June 03, 2026 10:08 AM UTC

Trump Slush Fund: The Bad Idea That Just Won't Die

• 0 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Reading the news of the last couple of days, like this report from NBC News, you’d think that Republicans had finally found their limits resolving to oppose President Donald Trump’s hotly controversial $1.8 billion “slush fund” to compensate supposed victims of government “weaponization.” The official line as of yesterday is that the scheme will not move forward after a judge’s temporary injunction:

The Trump administration signaled Monday it is backing off on creating a $1.8 billion fund announced by the Justice Department that could send money to allies of President Donald Trump deemed to be “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”

It comes after a fierce and rare backlash from Senate Republicans, who threatened to team up with Democrats to block the fund. About half the Republican conference appeared ready to vote with Democrats to restrict or kill it, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said last week.

In a statement, the Justice Department cited a federal judge’s ruling Friday that blocked the fund on a temporary basis, saying it “disagrees strongly” but “will abide by the Court’s ruling.”

As the Washington Post reports, Trump’s personal attorney now tragicomically serving as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says to take his word that the slush fund he helped engineer was dead in the truly never coming back sense–but don’t ask the Justice Department to put that in writing, because putting things in writing isn’t what Trump’s Justice Department is into:

The Trump administration seemed to have little choice but to declare the fund dead to salvage a key part of its aggressive and costly immigration agenda. Some Republican lawmakers said that, if the administration wanted money for immigration enforcement agencies, they would accept nothing less than an explicit guarantee from Blanche that there would be no payout fund.

Blanche gave that guarantee during oral testimony but suggested that the Justice Department wouldn’t issue a formal statement declaring the fund’s demise beyond the hearing.

“I’m not committing to putting anything in writing,” Blanche said after Meng argued that such a statement would help instill trust in the Justice Department’s plan. “I don’t know what the purpose is of putting something in writing. I’m telling you what we are doing.”

But in remarks released this morning, as CNN reports, Trump tossed Blanche’s assurances to lawmakers in the proverbial woodchipper:

“No, a court ruled against (the fund),” Trump said when asked if he had dropped the controversial effort on the New York Post’s podcast “Pod Force One with Miranda Devine.” The interview was taped on Tuesday.

That same day, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund.

But Trump argues in the podcast interview that people who he claims were targeted by a “crooked government” deserve compensation. “And these were many great people. And I gave them pardons. I’m very proud to have given them pardons. And I think they should be reimbursed for a crooked government,” he said.

And that, gentle reader, is why you always get it in writing.

What happens next? Despite this setback in court and Blanche’s assurances he won’t put on paper, we take Trump at his word that he wants to find a way to financially reward his thugs and cronies. Trump could write all the checks for the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” entirely out of his profits since retaking office. But we fully expect there will be another attempt to make taxpayers foot the bill.

Corrupt promises, after all, seem to be the only promises Donald Trump keeps.