump fantasy universe -- we have been at war with Iran for months and while the outcome remains to be seen, this misadventure isn't going well by any sane measure despite Trump's constant grandiose prevarications.

He constantly insists that Iran was on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons before the US started this war, a claim he reiterated this week when he slandered Pope Leo. The mullahs were "two weeks away" from possessing atomic bombs, he wrote on Truth Social, to be deployed immediately against Israel, every other country in the Mideast, Europe and the United States. They were about to blow up the world! Only the most braindead MAGA imbeciles believe such fables. The International Atomic Energy Agency and every other credible authority -- including the US intelligence community's own assessment last year -- have determined that Iran is nowhere near to building even a single bomb, nor has its leadership undertaken any decision to do so.

Both he and Hegseth boast that their current military campaign has "completely destroyed" Iran's military, including its navy, air force, missile and drone production facilities. Yet somehow Iran continues to control the Strait of Hormuz and to hit targets at will, including US navy vessels and the territory of US allies in the Gulf.

Trump has said many times in recent weeks that negotiations to conclude the "skirmish" are on the verge of success, although what success would mean is far from clear. He blusters on and on, assuring Americans that the Iranians are desperate to make a deal while he "holds all the cards."

Yesterday the Washington Post revealed that the CIA does not agree with that optimistic assessment. In a secret report to the White House, the agency found that Iran can endure the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for several months before encountering any serious economic trouble. As one US official told the Post, the Iranian leadership -- the same leadership that Trump says no longer exists -- has become "increasingly confident" that they can outlast the Trump administration in a contest of wills.

There is a reason that almost every word out of Trump's mouth is a lie. Neither he nor we can tolerate the reality of the world deformed by his incompetence and narcissism.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism (St. Martin's Press, 2024). The paperback version, with a new Afterword, is now available wherever books are sold.

Are There Frauds Worse Than That Minnesota Case? Let's Look Again At Donald Trump

The Trump administration has decided to make fraud in government programs in Minnesota into a national crisis requiring massive intervention by ICE and Border Patrol (don’t ask) because it was done in part by Black immigrants from Somalia. While Trump and his Republican minions have been hyperventilating over this fraud, it is worth using a little arithmetic to try to put in perspective.

Of course, arithmetic is not popular in elite circles. Even many liberals have yelled that we have to be very concerned about the Minnesota fraud, apparently because some of it was done by Black people and the Republicans are yelling about it. But I’ll confess to being an old-fashioned type who doesn’t think fraud by Black people is any worse than fraud by white people, even if Republicans yell about it. So, let’s do the numbers.

As best we can tell the amount of fraud in Minnesota in the federal pandemic-related programs the Trump gang is yelling about came to $250 million. (The ringleader was actually white.) There undoubtedly is additional fraud that will be found, but this is what we know about to date.

Trump has touted a figure of $20 billion, but there is no obvious basis in reality for this number. Remember, Trump has repeated boasted about $18 trillion in foreign investment coming into the country, that he won the 2020 election by millions of votes and that he will bring drug prices down by 1500 percent. Trump’s numbers often have nothing to do with the real world.

Let’s just ignore the Trump craziness and go with the $250 million figure of known fraud. By comparison, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration, Hannibal Ware, estimated fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program initiated in Trump’s first term was $200 billion. That would be equal to 800 Minnesota frauds.

In case you’re wondering how this fraud was dealt with, Trump didn’t send in ICE. Instead, Trump fired Mr. Ware, who is Black. He promoted the director of the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon, to be education secretary in his current term.

There are other cases of much larger fraud that don’t seem to draw as much attention, much less the involvement of ICE, as the Minnesota fraud. For example, the Medicare Payments Advisory Commission estimates that Medicare loses about $40 billion a year to private insurers in the Medicare Advantage program because insurers exaggerate the severity of their patients’ healthcare conditions. This would be equal to 160 Minnesota frauds, also apparently without bringing the involvement of ICE.

We can also look to Donald Trump’s whack-job lawsuits. He has discovered that he can bring any lawsuit he wants against the government, for any amount, and then tell his lackeys to settle. He brought a $230 million case against the Justice Department because it prosecuted him for trying to overthrow the government and stealing classified government. He is apparently directing Attorney General Bondi to hand him the cash. This payment would be a bit more than 0.9 Minnesota frauds.

He is also suing the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion because it allowed his tax returns for two years to leak. (Prior presidents have made their tax returns public, which Trump promised to do as well.) While it’s not clear what damages Trump could claim (a suit by another leak victim was settled with an apology), he apparently is ordering the IRS to also hand over the cash. While this settlement will have to be reviewed by a judge, it would be equal to 40 Minnesota frauds. (The Justice Department case is an administrative proceeding and requires no judicial review.)

One other item to throw into the mix, just so people can know where the money goes, is Trump’s plan to increase annual military spending by $500 billion. This would add more than $5 trillion to the debt over a decade, for those keeping score on such things. It seems the rationale is that we need more money to protect ourselves from the new enemies Trump has made. Anyhow, this increase in the military budget of 50 percent would be equal to 2000 Minnesota frauds.

To be clear, we absolutely should take seriously fraud in public social welfare programs, like what happened in Minnesota. This money is effectively being stolen from people who badly need it. Most of these programs are underfunded and the money going to fraudsters comes out of the pockets of the people standing in line who don’t get support they need.

However, we also need to keep the amount of fraud in context. Most of our tax dollars are not going to fraudsters from Somalia. In fact, if there had never been a penny of fraudulent payments to people from Somalia, it would not even be a rounding error in our budget data.

We know that Republicans, and especially Trump, exploit racism at every opportunity. Arithmetic may not be an adequate weapon to combat racism, but it can be a useful one. And decent people should use it.

Dean Baker is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of the 2016 book Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.

Reprinted with permission from Dean Baker.

Gaslight: Was This Trump's Most Unhinged State Of The Union Ever?

President Donald Trump delivered an unhinged, lie-filled, racist, and disturbingly dark State of the Union address Tuesday where he gaslit Americans about his accomplishments yet ultimately did nothing to change his abysmal standing in approval polls.

In fact, he spent just a few minutes talking about the economy—the most important issue to voters as midterm elections approach—and instead spent the rest of the never-ending speech talking about murders and blood and other depressing things that likely had average viewers wondering what on earth he was blathering about.

Worse for Trump and Republicans is that when he did talk about the economy, he only boasted about how great it’s doing, saying it is “roaring like never before.” Yet he did not offer any plans for how he would bring costs down and help Americans afford their rising cost of living, which is what Americans want to hear.

For example, he boasted that "100 percent of the jobs created under my administration have been in the private sector." Yeah, all 181,000 of them—the lowest annual job creation number in decades?

He crowed that the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 50,000 under his tenure, even though the market is now 800 points below that. And the stock market in the United States is actually faring worse than other countries’ markets.

Americans don’t believe Trump’s economy is great, no matter how many times he declares it to be true. In fact, CBS News released a poll before the speech that found 60 percent of Americans say that Trump makes things seem “better than they really are.”

Aside from rambling like a buffoon and being a raging asshole—reminding a national audience why they dislike him so much—Trump bragged about other head-scratching things that are unlikely to help boost his popularity.

He gloated about having “lifted 2.4 million Americans—a record—off of food stamps." Again, that’s not because he helped people but because he cut the program and stripped food aid from millions.

He waxed poetic about his illegal and destructive tariffs, saying they are “saving our country.” Of course, the tariffs are hurting the economy and Americans hate them, so highlighting this policy is again idiotic.

And he even spoke about how he is working to fix health care—one of his worst policy issues—even though he has absolutely no plan, slashed Medicaid, and let Affordable Care Act tax credits expire, raising insurance premiums for millions of Americans.

In fact, Trump slammed Democrats for not voting for the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which slashed health care for the poorest Americans in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Rather than cower, Democrats stood and clapped, proud of themselves for not voting for that unpopular legislation.

Trump’s speech coincided with his approval rating hitting second-term lows—rivaled only by the dismal approval ratings he notched after he incited a violent and deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A spate of polls released before Trump’s address found a host of bad news for Trump, including that his approval with independents is at just 26 percent, that Americans disapprove of his performance on every major issue, and that his approval has fallen even among Republicans who he needs to turn out for midterm elections in November.

The nonsense he spewed in Tuesday’s speech—the longest on record—is unlikely to change that.

While we all just suffered through that absolute buffoonery, here’s a final reminder: This utterly embarrassing display won’t matter when it comes to the November midterms. Feelings about Trump are baked in, and nothing he said in that speech will change the minds of Americans.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

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Smart. Sharp. Funny. Fearless

Perps, Not Victims: The Big Lie At The Heart Of Trump's Slush Fund

Discerning The Grim Reality Behind Trump's Fog Of Wartime Lies

Are There Frauds Worse Than That Minnesota Case? Let's Look Again At Donald Trump

Gaslight: Was This Trump's Most Unhinged State Of The Union Ever?

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