Trump Corruption Inc., Part 1
(Go here for Fred’s interview on Trump corruption and the Slush Fund on “Politics War Room with James Carville and Al Hunt”)
Donald Trump is engaged in the most corrupt ripoff of the presidency in our country’s 250-year history.
As the country prepares to celebrate our 250th birthday, Trump has turned an office created to lead and protect the country, and defend our democracy and the Constitution, into a vehicle for personal enrichment, corruption, lawlessness and autocratic power.
Corruption usually requires time to register with the American people. It is registering now. Trump’s corruption has many dimensions, but his gigantic “Slush Fund” for the January 6 mob may be the scandal that explodes and breaks through with the country.
Trump is making $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds available for convicted criminals who injured 140 police officers in the January 6 coup attempt, who were sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy, who threatened to hang then-Vice President Pence and for all of the other convicted criminals who participated in a Trump-inspired, failed coup attempt.
Trump is making these taxpayer funds available to criminals at the same time he is ignoring that many Americans are struggling to pay their bills as the cost of living keeps rising. The American people are aware. A new Fox News poll found that only 29 percent approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Trump’s massive grift operates on two tracks.
First, Trump and his family have used his return to power to quickly grow their personal wealth in enormous amounts. Trump increased his net worth by almost $4 billion to $7.8 billion by the end of 2025, according to TIME.
Forbes estimated that in 2025 Eric Trump became 10 times richer, ending up worth some $400 million and Donald Trump, Jr. became six times richer, ending up worth some $300 million. Even Barron Trump, while still in college, reportedly ended up worth some $150 million in 2025.
Second, he has used his office to reward loyalists, protect allies and benefit himself.
Trump took control of $1.8 billion of taxpayer funds to reward convicted criminals and other Trump allies. He also accepted a gift of a $400 million Boeing 747 from Qatar to serve as Air Force One and then to end up under Trump’s control when he leaves office. Meanwhile, it will cost the taxpayers $400 million to refit the plane and the Air Force is shifting money from a nuclear missile program to pay for Trump’s plane.
The Greatest Slush Fund in American History
During his 1952 campaign for vice president, Richard Nixon almost had to resign from the Eisenhower ticket over a secret slush fund put together by him and his supporters.
The amount of that slush fund: $18,235.
Trump, meanwhile, just took $1.8 billion in taxpayer money – your money and my money – to set up what is likely the greatest and most corrupt slush fund in American history – the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” It would be better known as the “Capitol Attacking Criminals Reward Fund.”
Trump is taking the American taxpayer money and giving it to criminals who reportedly will be able to apply and receive large sums, all in secret. There apparently will be no transparency or accountability for the distribution of this $1.8 billion in government funds.
Trump negotiated all of this with himself, operating through Acting AG Todd Blanche, his former personal attorney, whom he controls. This is a gross abuse of his office.
The Trump slush fund is called an “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” but the name is just a cover story. The Fund is aimed at the Biden Justice Department, even though there is little, if any, evidence that DOJ was weaponized. The same department that Trump wrongly accuses of partisan persecution indicted President Biden’s own son.
In reality, it is the Trump-controlled Justice Department that is deeply weaponized to carry out his ongoing campaign of revenge, retaliation and retribution against his perceived enemies and political opponents.
Trump negotiated with his own administration, that is, with himself, to give himself, his sons and his business organization, permanent protection from any tax audits and penalties on past tax returns. According to The New York Times, the arrangement could wipe out a potential $100 million IRS penalty against him.
The Times also reported that agreement “purported to immunize him from lawsuits arising from a great many things, not least his tax liabilities. The government of the United States, Mr. Blanche wrote, is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing claims against Mr. Trump involving “lawfare and/or weaponization” of tax returns.
The country will soon celebrate the 250th Anniversary of our founding. Unfortunately, we are currently laden with the most autocratic, anti-democratic, lawless president we have ever had.
Trump has shown disdain for the constitutional system the Founders created and the democratic leaders who have preserved it. The leaders he praises and identifies with are dictators like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
As we celebrate our 250th birthday, we should take great pride in our country. We should recognize the deep faults we have had over our existence but also know that we are a historic country and that this aberrational, disastrous presidency, too, will pass. Brighter days lie ahead.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
