No Trump Slush Fund to Pay Off His Thugs With Our Money

The President of the United States sued the government he runs and crafted a settlement with agency heads he can fire to give him $1.7 billion of our money he can use to reward his allies and foot soldiers. And all while he’s telling us we can’t afford food assistance or cheaper health care! He’s also given himself and his family a super-pardon for tax crimes, once again putting himself above the law. This is open corruption, a president using taxpayer funds as a personal piggy bank and ensuring he can get away with his crimes. This is money going from hard-working Americans to enrich the thugs who beat law enforcement with flagpoles and fire extinguishers to try to overturn an election. Pay-offs would be doled out by a commission with zero transparency requirements, whose members would be appointed by Trump’s own attorney general and could be removed by him at will. If we saw this in another country, we know exactly what we’d call it. Under bipartisan pressure, the White House has started to pretend it’s not moving forward with the slush fund. But we’re already seeing reports the Justice Department is looking for alternate pathways for these payoffs, and the immunity deal is still in place. Congress must seize this moment and pass a measure to permanently block the use of a single penny for these payoffs.