May 21, 2026 12:44 PM UTC

All the Worst People Line Up for Trump Slush Fund Payouts that May or May Not be Legal

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Congress will recess until June rather than try to finish a reconciliation vote on funding for the Department of Homeland Security. As POLITICO reports:

Several Republican senators said action on the legislation would wait until after a weeklong Memorial Day recess — guaranteeing that Congress would blow a Trump-set June 1 deadline for the immigration funding…

…House GOP leaders quickly followed suit and canceled plans for a Friday vote on the immigration package. Members will instead head home for the recess after votes wrap up Thursday night.

The Senate’s decision was driven by fierce internal divides over a politically sensitive issue not related to the core purpose of the bill — pumping tens of billions of dollars into Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies.

It came after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche struggled Thursday to quash GOP concerns over a newly announced $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Leaders had already concluded they would have to omit a $1 billion Secret Service funding line item that could have gone toward Trump’s White House ballroom due to internal dissension.

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Sarah Rogers, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, said in February that it was “a lie” that there was a government slush fund for the far right.

She may have been correct; it just hadn’t been created yet.

The Trump administration’s creation of a $1.8 billion “slush fund” for right-wing allies has generated plenty of headlines this week, as experts struggle to figure out whether or this “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is even legal (more on that in a moment). Trump announced on Monday that he had settled a bullshit lawsuit against the IRS by coercing the government into a promise not to pursue tax audits against him or his family while also creating a new compensation fund to write checks to poor MAGA criminals who were caught breaking the law.

If you were at all on the fence about Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” just take a look at some of the people who are already lining up for their payouts. From The Washington Post:

Mark McCloskey is eagerly waiting for details to emerge on how to apply for the Trump administration’s new $1.8 billion settlement fund, both for himself and for the Jan. 6 rioters he represents as a lawyer. “Everybody’s very excited about it,” McCloskey said. “It’s the first ray of light we’ve seen in a long time.”

McCloskey gained national notoriety in 2020, after viral videos showed him and his wife standing outside their St. Louis home, pointing guns at demonstrators protesting racial injustice. The next year, the couple pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. Even though he was pardoned by the Missouri governor, McCloskey said his reputation was damaged.

Breaking the law was bad for your reputation? You don’t say!

Former Republican congressman George Santos, who had his sentence for identity theft and wire fraud commuted by Trump last year, said Wednesday that he was considering applying for the fund but that he wasn’t seeking compensation. He said he wanted an apology from the government for what he alleged was selective prosecution.

Naturally.

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was pardoned by Trump after he was convicted for trying to sell President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat in 2011, said he hasn’t yet considered whether he might apply for the fund.

Sure.

Peter Ticktin, a Florida-based attorney, said he is in touch with hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants and expects many to seek compensation. He said that could include people such as Andrew Taake, who is suing the federal government, alleging that he was mistreated during his detention after the Capitol attack and wrongly injected with estrogen while he was held in prison.

Taake went to the Capitol in 2021, while on pretrial release for a child solicitation case in Texas. A police officer accused him of attacking officers with bear spray when the crowd rushed past a police barricade. After he was released from prison following Trump’s pardon last year, Taake pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony in relation to his previous charges but served no additional time in prison, although he registered as a sex offender as part of the deal.

A convicted sex offender? Where do we send the check?

Peter Ticktin also represents former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, who will be out of prison soon thanks to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Vice President JD Vance said earlier this week that Peters is a perfect example of the sort of person who deserves a couple of million dollars from the federal government.

You might be thinking the same thing as most non-MAGA Americans: How is this so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” even legal?

As The New York Times notes, Congress may have accidentally paved the way for this new Trump grift when it created a legal “Judgment Fund” in 1956 to authorize court settlements up to $100,000 without Congressional approval. As with most things that Trump has broken since taking office, few people likely foresaw a future in which the actual President of the United States would use the same mechanism to rob the country blind.

At the same time, a separate story from The New York Times explains that ths “Anti-Weaponization Fund” violates the Justice Department’s own guidelines:

The $1.8 billion fund created by the Trump administration this week to pay people who claim mistreatment by the federal government appears to violate longstanding Justice Department standards and practices, as well as a policy directive issued by the administration last year, legal experts said on Wednesday…

…Justice Department veterans also said the new fund appeared to contradict a specific policy instituted by the Trump administration last year under former Attorney General Pam Bondi that largely prohibited payments to groups not involved in an underlying lawsuit.

A Justice Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Pushback has already begun against the Trump slush fund. Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to stop the Trump slush fund from rewarding insurrectionists, including members of racist groups such as the “Proud Boys.”

Republican Members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have also been voicing their concerns…though Congressional Republicans have often spoken up before stepping aside at Trump’s demand. Still, as The Washington Post editorial board explains, there is a way to stop this madness:

When Republican members of Congress grouse about the president’s excesses, it’s usually just talk. But not always: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) used his power over confirmations to force the Trump Justice Department to drop its frivolous criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell. Perhaps this will be another instance where congressional Republicans assert themselves. They’d be doing a favor not just for taxpayers but their own party…

…Even a small number of Republican members of Congress offended by this extrajudicial arrangement have the power to limit or stop it. The Trump administration is pursuing, and Congress has been advancing, a $72 billion reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The bill is intended to circumvent the Democrats’ filibuster with only Republican votes.

The House or Senate could pair that money with language tightening control over the “Judgment Fund.” They could limit payouts to third parties from the fund in a way that would also constrain future Democratic administrations.

Congress could absolutely stop what The New Republic calls a “criminal enterprise.” But will they? There’s some reason for hope; Republicans seem poised to drop the asinine idea of spending $1 billion on Trump’s ballroom.