Newsmax host defends Trump's “weaponization” fund

One senator called the arrangement “a $1.7 billion slush fund for right-wing political violence and subversion”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

The New York Times reports:

The Trump administration announced on Monday the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and Democrats, forging a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies.

The highly unusual “anti-weaponization” fund was denounced by critics as a slush fund and as a brazen misuse of a once-independent Justice Department to carry out the president’s personal and political agendas.

The announcement provided few details of how the disbursement would work or who would be eligible. But the arrangement raised the possibility that American taxpayers might end up writing checks to those prosecuted for the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and others the president has cast as victims of Biden administration actions.

“This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history,” said Donald K. Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal watchdog group that has been critical of the administration.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) criticized the arrangement as "a $1.7 billion slush fund for right-wing political violence and subversion.”

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) issued a statement calling the arrangement the most serious misuse of taxpayer funds by a sitting president. In his statement, Wyden focused specifically on the Anti-Weaponization Fund, including its apparent purpose of compensating third-party claimants for alleged harms unrelated to the IRS data leak claims at the heart of the dismissed lawsuit.

“Regardless of whether Trump filed this lawsuit with a personal payday or a slush fund in mind, he deserves no credit for dropping it,” Wyden said, adding that the fund represented “a stunning act of corruption.” He described it as “a $1.7 billion slush fund for right-wing political violence and subversion” and said that if Trump follows through, “it will be the most brazen theft and abuse of taxpayer dollars by any president in American history.”

From the May 18, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Carl Higbie: Frontline

CARL HIGBIE (HOST): So the latest freak out from the left is because Trump dropped — he dropped — his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a $1.776 — 1776 — billion dollar fund set up for truth and justice compensation for people who were victims of Biden's weaponization of government, which there are a lot of.

It's apparently, though, a scam according to Democrats. Keep in mind, Trump and his family will get $0 in exchange for just simply an apology from the IRS and a fund set up for every other person who Biden targeted, but not himself. Kinda like the Trump org when they couldn't get any COVID money whatsoever, but everyone else did. But the left is still freaking out. Wow. Trump's enriching himself off the taxpayers. No. Wrong. But here's a US senator saying it anyway.

...

Hey, Chris — my senator, unfortunately — Trump's not making billions of dollars off the government. In fact, he's not even taking a paycheck. So, technically, you, Chris, are taking more money from the government than he is.

But let me explain why Trump was suing the federal government in the first place. And I'll do it like you're five because clearly you aren't winning any IQ tests recently. See, when the federal government was run by idiots and Democrats like you, Senator Murphy, there was this guy named Charles Littlejohn who used to work for the IRS. He had high level access, who is, by the way, now in jail for five years. And why is that? Well, Carl, I'll tell you. Because he accessed secure lock specific need to know information that were in fact Trump's tax returns. Actually, the whole family's tax returns, about a 100 other people from the Trump organization along with 400,000 other people's tax returns. Then he leaked it to the New York Times and ProPublica. Yeah. He was convicted of that. That's not an opinion. That's a proven fact in court. And under US code 26 7431, it's a $1,000 fine per disclosure.