At long last, more than a few Trump loyalists seem to have shown they might have some latent, if rarely detected, reserve of decency in them.
I admit to being a little gobsmacked by the whole thing. Not so much by the $1.776 billion slush fund granted to Donald Trump by the Department of Justice to pay off, uh, victims of “lawfare and weaponization” — a fund controlled, of course, by a panel of Trump sycophants, all subject to removal at Trump’s will.
I mean, Trump’s reputation for corruption and venality are well known, well documented and well earned. Just look at this report on Trump’s apparent self-dealing in trading stocks worth millions in companies whose profits are directly impacted by his decisions.
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SUBSCRIBEWhat shocks me — even more than the self-glorifying ballroom and the 250-foot-tall knockoff of the Arc de Triomphe Trump wants to build — is that there seems to be a line Trump can actually cross that a significant group in his own party will loudly insist they can’t abide.
Why now? Well, this bit of corruption is so far over the top that it would make Caligula weep. It began when Trump sued his IRS for $10 billion because someone leaked Trump’s tax returns, which most presidents voluntarily reveal. Then Trump’s wholly owned Justice Department stepped in to settle the lawsuit, which was basically between Trump and himself, to include Trump’s slush fund, paid for by taxpayer money. Thank you. Thank you very much.
We have yet to figure out a proper nickname for this scandal — although I like “The Slush Fund from Hell” — but history says that this one is a multi-gate deal.
One that is heading, it seems, to a courtroom near you. It has already been suggested that James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff, Letitia James and others Trump enemies line up for their payments
For some Republican dissidents, it could be that they remember being stalked and threatened on January 6, and are personally offended that the stalkers — since pardoned by Trump — will now be paid off by him.
Or it could be self preservation on their part as we move ever closer to the midterms, with the economy sinking, gas prices rising, an unpopular war raging and Trump’s approval ratings in the 30s.
There are other possibilities.
If you want to be generous, you could think that some have gotten in touch with their long-moldering consciences. I’m guessing I’m not the only one whose generosity doesn’t extend quite that far.
Or maybe you see some meaningful cracks in MAGA world, which is certainly the way to root.
But this is what I’d like to think — that Trump’s corruption this time is so nakedly brazen that only the truest of true believers, of which there are still many, can see any way to defend it.
I mean, the headline is that much of the nearly $2 billion — at least the part that doesn’t end up in the pockets of Trump’s rich friends, his rich family and, inevitably, his rich self — will go to the January 6 rioters, including those convicted of violently assaulting Capitol police officers. You know, the insurrectionists whom Trump called Joe Biden’s political prisoners.
And speaking of convicted felons, according to JD Vance, some of that cash could well go to Tina Peters, whom Vance says was thrown in jail for 10 years, as an innocent grandmother, for a misdemeanor trespassing charge. I have faith that my readers can provide a rapid fact-check for the casual lies thrown out by the liar-in-chief-in-waiting. This is the kind of they’re-eating-your-pets-sized lie that Vance will happily promulgate.
I’m not sure why Vance used Peters, the election grifter, as a model Trump giftee, but I assume they’re using Jared Polis’ commutation of Peters as a model of a Democratic governor caving to Trump. It can’t be that she’s the most likable convict they’ve got.
In any case, John Hickenlooper has proposed an amendment to a Senate bill that would prevent any of the slush-fund money going to someone who has affected elections or election equipment. Like, say, Tina Peters, who is spending her last few days in prison tweeting out her thanks to Polis for recognizing, as she says she does, that the election rigging was real and will likely continue.
But there wasn’t any vote on Hick’s amendment to a bill that would fund ICE because Senate Republicans knew that the ICE funding would lose. They also knew that a vote to fund the Iran war without Congress’ help was going to lose.
And it’s worse than that. Much worse. A day after announcing the slush-fund deal, the Justice Department went even deeper into corruption mode by granting Trump and his family immunity from any future IRS investigations or audits. That probably saves Trump from paying a $100 million tax bill, and who knows how much money the kids, with that little-used, family-immunity addendum, will never have to pay.
Maybe the family part is makeup for Trump saying he’ll likely miss Don Jr.’s latest wedding, presumably because he’s worried about being booed by some of the guests.
When acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — formerly Trump’s personal lawyer, and now just his unofficial, paid-for-by-taxpayers, personal-like lawyer — defended the slush fund in a meeting with GOP lawmakers, he didn’t get booed, but it definitely did not go well.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune voiced his opposition to the slush fund. As did many others. In a closed door meeting, Republican lawmakers gave Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy a standing ovation. Cassidy, who lost in the GOP primary, was one more target in Trump’s revenge tour.
Cassidy, whose vote, you’ll recall, put RFK Jr. over the top in his Senate confirmation hearing, apparently didn’t appease Trump. And now Cassidy feels free to say the truth: “People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability.”
Or as Mitch McConnell, not exactly my beacon of political rectitude put it, “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong – Take your pick.”
Let’s not put this on the acting AG, though. Let’s put it where it belongs, on the badly acting Donald J. Trump.
Stupid, morally wrong, corrupt, venal, prideful, lustful, cruel or any of the seven mortal sins we’ve missed. That sounds about right.
Will more Republicans, including MAGA types, finally admit to this? I wish I could believe it.
If there’s anything we’ve learned during Trump’s 10-year reign of corruption and worse, it’s that in today’s GOP, decency always seems to have its limits.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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