Saturday, May 23, 2026

AI You Can Use!

😈
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The Credulity of Journalists

Glenn Thrush, NYT:
And this, as we were reporting and figuring out how this all came down, it seems that this huge thing that he has sort of blown up the Senate and created this enormous rift in his party was an expedient so that they could get out of having to actually pay Donald Trump money, which Blanche and folks at the White House actually believed would have been a bridge too far,” he added.

“So believe it or not, this fund, this weaponization fund, which everyone is calling a slush fund with no rules, no guidelines on who will distribute the money, and apparently no guardrails was actually considered to be the best of other alternatives. This was actually their best possible plan,” he revealed.
So:

—a slush fund with no rules, including no transparency or accountability . Who gets paid, how much they get paid, why they get paid: no one else is going to know. And you can’t verify whatever you’re told, because only the AG can ask for an audit. And under Trump, that’s never going to happen. And after Trump? What’s it going to take to track down the payees by then?

—to be given to applicants based on Trump’s perception of their “victimization” by Biden, when the arrests and charges started under Trump.

—a fund started because the DOJ wanted to access the Judgment Act to make the payments legal, which required litigation to trigger;

—which litigation they had to abandon when they went to court to get the $10 billion settlement approved so Trump could legally access the Judgment Act funds.

—when the judge threatened to dismiss the case on the grounds there weren’t two opposed parties involved, Trump took a new “settlement” option and dismissed the case himself. Which raises the question of whether this settlement legally triggers the Judgment Act, since the case was dismissed, and the problems raised by the first settlement still exist.

And this “was their best possible plan”? For what? Looting the Treasury? The IRS reviewed the claim and said it should be dismissed in court without settlement, in part because the statute of limitations had run. No proof of damages was ever offered, and the claimed damages (for either settlement) far exceeds statutory limitations. In short, the suit should have been challenged in court and likely would have been dismissed. But as the trial court noted, the two parties to that now defunct suit were not adversarial. And this “slush fund” is the result.

So this “was the best possible plan” for who? And how?

Are reporters from the NYT not allowed to ask these questions?

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🥱

Meanwhile:
“Trump said it was a ‘solid 50/50’ as to whether he would be able to make a ‘good’ deal or else ‘blow them to kingdom come,’” Ravid wrote in Axios’ report.

According to Axios, Trump is expected to meet with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance later on Saturday to discuss Iran’s latest peace proposal, which included a proposal to fully re-open the Strait of Hormuz, Drop Site News reported.

Iran’s proposal, however, would “defer nuclear enrichment talks,” per a senior Iranian official speaking with Drop Site News on the condition of anonymity, a potentially fatal inclusion given Trump’s past claim that he would not accept a deal that omitted the matter of Iran’s enriched uranium.
Yes, the same outlet that told us that Cuba was buying up drones to prepare for an attack on the United States (there’s a reason Cuba hasn’t attacked the U.S. since Castro took power in 1959. Cuba is not suicidal.). Still, “50/50” means Trump won’t do it. Again.

He knows he’s got almost nothing to shoot with, and if he uses that up and Iran is still standing, he’s fucked our military position around the world.

Which he has, anyway….
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“Good People On Both Sides”

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Friday, May 22, 2026

Trump Can’t Go To The 🇧🇸

Trump abruptly canceled his weekend trip to Bedminster and will now remain in Washington as fears grow of imminent new strikes on Iran.

Iran has shut down its airspace through Monday, while Iranian state media says the country’s armed forces are preparing for a possible resumption of war with the United States “in the coming hours.”

CBS reports the Trump administration is actively preparing for fresh military strikes, and U.S. military and intelligence officials have reportedly canceled Memorial Day weekend plans in anticipation of possible action.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts appear to have collapsed.

This situation is escalating. Fast.
Or not. (Based on past performance, my money’s on “not.”) The President, as ever, is deeply engaged in important matters of state.
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Just Another Day

Fixed for you:

“—President Trump is the ONLY president in recent memory to openly threaten acquiring Greenland — including refusing to rule out the use of military force against a NATO ally.”

A message from Greenland to you, Jeff: Focus on your job as Governor of Louisiana instead of acting as Trump’s spokesperson.

Louisiana consistently ranks as one of the worst-performing states in America — plagued by poverty, poor education, failing healthcare, and low quality of life. Maybe you should focus on fixing your own state instead of lecturing Greenlanders about their future.
Despite how avidly we lie to ourselves, the world sees who we really are. Why the hell are Greenlanders so worried?
An investigation by The New York Times, based on interviews with officials in Washington, Copenhagen and Greenland, has discovered: The United States is trying to modify a longstanding military arrangement to ensure American troops can stay in Greenland indefinitely, even if Greenland becomes independent. The notion is basically a forever clause, and Greenlanders do not like it. The United States has pushed the talks beyond military matters and wants effective veto power over any major investment deals in Greenland to box out competitors like Russia and China. Greenlanders and Danes strongly object to this. 
Well, that and a bit more:
An investigation by The New York Times, based on interviews with officials in Washington, Copenhagen and Greenland, has discovered:

The United States is trying to modify a longstanding military arrangement to ensure American troops can stay in Greenland indefinitely, even if Greenland becomes independent. The notion is basically a forever clause, and Greenlanders do not like it.

The United States has pushed the talks beyond military matters and wants effective veto power over any major investment deals in Greenland to box out competitors like Russia and China. Greenlanders and Danes strongly object to this.

The United States is discussing cooperation with Greenland on natural resources. The island is loaded with oil, uranium, rare earths and other critical minerals, though much of it is buried deep beneath Greenland’s ice.

The Pentagon is rapidly moving ahead on plans for a military expansion and recently sent a Marine Corps officer to Narsarsuaq, a town in southern Greenland, to inspect the World War II-era airport, the harbor and places where American troops could be housed.

The American demands are so steep, Greenlandic officials fear, that they amount to a major imposition on their sovereignty. Despite all of the talk from Danish and American officials that Greenland’s future is up to the island’s 57,000 people, Greenlandic officials said the American demands would tie their hands for generations.

If the Americans get everything they want, said Justus Hansen, a member of Greenland’s Parliament, there will never be any “real independence.”

“We might as well raise our own flag halfway,” he said. 
Meanwhile, I
Congress just delivered a rare political body slam to Donald Trump.

Republicans abruptly pulled back from voting on a major Trump-backed bill after Democrats prepared amendments targeting Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for crooks and cop beaters.

The collapse sparked open talk on Capitol Hill that Mike Johnson’s speakership may already be entering lame-duck territory.

Lawmakers described chaos and infighting amid the GOP.
This won’t help: I guess the drones bounce off that, too? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen, either. Not before November; and not after. When you come up with it?  Sun’s going down. Wait for it. Or needed to; as he goes on to illustrate: Says the guy who thinks no one knows how to spell "Dumb." Grandpa needs his meds. He's never going to understand that's not an accomplishment, is he? And he still doesn’t understand how the Fed sets interest rates, either. The funny part is: he still can’t fire the Fed Chair.
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Going Down In Ignominy

U.S. President Donald J. Trump has announced via TruthSocial that he will be unable to attend his son, Donald Trump Jr., and his soon to be wife, Bettina Anderson’s wedding this weekend in the Bahamas, citing his reason as, “circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America.” Trump further states in the post, “I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time.”
He’ll be playing golf all weekend long. I’m going with the Reuters story.
Cuba poses a “national security threat” to the United States and the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is “not high,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters earlier today, only a day after Cuba’s former president, 94-year-old Raúl Castro, was charged by the U.S. Justice Department with murder for the downing of two planes in 1996.
This "plan” didn’t work in Iran, and in Venezuela we just left the government in place and laid claim to some of their oil. (And who is “we” in that sentence?) What does Cuba have to offer? And who’s going to be in charge of the government there? In short: how does this “plan” work?

And when the fuck is Congress going to step up? Not until 2027? The GOP really is determined to go down in ignominy.
Didn’t he say he knew nothing about the fund?
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Signs O’ The Times

IMO, clothing is largely about semiotics, which means your judgment of an outfit is heavily shaped by what you think the outfit means. But when a style is wholly foreign to an observer, it will look interesting when it has "shape and drape," which is to say the outfit has a distinctive silhouette other than the human form. This is why the outfits below are interesting, whereas a pair of slim-fit chinos teamed a limp polo shirt or t-shirt typically does not look good unless an observer fetishizes the body underneath.
Speaking of clothing as semiotics: Hooters was never a “gentleman’s club “ (no nudity, no pole dancing), so “family friendly” is a joke. 

But the semiotics are interesting.
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He Knows We Can See Them, Right?

Jeff Landry on his trip to Greenland: "It was great, except I could not get Fox News there. So that was the only disappointing part. I found a lot of commonality between the Inuit and Greenland people and the cajun culture down in Louisiana. They do love and embrace the United States. So contrary what you read in the paper, they do want more US involvement in Greenland."
By the time all of this happened, he was gone. Although he didn’t actually miss all of it. Maybe that’s why he left a day early.
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🤦‍♂️🙈

Jeff Landry: "Greenland needs a deal. Greenland could be exporting 2 million barrels of oil a day right now. Think about what kind of pressure that would relieve in the Strait of Hormuz, what kind of leverage that would give America ... it's time for the Danes to come to the table and let's get a deal done"
There is, at present, no oil production in Greenland.
No oil has been found yet around Greenland, but officials there had seen potentially vast reserves as a way to help Greenlanders realize their long-held dream of independence from Denmark by cutting the annual subsidy of 3.4 billion kroner ($540 million) the Danish territory receives.

Global warming means that retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the fortunes of the semiautonomous territory of 57,000 people.

"The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain," the Greenland government said in a statement. The government said it "wants to take co-responsibility for combating the global climate crisis."

The decision was made June 24 but made public Thursday.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there could be 17.5 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off Greenland, although the island's remote location and harsh weather have limited exploration.

When the current government, led by the Inuit Ataqatigiit party since an April's parliamentary election, it immediately began to deliver on election promises and stopped plans for uranium mining in southern Greenland.

Greenland still has four active hydrocarbon exploration licenses, which it is obliged to maintain as long as the licensees are actively exploring. They are held by two small companies.

The government's decision to stop oil exploration was welcomed by environmental group Greenpeace, which called the decision "fantastic."

"And my understanding is that the licenses that are left have very limited potential," Mads Flarup Christensen, Greenpeace Nordic's general secretary, told weekly Danish tech-magazine Ingenioeren.

Denmark decides foreign, defense and security policy, and supports Greenland with the annual grant that accounts for about two-thirds of the Arctic island's economy.
So even if it were an American territory, it couldn’t provide any leverage over the current crisis caused entirely by the incompetence of Donald Trump.  Oil production would take years; and any production is entirely speculative.

And the Permian Basin alone produces 6.5 million barrels a day. It’s not providing us any leverage, is it?

Speaking of leverage.
Trump did that.
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Thursday, May 21, 2026

“Under The Monroe Doctrine In A Way That Is Beneficial”

The United States is inaugurating a new and significantly larger consulate in Greenland today.

Until now, the United States has operated from a small house at the harbor in Nuuk, but on Thursday the new consulate — a three-story, 3,000-square-meter building in the center of the capital — officially opens.

Since 2020, the United States has used a house on the harbor loaned by the Arctic Command, but it is now moving into larger premises at a time of heightened tensions between Greenland and Denmark on one side and the United States on the other.

A demonstration against the opening has therefore been announced for Thursday, and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen will not attend the official opening ceremony.

Protesters plan to bring banners and stand with their backs turned toward the consulate for two minutes as a sign of discontent with the United States.

When the American consulate reopened in Nuuk in 2020, several members of Naalakkersuisut — the Greenlandic government — took part in the event.

—Sermitsiaq
Now the special envoy has flown back to the United States, where he will report back to his boss, U.S. President Donald Trump. And to that, Landry says:

‘I will report back to him that ever since he began talking about Greenland back in 2016, he has actually put Greenland on the map. And what he essentially did was recognize that the United States, prior to President Trump, had neglected Greenland.’

Q: Some of the people we have spoken to feel somewhat offended by the tone coming from the United States. Do you think there is something in the rhetoric from the U.S. that people here simply do not understand, or what is it really about?”

“Well, listen, I have never paid much attention to what people say about me. People make memes and jokes and say harsh things. I will always say that people should judge me by my actions, not my words,” Landry replies before turning to Trump.

“Donald Trump is definitely a man of action. And he always wants to create opportunities for people. He wakes up every day working to make life better for Americans. And I believe that is the same kind of prosperity he wants to bring to Greenland as well. And it begins with security.”

The journalist tells Jeff Landry that some of the people DR has spoken to still believe that President Trump wants to take over Greenland.

‘And I have to ask you: Is that still the mission?’

‘The mission is to bring this country under the Monroe Doctrine in a way that is beneficial to Greenland. When I spoke with Greenlanders, every question was about this: Do you want the United States to be here? Not everyone says no — some want a closer relationship.’

‘And they are not only saying it with words, they are also showing it physically in a very clear way. So again, I would say those are the people Donald Trump cares about. And I certainly do as well,’ Jeff Landry explains.

(The interview took place yesterday.)

—DR
The organizer of Future Greenland, Christian Keldsen, said that although he does not believe Jeff Landry understood the conference’s main message, he is convinced that the other participants did:

“I have to conclude that the person everyone is talking about — even though he is not part of the conference — has not understood the message about what Greenland wants and what Greenland is capable of,” said Christian Keldsen.

“–But I believe everyone else has understood that there is something valuable here. There is a desire for cooperation, but it also has to happen on Greenlandic terms.”

—KNR
On Thursday, Malene Vahl Rasmussen, mayor of Kujalleq — Greenland’s southernmost municipality with 6,000 inhabitants — delivered a letter of protest to U.S. Ambassador Kenneth A. Howery.

She says that the municipality’s citizens are still affected by the aggressive American statements regarding Greenland.

Malene Vahl Rasmussen explains that she had not previously had the opportunity to deliver the protest letter — but now she has.

“I represent the citizens of the municipality, but I also represent my country, and I will do everything I can to protect it.”

Q: Do you still feel that your country is in danger?

“It’s damn unacceptable. That is not how you treat your allies,” she says about the American government’s way of acting.

—TV2
When I first got on the Intertoobs, the greatest revelation was that I could read newspapers and find points of view from countries other than my own. I found a column in an Irish newspaper. This was just after the Easter Accords, and the violence between Protestants and Catholics had abated. The author was a young Catholic woman who had never so much as crossed the street to the Protestant side of the neighborhood. It was literally a foreign country to her, lived in by foreign people. The divide in Northern Ireland had been that severe. 

It stuck with me because it was such a novel experience. I had read stories by non-American authors, of course; but those were imaginary, and carefully structured to be narratives. Even though you know almost every story Hemingway wrote was drawn from his experiences, are practically his memoirs; you also know they are stories. You know they are crafted from outside. This column, this story, was someone reporting on their life, on their experiences in a particular place at a particular time. Probably even an ordinary experience in that paper, to publish things like that; but to me, it was an open door into a world I hadn’t imagined existed. It gave the internet a lot of promise.

Ah, dem was de days.

The internet presented a chance to see the world from the world’s points of view. An amazing adjunct to world literature; a diptych, a palimpsest. A way to understand others once only available to travelers and expatriates.

And to diplomats, I assume. What else is the job of the diplomat but to understand people in other countries? We used to have people like that in our government; people whose job it was to understand other people. But now we have Trump, who isn’t interested in anyone but himself; and isn’t interested in anyone else who is interested in understanding other people.

🎶”Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?”🎶
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Keeping Track

Scott MacFarlane reports on Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund running into major resistance in the Senate.

Even Trump allies are uncomfortable with taxpayer money potentially going to January 6 defendants and cop beaters.

MacFarlane also reports growing concern on Capitol Hill that Trump may be using the controversy to distract from deeper issues involving his taxes and potential corruption exposure.
Castro: The last half of the year, especially in election years, we’re not in session, so most of the legislative days come before the end of July. You see these guys trying to fund this slush fund, trying to pay for that ballroom, and it seems to have broken down because of that.
So...

The windows are closing, and Congress is closed until June. Then there’s 4th if July, and nothing after 7/31 until after Election Day in November. The legislative calendar to the end of the year can be counted in days; almost on only the fingers of two hands. 

The Senate doesn’t want to kill the slush fund, but they want to control it. Sort of. Somehow. Trump said today he doesn’t need Congress for anything. So why wouldn’t he give the money to people who beat up police and terrorized Congress? Sure, Congress may try claw it back, or tax it at 100% (seriously, that’s one proposal), but what does Trump care? It’s Xmas, and he’s Santa Claus. Let Congress be the Grinch.

If Congress doesn’t kill it, what stops Trump using it?

2/3rds of the Senate is not up for reelection, so why shouldn’t they back Trump? The House is another matter, and more likely will press a law to kill this fund in the crib. But if the Senate won’t play, or Trump vetoes? Well, maybe 1/3rd of the Senate would vote to override…but that’s not enough. More likely they won’t play at all, and let Trump have his corruption.

At least, that’s where it’s going now. And that’s not even touching on the “Get out of tax review forever” card DOJ has issued to Trump, Jr., Eric, and the company. That one is not quite as urgent since the IRS won’t dare investigate those parties until 2029. But it’s more of the corruption GOP Senators seem to be fine with. Now, Congress is out of session for two weeks. Will Trump until they’ve resolved this issue to start tapping the Treasury and issuing checks?

Is the Pope a Cubs fan?
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☠️

Numbers game. He thinks he’s winning.

💀
Maj. John A. Klinner
Capt. Ariana G. Savino
Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt
Capt. Seth R. Koval
Capt. Curtis J. Angst
Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons
Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan
Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien
Sgt. Declan Coady
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor
Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens
Capt. Cody Khork

The thirteen lives lost.
🎶”Call the names. Call the names. Call the names.”🎶
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“He’s a person I’ve known for a long time.”

Biden had a bad night in one debate. This is more like one bad event a day. From the Oval Office, down.
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“I haven’t heard from anybody who thinks this is a good idea.”

Trump: We’re building what we’re calling the Triumphant Arc. It’s like the Arc de Triomphe—the one you would probably know in Paris. This one is similar, slightly larger. We have to do slightly larger.

Reporter: Do you need congress to sign off on that?

Trump: No. We don’t need anything from Congress.
Three different statutes and the Constitution say otherwise.
Ross: The settlement is trying to cover up all of the misdeeds of his family, not just him. And he wants to pay insurrectionists who assaulted police officers. It’s essentially having your tax dollars go to fund his private militia.

MacFarlane: Have you heard from any Republicans who think this is a decent idea?

Ross: I haven’t heard from anybody who thinks it’s a good idea.
He's also a constitutional scholar. The number matters? Is this the 19th century? Or even pre-Holocaust America? (We taught the Nazis how to write eugenics laws. We weren’t as extreme, and we regretted it earlier.) 

Trump thinks he should be able to implement any idea he has. He doesn’t need Congress, he doesn’t need the Supreme Court, he doesn’t need the Constitution. I’m not saying that’s scary authoritarianism, and we should run in circles, scream and shout. I’m saying he’s completely unqualified, has no idea what the job is, and is wholly unfit for office.
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“Follow The Money”

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.”

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?
Trump sued the IRS in January, 2026.
According to the New York Times, after Bondi was sworn in as attorney general in February 2025, she immediately placed guardrails around settlements "that largely prohibited payments to groups not involved in an underlying lawsuit." Now those same restrictions are threatening to derail the Trump administration's controversial compensation scheme.

On her first day as attorney general, Bondi signed a directive titled "Reinstating the Prohibitions on Improper Third Party Settlements" that revived a Justice Department policy adopted in 2017 and was later canceled by the Biden administration.

According to the Times' Devlin Barrett, the memo explicitly stated that, except in "limited circumstances," the department should not use settlements "to require payments to nongovernmental, third-party organizations that were neither victims nor parties to the lawsuits."

Yet the new $1.8 billion fund appears structured precisely to circumvent that restriction — designed to steer large sums to third-party claimants, most of whom have not filed suits and may never file suits now that a compensation fund exists.
Bondi’s tenure as AG ended on February 2, 2026.
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Legislation Matters

A nearly $1.8 billion DOJ-controlled fund cannot be created, defined, and distributed in the shadows.

Today, I called on Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to provide immediate transparency on the Department’s newly announced “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

By June 1, DOJ must answer three basic questions:

Where is the money coming from?

Who is eligible to receive it?

And under what legal authority is DOJ creating a discretionary compensation fund of this scale without explicit congressional authorization, court approval, or judicial oversight?

Taxpayer dollars will not be turned into a discretionary payout fund.

Transparency is not optional. Accountability is not negotiable.
All the rest is persiflage.

(The DOJ said the money is coming from the Judgment Fund. Which puts Treasury in the crosshairs, too.)
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Honestly, Proust Would Balk At It

And Joyce would consider it a crime against “stream of consciousness.”

I do like the bit where he says his accomplishments are “legendary.” They are in the sense they are wholly imaginary; and in the sense that his corruption will set high water marks few will ever achieve again.
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Truth And Consequences

Now’s your chance. Good. Actions speak louder than words. Bubble, bubble, who’s in the bubble? Because this is what people are going to hear: And this: We can also talk about fraud: Or we can talk about Trump’s taxes, and how he now claims to be free from the IRS, for life, along with his children and his company. Which gives them impunity from ever paying taxes, in perpetuity. (At least that’s what the settlement says.)

So, yeah, let’s talk about that, too.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Writing The Rules On Water

Then run for Congress. Or go to Congress to get the funds authorized. Because as an unelected acting attorney general, your opinion about what American taxpayers think don’t mean shit.
REID: The New York Times has reported that Trump could have owed up to $100 million because of ongoing audits. So are you saying this is not an effort to help him avoid financial liability?

BLANCHE: That's the definition of completely made up fake news, and then it becomes real news because they repeat it
DON’T CALL HIM TRUMP’S PERSONAL LAWYER! Can we see these rules? It’s so common people try to get cops to hurt them, just for the easy money.🤑  I really think we need to see those rules. Is this a great country, or what?
Blanche: The fact that the IRS is settling a case and not moving forward with an audit is not unusual. The unsurprising fact that an existing president does not have to go through more and more audits, which has been happening for years and years and years in exchange for settling, shouldn't surprise the American people.

My job is to do the right thing. It's to do the right thing, no matter who is on the other side. And the fact that it was President Trump and his sons and his company played no role in my decision except to do the right thing.
But there wasn’t anyone on the “other side.” Trump filed this suit in January, not four years ago. He wasn’t even represented by private counsel; he was represented by Blanche. That’s why the court ordered briefs, and why DOJ “settled” with this agreement. How could “President Trump” be on the other side of a lawsuit against an agency of the U.S. government? But it’s not a legal settlement; it’s a sham. It vastly exceeds any provable damage claim that could have been made, was probably void for a number of reasons, and has no legal basis whatsoever.
No lawyers from the Justice Department ever appeared in court to respond to the suit or disputed any of Mr. Trump’s claims, which demanded at least $10 billion from the I.R.S. for not doing enough to prevent the leak of his tax information. The Justice Department instead made a highly unusual deal in the case. In exchange for Mr. Trump’s dropping the suit, the Trump administration created the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for people who say they were wrongly targeted by the federal government.

The existence of the internal memo, which has not been previously reported, shows that the Trump administration disregarded readily available defenses to a lawsuit filed by the president against an agency he controls. While the Justice Department has said that Mr. Trump will not receive money from the new fund, critics have slammed the arrangement as a corrupt attempt at paying Mr. Trump’s political supporters, including, potentially, those who were convicted and later pardoned for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Blanche says the DOJ represented the government in this case. Without ever making an appearance in court?

And the assumption we can trust that Trump won’t get any cash, that the accounting will be transparent, that reviews and even audits will not be available, is just adorable!  It’s like the NYT hasn’t paid any attention since January 2025. Yeah; this is what the American taxpayers want. We all want Mike Lindell to get what he deserves.
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YOU DON’T FUCK WITH THE MONEY!

Scott MacFarlane reports that Republican resistance is growing against Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick says he is working to kill the proposal through both a formal letter to the Justice Department and possible legislation.

Other Republicans, including Don Bacon, David Schweikert, and Mike Rounds, have publicly raised questions about the legality and structure of the fund, while Lindsey Graham suggested the Senate would closely examine it if it reaches the floor.
ICE guns down two people in Minneapolis, and wounds a third. It terrorized people there, runs concentration camps where people die, runs roughshod over the law, and hides its agents from criminal liability. Trump engages in a senseless war he can’t get out of, endangers the world economy, and destroys the American economy. He destroys the East Wing and announces a ballroom out of scale to anything on the White House grounds, changes plans constantly, and behaves as if he owns all of DC. And the Senate Judiciary Committee tries to give him $1 billion for it. He sues the IRS for $10 billion, then “settles” for a billion dollar slush fund.

And that’s where he gets the attention of Congress. Real attention.

It’s an iron-clad rule of organizations large and small. You can get away with a lot. But you don’t fuck with the money.

Even Lindsey Graham knows that rule.
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Bring It To Congress To Decide?

Hmmm…🤔 Why wouldn’t Trump do that? And who could make him do that?

It is a mystery…. 🤔
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“DON’T SAY THE PRESIDENT’S FORMER LAWYER WILL DO SOMETHING—SAY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL WILL DO SOMETHING!”

What’s the difference?
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“It Was Very Well Received”

"In just one day, a conquered — and, consequently, unbridled — Sen. Bill Cassidy joined Democrats to become the 50th yes vote on a war powers resolution, opposed Trump’s ballroom funding in reconciliation and called Trump’s freshly picked Paxton a “felon.” And that was just day three of Cassidy unchained.

"Cassidy is not alone. Trump’s ballroom funding is stalled, the SAVE America Act is mired in the Senate and Majority Leader John Thune is pushing back on his desire to fire the parliamentarian. That’s not to mention the pushback even from the likes of the friendlier senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, who expressed doubt about the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund."
The entire House is up for reelection. It’s like Trump doesn’t even care. Promises made, promises kept.
MacFarlane: There are so many Republicans coming out against this thing. It appears to me that this slush fund is like as popular as poison ivy or a dinner plate full of vegetables. Nobody is claiming ownership of this thing. I have zero statements of support for this fund from any congressional Republicans.
"Coming out against it;” doing something against it = wishing in one hand, or doing something in the other.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick on how to end Trump’s weaponization fund:

Fitzpatrick: We have to figure out the source of the fund. Is it an appropriation from last year? Where did the money come from and what limitations were put around that money? Are there constitutional questions? Are there statutory questions? What falls within Article I authority? These are all the things we’re trying to unpack now.

MacFarlane: Do you think this is something your constituents would want you to fight for?

Fitzpatrick: A hundred percent. Listen, I think constituents across America want the same things for the most part. We’re trying to restore trust in the institution. That’s why I partner with everyone from Tim Burchett to AOC on banning members of Congress from trading stocks.

We’re trying to take steps—ending gerrymandering, for example—to bridge the divide between the public and the institution, and things like this just move us backwards. So that’s why step one is that all of us—journalists, members of Congress—we have to unpack what exactly this is. Right now, we just have some top-line sound bites.

We don’t know what the source of the funding is, what legal authority it’s based on, whether there’s a precedent, and if there isn’t, why not. What falls within the court’s jurisdiction in terms of constitutional review? This is what we’re trying to get our arms around.

But step one is a letter stating our position to the acting attorney general. And my staff is working on legislation. We’ll work with legislative counsel to figure out what our options are, and that’s why we have to get to the source of the funding—to know what our jurisdiction is and how we can respond to it.
That’s what I want to hear about; not Collins-esque “concern.” Collins concerned, or actually concerned? That’s the dividing line.
McGovern: It took us forever to compensate the victims of 9/11, and here you have this $1.8 billion slush fund that doesn’t go through any committees or hearings. All of a sudden, they have the money to compensate convicted felons—people who attacked our democracy and tried to overthrow a free and fair election.

This is the most corrupt administration in our history.
I’ll allow it. There’s another ad. Grampa skipped his nap. They really aren’t very bright.
Q: Do you have a response to people who are critical of your settlement over the IRS case?

TRUMP: It was the most violent thing I've ever seen in politics -- what they did. And yet if I say, 'let's look at this one,' they say, 'Weaponization! Weaponization!' We think anybody involved in that process should partake. You're talking about peanuts.
His egg is cracked and everything has leaked out.
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Trump Can Pay For It…

... out of his slush fund.

That’ll pay for about a day and 3/4ths.

Have you noticed he’s obsessed about the SAVE AMERICA Act and his ballroom, and not really paying attention to the Congressional schedule for a war supplemental?
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QED

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Next Question

NEW: Trump’s revenge tour is increasingly imperiling his midterm agenda on the Hill. “Those so-called victories over the last couple weeks are just a mirage. They are self-owns,” one senior Senate Republican operative told me. “We’re not actually beating Democrats, and we’re not actually advancing legislation. Instead, gas is up 45% due to our actions and the President’s decision to go to war with Iran. He’s focused on the ballroom. He’s announced a $1.8 billion restitution fund with zero details or congressional authority to do so. It just is crazy.”
What will Congress do about it?
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