President Donald Trump's "anti-weaponization fund" is an "extraordinary incident of bald self-dealing, even in an administration where such blatant corruption has become de rigueur," according to a blistering new Guardian column.
Columnist Moira Donegan pulled no punches in her assessment of the $1.776 billion fund, which Trump established after settling a $10 billion lawsuit he personally filed against the IRS over leaks of his tax returns.
"Donald Trump is stealing almost $2bn in taxpayer money and handing it out to his friends," Donegan wrote. "That's the upshot of the president's recent agreement."
The fund, Donegan argued, is structured to ensure Trump maintains total control — with four of five commissioners appointed by his own attorney general and Trump retaining the power to fire them. The settlement also requires the IRS to drop all audits of Trump and his family, she noted.
Donegan reserved particular scorn for the timing, as the deal was struck at the eleventh hour, just before a federal judge's May 20 deadline demanding the parties explain how Trump could actually be in legal conflict with an agency he personally controls.
"The little matter of the law would not be allowed to get in the way of a payout," she wrote.
The columnist also warned that Trump's corruption is "likely to be one of his most enduring legacies" — setting precedents for future administrations and instilling what she called a "profound sense of cynicism" in voters who increasingly view their government as a "self-interested scam in which graft is ubiquitous and civic-mindedness is for suckers."
"They do not like being stolen from; they do not like being played for fools," Donegan warned of American voters.