This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.
Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.
IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.
The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.
The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.
Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.”
Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.
The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.
This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.
Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?
https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r
Within one 24 hour period, Trump:
- got out of a $100 million IRS fine
- secured "immunity" from all future tax investigations for his family and friends
- created a $1.8 billion slush fund for lawbreaking supporters
- was reported for likely insider trading worth nearly $1 billion
All of the obvious things to say about this are true. It's bad. Nobody even tries to defend it. The closest thing to a defense you get is something about how "but Democrats suck" and "woke was also bad," which is not a defense, but rather a kind of moral blank check made out to the administration to give them the right to do anything.
But what I'm most curious about is whether this sort of lurid corruption creates a countermovement that successfully returns government to rule of law or whether it's establishing a norm of executive imperialism that every future administration will use to achieve its ends, which can always be justified by the moral blank check of "the other side is worse, so let us do whatever we want."
🇺🇸 The IRS just agreed to never audit Trump again.
A one-page addition quietly attached to yesterday's $1.8 billion settlement permanently bars the IRS from examining Trump's tax returns, his family, and his companies.
The original settlement said nothing about taxes. This showed up the next day.
Former IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said he was "unaware of a single precedent where the IRS has agreed in advance to permanently forgo examination of previously filed tax returns for a specific person or business."
The settlement was sold as accountability. The extra page is a lifetime audit exemption for the president.
Source: POLITICO
been hanging out on rednote and one of the funniest things is when people in rural china come and dunk on me bc like. i can't even argue, bc they're objectively right. they'll be like "idiot americans have lawns and grow grass instead of vegetables. you can't even eat grass 😂"
You’re a racist piece of shit
The only time I can stomach Canadian sports garbage is in a context like this. Give me these guys bangra dancing any day over a bunch of white supremacists rioting because their fucking team won
Thanks for posting this and giving me the opportunity to point out how horrible you white Canadian sports fans are