Yesterday morning I wrote about what I (and others) have called The Most Brazenly Corrupt Act in the History of the United States of America.
Today, I’ll provide some follow up and some thoughts on Dem messaging.
But first, numbers!
Because in the scheme of our government, $1.8 billion is, in accounting terms, “immaterial” (In accounting, "immaterial" refers to information or transactions that are too insignificant to affect financial decisions or the overall presentation of financial statements). $1.8 billion is only 0.025% of the roughly $7 trillion the U.S. gov’t spent in fiscal 2025. For comparison’s sake, for the median earner in the U.S. who made about $62,000 in 2025, 0.025% equals $15.50.
However, a $1.8 billion slush fund is very, very big. How big?
You could give $100K each to 18,000 people, or
You could give $500K each to 3,600 people, or
You could give $5 million each to 360 people, or
You could keep it “in-house” and just give the whole $1.8 billion to the Trump family
But here’s the unmentioned secret. That $1.8 billion will earn a return while its waiting to be secretly disbursed (did I mention that the names of recipients and the amounts they receive will be kept secret? Small detail).
At 3% interest, $1.8 billion generates $54 million annually. That’s a lot of dough to spread around to J6 insurrectionists, Rudy Guliani, Walt Nauta down at Mar-a-Lago, this guy, and others. THIS MAKES IT 𝐀 POTENTIAL PERPETUAL GRIFTING MACHINE.
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On to the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” (“A-WF”), as it’s officially been named. Eerie, but it seems pretty similar to the Adolf Hitler Fund of German Trade and Industry established in 1933.
From Wikipedia (bolding emphasis mine):
According to Speer, entrepreneurs were requested to contribute in appreciation for their profits from the economic boom. Bormann then distributed some of the donations to various party leaders on behalf of Hitler.[1]
At first it was a voluntary donation, but during the following years it had become more and more of a forced contribution for some concerns. From the fund's inception through 1945 the NSDAP collected about 700 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €3 billion 2021).
Here are some salient details about the A-WF:
As I mentioned yesterday, the Fund is probably illegal. the judge overseeing Trump IRS lawsuit made it abundantly clear that there was no legal “settlement” from which funds can be drawn or transferred.
The Fund will be overseen by a 5-member Commission appointed by the Attorney General (Trump’s former personal defense lawyer). Trump can remove any commission member at any time for any reason.
As I mentioned above, the Fund explicitly states that all names and amounts disbursed will be kept secret.
The Fund “can” be audited (but doesn’t have to be; not mandatory) a the direction of the Attorney general.
The government is cleared of, and released from, any responsibility/culpability for the use of the funds once they are distributed to applicants.
Oh - Trump and his family get a formal apology from the U.S. government.
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Now, let’s talk messaging.
Oliver Willis has been on a bit of a tear on this subject:
Here’s Paul Waldman responding to Willis:
Willis and Waldman are right in this instance. Dems need to “just say it”. For some reason, Democrats have a deep aversion to playing hardball politics, which sometimes means making pronouncements that are generally true but harsh or connecting the dots between two or more disparate events and making the opposition defend that connection. It’s not illegal or immoral or unethical. It’s politics. And Republicans do it ALL THE TIME to our (our country’s and our party’s) detriment. JUST. SAY. IT.
Call it “The Trump Crime Spree”. Call it “The Trump Insurrection Fund”. Call It “The Republicans Stealing Your Taxpayer Money Fund”. Whatever, but CALL IT SOMETHING.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Barenaked Ladies - “If I Had a Million Dollars”
