I'm honestly trying not to be, John. Not because feeling anger about this is wrong, but because I want the people who are responsible for this -- the voters -- to fully experience the consequences of their votes. I think 2026 will go down as the year where the voters got their comeuppance. And I find that particularly satisfying.
I just want people to wrap their MF ing heads around what this is. Donald Trump has stolen $5 from every man, woman and child in the United States to pay off his insurrectionist buddies.
Honestly, I think this is too complicated for the MAGA mind to understand or even try to understand. All they will hear on Fox News is "Trump fund created for victims of left-wing weaponization" and not get any more context than that. The bubble is strong. And purely from a financial standpoint, $2bil is a drop in the bucket, so they are not going to directly "feel" it.
To each and every new stunt introduced by DJT I say; Bring it on! Let s get his numbers below the Bush line. Currently Democrats lead the generic poll by 11 - 12 points.
Andrew usually writes with a pretty healthy contempt for Trump and Trumpers. He is closer to that world than most of the Bulwark staff, so I think it hits pretty close to home .
I had this thought too. With the first payout of this slush fund, the January 6 insurrectionists will go from "allowed to commit violence in service to Trump" to "paid to commit violence in service of Trump".
How can anyone - with even a shred of a moral compass - find themselves in anything other than a state of white hot rage over the staggering corruption we are witnessing . . .
Sure. At the same time, however, this is what a plurality of the electorate wanted. Well, now they're getting it, and I must admit it's very satisfying to be proven right about what Trump 2.0 would bring.
Or how much cultural damage was being wrought by that one trans kid playing girl's high school volleyball in Minnesota school district [insert number here].
I'm a water system engineer. I have quite a few clients who are spending big bucks to comply with the PFOS/PFAS regulations. Now, just saying "nevermind" is a huge kick in the teeth to the entities who are trying to do the right thing. It's almost like MAGA has no interest in stable responsible governance.
This latest Trump ploy is unreal. I have no doubt the committee will find it necessary to award 90% of the 1.776 billion to Biden's biggest 'weaponized victim' Donald J Trump. The little people will get to split the rest.
Speaking of DHHS messes, it's not surprising that the Ebola outbreak in the Congo spread as quietly and as fast as it has because of our withdrawal from the WHO and the gutting of USAID. The communication channels and personnel just weren't there anymore.
If anyone still wonders if Trump is a malignant narcissist on a par with a serial killer they just don't want to see a rich white man as capable of that kind of evil...and this particular rich white man is also a serial pedophile to boot.
Exactly what I’m thinking - this isn’t for J6 ers as everyone keeps gasping about. This is a way to feed the MAGA base - look at what Trump is doing for us! And then to make the payout to himself and his entire family. Maybe he’ll throw a million or two to a few he wants to reward or keep close. The real dupes are as usual his base!
From what I've read, "settlement" is a misnomer. A settlement would have had to be approved by a judge. Trump moved to withdraw the case, which does not require any approval, then paid himself $1776 million dollars. Once his suit was withdrawn, he had no more right to the money than I do. He's stealing the money.
In similar cases, plaintiffs have received an apology from the IRS and settlements in the low four-figure dollar range. There was one at $50,000. A plaintiff whose entire business was destroyed as a result of the IRS disclosure received $4 million-something in damages. Trump has not even presented evidence as to harm to him or to his reputation.* In fact, he has thrived since the disclosure.
Then there is the supposed "weaponization" of the DoJ. Of the cases concluded before Trump issued pardons, the vast majority involved guilty pleas. of the small number of cases that went to trial, there were just 3 acquittals. More than a few lawyers have been disbarred or suspended from practicing law relative to the 1/6 scheme.
The way his demented self sees it, HE IS America, so its money is his (You can’t steal what’s yours). If he wants to give it away to vandals and cop-beaters who did it for him, or blow it on a ballroom we don’t need, or a war he promised he wouldn’t start, it’s his to do.
The fund created by the settlement wasn't motivated primarily by a desire to give $$ to Trump or his allies. It had to be settled before the DOJ would be forced to take a position in its brief that was due tomorrow on whether the case had two parties that were in fact adverse. To argue that there were would contradict the Unitary Executive theory, which is much more important to the regime than whether Trump or the J6ers get some money. To uphold the Unitary Executive theory would permit the Judge to dismiss the case anyway on those grounds, with unknown future effects on the next Trump self-dealing grift. The money and the mechanism to pay it out were clearly secondary considerations.
That’s a lot of words to write our President is a criminal who is stealing taxpayer money. From top to bottom the Administration and the Republican Party is nothing but a criminal enterprise. Stop talking about them like this is normal politics - the Republican Party has become a criminal organization and has taken control of the government.
You omitted something: it is a criminal organization that is operating with the blessing of 30% of the electorate. They're only getting away with this because the base lets them get away with it.
That just tells you that 30% of the electorate would be committing crimes against their fellow Americans if they could get away with it too. MAGA is the projection party after all.
Now imagine the Mafia had control of the Department of Justice and was getting a billion dollars of your tax money to recompense it for time its members spent in prison.
We are a nation of laws. I grew up and grew old believing that. So, how is it that a phony, two-bit, TV tough guy has turned that nation of laws into a lawless nation and its 50 states into nothing more than the phony tough guy’s territory? How is it that the world’s most-admired legal system, carefully constructed over 250 years, can be rendered all but impotent in a matter of months by a small-time grifter? How can it be that the world’s best and brightest are no match for a man widely regarded to be a cretin by those who have worked with him and for him? How is it that a man so vile, so dishonest, so disreputable and corrupt, can be deified by so many? How can it be that we now find ourselves living in a world so unmoored, so devoid of the rules of physics, that it feels as if it were created by Lewis Carroll? Alice, at least, wakes up with her head in her sister’s lap and realizes her adventure was just a dream. Will we wake up? Rise up? Will there come a day when we look back at this dark time and remember it as nothing more than a bad dream? Or is the bad dream no dream at all, but simply our past, present and future.
Fair... the real aim of my comment was not that Trump can be stopped of doing illegal things, but that the absurdity of these actions needs to be shouted from the rooftops such that every American is aware of this and every Republican is on the hook for supporting it.
I just wrote my Congressman to demand Dems start a discharge position to legislate that distributions of this money be made public. Yes, it likely won't happen, and if it did, Trump would veto it. But I want it on the record that each Republican congress member is just fine with Trump's corruption.
Even if it stays officially secret, some of these payouts will leak and I want it to be clear to all voters in November that Republicans are just fine with our taxpayer money being used this way.
"If they had a shred of dignity left, they’d impeach the son of a bitch today."
When you've radicalized Andrew Egger . . . . .
Trump has a simple 2 part agenda:
1. Hate filled retribution against "enemies".
2. Grifting the American taxpayer.
There is no part of his agenda that shows he cares for the American people, the job of the president.
For this reason alone he should be impeached and his MAGA supporters should be thrown out of power.
That is it in a nutshell.
I was pumping my fist for Andrew when I read that. 😄
I know, right? Andrew's always calm and a voice of reason. It goes to show that even the most level-headed of men have a breaking point.
I think I'm a pretty level-headed man and I'm muthaf#*cking fuming this morning...
I'm honestly trying not to be, John. Not because feeling anger about this is wrong, but because I want the people who are responsible for this -- the voters -- to fully experience the consequences of their votes. I think 2026 will go down as the year where the voters got their comeuppance. And I find that particularly satisfying.
I just want people to wrap their MF ing heads around what this is. Donald Trump has stolen $5 from every man, woman and child in the United States to pay off his insurrectionist buddies.
Ben, comports with my math, too. Although we should probably delete the Felon and his band of non-income tax paying oligarchs....
Honestly, I think this is too complicated for the MAGA mind to understand or even try to understand. All they will hear on Fox News is "Trump fund created for victims of left-wing weaponization" and not get any more context than that. The bubble is strong. And purely from a financial standpoint, $2bil is a drop in the bucket, so they are not going to directly "feel" it.
yeah. It's hopeless with the Fox News Crowd. But I imagine this could register with the Massie/MTG crowd.
To each and every new stunt introduced by DJT I say; Bring it on! Let s get his numbers below the Bush line. Currently Democrats lead the generic poll by 11 - 12 points.
Yeah, I haven't read or listened to Andrew for very long, but I wonder if he's ever been as fired up about something as he is about this slush fund?
Andrew usually writes with a pretty healthy contempt for Trump and Trumpers. He is closer to that world than most of the Bulwark staff, so I think it hits pretty close to home .
. . . .and left him cursing . . .
Amen
With his theft of the $1.776 billion, Trump has begun the funding of his own, personal mercenary army.
Dems need to call it what it is: "a tax-payer reparations fund for J6th cop-beaters"
Because it's not like Jim Comey is going to get a payout from this fund right?
And, as he has done with every company he has run, bankrupting the country.
With the faltering economy, there is no new revenue coming in to cover the extortion.
Next up; bankrupting US. Hey, King of debt! He loves spending other s money
I had this thought too. With the first payout of this slush fund, the January 6 insurrectionists will go from "allowed to commit violence in service to Trump" to "paid to commit violence in service of Trump".
Your congressman/woman (insert name here) allowed Trump to steal $1.8 billion from the US Treasury. Seems like a relevant ad for the coming elections.
Kim - my new sign for street side rally this week! Thank you
Suitable for framing! (in November)
Andrew: "If they had a shred of dignity left, they’d impeach the son of a bitch today."
< Tim falls off his chair laughing hysterically >
Is Senator McConnell available for comment? Senator Grassley? How about "Constitutionalist" Senators Cruz and Lee?
No?
Well, fuck you guys, too.
Susan Collins has concerns!
A capitulation of the entire Republican Party. Every time a criminal January 6er gets paid, it should be a story. Being em down with the truth!
Trouble is: it will all be secret. So how will we know?
How can anyone - with even a shred of a moral compass - find themselves in anything other than a state of white hot rage over the staggering corruption we are witnessing . . .
Sure. At the same time, however, this is what a plurality of the electorate wanted. Well, now they're getting it, and I must admit it's very satisfying to be proven right about what Trump 2.0 would bring.
You forget how crippling egg prices were on 2024! 😀
I wonder if the MAGAe are watching the 30 year bond yield this morning. As JVL would note, they did that.
Or how much cultural damage was being wrought by that one trans kid playing girl's high school volleyball in Minnesota school district [insert number here].
I'm breathlessly waiting for our newly appointed Fraud Czar, JD Vance, to get all over this blatant fraud and put the perpetrators in prison.
JD could try, but Trump would just pardon them.
No. They will all be Democrats. So they deserve what they receive. /s
Look no further than so called religious revival stunt last weekend in DC.
I'm a water system engineer. I have quite a few clients who are spending big bucks to comply with the PFOS/PFAS regulations. Now, just saying "nevermind" is a huge kick in the teeth to the entities who are trying to do the right thing. It's almost like MAGA has no interest in stable responsible governance.
Stable gov't doesn't ship cash directly to Trump. So it wouldn't be a priority for sure.
This latest Trump ploy is unreal. I have no doubt the committee will find it necessary to award 90% of the 1.776 billion to Biden's biggest 'weaponized victim' Donald J Trump. The little people will get to split the rest.
Speaking of DHHS messes, it's not surprising that the Ebola outbreak in the Congo spread as quietly and as fast as it has because of our withdrawal from the WHO and the gutting of USAID. The communication channels and personnel just weren't there anymore.
If anyone still wonders if Trump is a malignant narcissist on a par with a serial killer they just don't want to see a rich white man as capable of that kind of evil...and this particular rich white man is also a serial pedophile to boot.
Exactly what I’m thinking - this isn’t for J6 ers as everyone keeps gasping about. This is a way to feed the MAGA base - look at what Trump is doing for us! And then to make the payout to himself and his entire family. Maybe he’ll throw a million or two to a few he wants to reward or keep close. The real dupes are as usual his base!
From what I've read, "settlement" is a misnomer. A settlement would have had to be approved by a judge. Trump moved to withdraw the case, which does not require any approval, then paid himself $1776 million dollars. Once his suit was withdrawn, he had no more right to the money than I do. He's stealing the money.
In similar cases, plaintiffs have received an apology from the IRS and settlements in the low four-figure dollar range. There was one at $50,000. A plaintiff whose entire business was destroyed as a result of the IRS disclosure received $4 million-something in damages. Trump has not even presented evidence as to harm to him or to his reputation.* In fact, he has thrived since the disclosure.
Then there is the supposed "weaponization" of the DoJ. Of the cases concluded before Trump issued pardons, the vast majority involved guilty pleas. of the small number of cases that went to trial, there were just 3 acquittals. More than a few lawyers have been disbarred or suspended from practicing law relative to the 1/6 scheme.
* So-called.
The way his demented self sees it, HE IS America, so its money is his (You can’t steal what’s yours). If he wants to give it away to vandals and cop-beaters who did it for him, or blow it on a ballroom we don’t need, or a war he promised he wouldn’t start, it’s his to do.
Like Louis 14.
The fund created by the settlement wasn't motivated primarily by a desire to give $$ to Trump or his allies. It had to be settled before the DOJ would be forced to take a position in its brief that was due tomorrow on whether the case had two parties that were in fact adverse. To argue that there were would contradict the Unitary Executive theory, which is much more important to the regime than whether Trump or the J6ers get some money. To uphold the Unitary Executive theory would permit the Judge to dismiss the case anyway on those grounds, with unknown future effects on the next Trump self-dealing grift. The money and the mechanism to pay it out were clearly secondary considerations.
Bingo. Got it in under the wire to stop that.
“If they had a shred of dignity left, they’d impeach the son of a bitch today.”
It’s a terrible thing that this statement elicits feelings of both laughter and rage. Because, sadly: It’s true. And they do not.
That’s a lot of words to write our President is a criminal who is stealing taxpayer money. From top to bottom the Administration and the Republican Party is nothing but a criminal enterprise. Stop talking about them like this is normal politics - the Republican Party has become a criminal organization and has taken control of the government.
You omitted something: it is a criminal organization that is operating with the blessing of 30% of the electorate. They're only getting away with this because the base lets them get away with it.
That just tells you that 30% of the electorate would be committing crimes against their fellow Americans if they could get away with it too. MAGA is the projection party after all.
Now imagine the Mafia had control of the Department of Justice and was getting a billion dollars of your tax money to recompense it for time its members spent in prison.
I don't have to imagine that.
I believe it is Rick Wilson who has long referred to the Trump Regime as "gangster government". Apt description.
$1776 million. Because "L'État, c'est moi"
I love it when you speak French.
Bbbbbbb... buh buh billion. With a B.
$1776 million = $1.776 billion
Oh jesus lordy... hahaha my bad Lewis
We are a nation of laws. I grew up and grew old believing that. So, how is it that a phony, two-bit, TV tough guy has turned that nation of laws into a lawless nation and its 50 states into nothing more than the phony tough guy’s territory? How is it that the world’s most-admired legal system, carefully constructed over 250 years, can be rendered all but impotent in a matter of months by a small-time grifter? How can it be that the world’s best and brightest are no match for a man widely regarded to be a cretin by those who have worked with him and for him? How is it that a man so vile, so dishonest, so disreputable and corrupt, can be deified by so many? How can it be that we now find ourselves living in a world so unmoored, so devoid of the rules of physics, that it feels as if it were created by Lewis Carroll? Alice, at least, wakes up with her head in her sister’s lap and realizes her adventure was just a dream. Will we wake up? Rise up? Will there come a day when we look back at this dark time and remember it as nothing more than a bad dream? Or is the bad dream no dream at all, but simply our past, present and future.
Elect a crook, expect crime. Great job voters, just really well done. *Slow clap*
The corruption and graft is so brazen it's like no one knows how to react. It's demoralizing.
How can it be legal to dole out this money in secrecy? How can this not at least fall under FOIA rules?!?
The law is now whatever Republicans say it is, and it’s nobody’s beeswax. (I’ve become very cynical with Trump 2.0.)
"legal"...what a quaint concept anymore.
Fair... the real aim of my comment was not that Trump can be stopped of doing illegal things, but that the absurdity of these actions needs to be shouted from the rooftops such that every American is aware of this and every Republican is on the hook for supporting it.
I just wrote my Congressman to demand Dems start a discharge position to legislate that distributions of this money be made public. Yes, it likely won't happen, and if it did, Trump would veto it. But I want it on the record that each Republican congress member is just fine with Trump's corruption.
Even if it stays officially secret, some of these payouts will leak and I want it to be clear to all voters in November that Republicans are just fine with our taxpayer money being used this way.
YES!!!!!