Grand Theft America / Receipt power-2026-08-01-023
Trump vows to revive the payout fund and threatens to run Justice through an acting head
Trump publicly commits to reviving the $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund and, in a Truth Social post, threatens to withdraw Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination and keep him on as acting attorney general.
What happened
Blanche's confirmation had stalled over a demand by outgoing Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis for written confirmation that the Justice Department would not establish the fund. Trump wrote that the fund “will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done”. The fund was crafted as part of a legal settlement between Trump and the Justice Department resolving his $10bn lawsuit against the IRS over his tax records. Opponents of the president consider it a slush fund to compensate political allies for political lawfare; supporters say it compensates people who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the government.
Why it matters
A confirmation conditioned on a written promise not to create the fund is answered by a threat to withdraw the nomination and keep the same nominee in the job without a Senate vote. The fund at issue originates in the settlement of the president's own lawsuit, so the department's payout instrument and the president's personal litigation are the same object — which is the fusion this indicator follows.
Receipt details
- Phase 1
- Capture the referees
- Put the independent agencies under White House control
