Newsmax's Greg Kelly defends Trump “weaponization” fund: “This is not an outlandish arrangement”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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While Newsmax host Greg Kelly compared Trump's arrangement — which some have called a slush fund — to other government settlements, Mike Masnick wrote for Techdirt about the differences:

Let’s first dispense with the most obvious bit of the charade: the idea that this is actually related to the “settlement” of Trump’s already corrupt bullshit lawsuit against the IRS. That’s how this is being presented, but this is entirely separate. Trump needed to drop that lawsuit in order to end it before a judge called bullshit on the fact that he was negotiating with himself to take $10 billion from American taxpayers.

As for the actual “fund” everything about it is about as corrupt as you can imagine. This is impeachment-worthy — and not in a partisan way. Republicans should be as offended by this as anyone else, if they actually (I know… I know…) believe in things like rule of law and fiscal responsibility.

The actual details here should raise so many red flags. First, as part of this illegal attempt to route around Congress’ power of the purse, they’re taking the money out of the Treasury Department’s “Judgment Fund.” But that fund is clearly designed to pay out the results of duly litigated court cases against the government — not a board of Trump’s friends deciding who gets a check. But here, it’s just a group of MAGA insiders who get to choose:

...

So, the fund is clearly in service of Donald Trump’s whims, not anyone else’s. We already have his personal lawyer (who has shown a long history of obeying Trump’s orders) as the acting Attorney General, and the fact that Congress only gets to “consult” on one member of the committee, and anyone can be removed by Trump at any moment makes it abundantly clear that this fund is solely around to pay off Trump’s loyal fans, who have a long history of claiming imagined grievances against the Biden administration, which they will now seek to cash in on.

The fund also, notably, will be put into a private account that (according to the settlement) the US government has no control over and no liability for.

From the May 19, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports

GREG KELLY (HOST): Always a privilege to sit with the president of the United States. I was asking him about a compensation fund for the January 6-ers. And, yes, he was already thinking about it, and he talked about a lot of people talking about it. I was one of them. I'm kind of proud of that because the January 6-ers and so many people, the victims of a weaponized government and DOJ, and they paid an enormous price. That was a setup. That was a downright setup, and people went to jail and their lives were ruined. And what's on the table now? Well, a $1.7 billion compensation fund, and not just for the January 6-ers, but for anybody who is the victim of weaponization of the justice system. Rudy Giuliani, how about medical workers who got fired for not taking the vaccine, people who stood in front of an abortion clinic and got charged with felonies, all kinds of people were victims of the United States government, and it's great that the United States government is stepping up to try to fix that situation. 

You know, the US government gets sued all the time, and they make settlements. This is not an outlandish arrangement. It actually makes a lot of sense. JD Vance was at the podium today. He did a great job. You know, the press secretary is on maternity leave, and, like, celebrities have been filling in, including, secretary of state, the vice president. Tina Peters. We reported, just the other day that she's being released on June 1. You know about her. She was fighting for election integrity in Colorado. They gave her nine years. Totally outrageous. Here is JD Vance talking about that very beautifully and at the same time, just such common sense. Alright? Our vice president today.