Trump Drops His IRS Lawsuit, Creates $1.776B "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to Reimburse Jan. 6 Rioters With Taxpayer Money

On May 19, 2026, Trump's Justice Department officially announced the establishment of the $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" — taxpayer money to reimburse MAGA allies Trump believes were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration. In exchange, Trump dropped his unprecedented $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS — which stemmed from, among other grievances, the 2022 raid of his Mar-a-Lago property. The amount — $1.776 billion — is a not-subtle nod to 1776, because even the grift needs patriotic branding.

How the scheme works

1. Trump drops his $10 billion IRS lawsuit — filed over the Mar-a-Lago raid and other grievances
2. His DOJ officially establishes the "$1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund" to compensate people who were allegedly "weaponized" against by the Biden administration
3. The commission draws from the Treasury Department's Judgment Fund — a permanent appropriation that does not require congressional approval
4. The commission has $1.776 billion to distribute
5. Trump can remove commission members without cause
6. The commission has no obligation to disclose its procedures, decision-making process, or the identities of recipients

To be clear: the president is settling a lawsuit with himself. His DOJ is agreeing to pay his allies from a fund his appointees control, drawn from taxpayer money that doesn't need congressional approval, with no transparency requirement. The "settlement" is the mechanism; the $1.776 billion slush fund is the product.

Who gets the money

Eligible recipients include:

• Nearly 1,600 January 6 defendants — the ones Trump already pardoned
• Anyone who claims they were harmed by the Biden administration's "weaponization" of the legal system
• "Entities associated with President Trump himself" — meaning Trump and his businesses could potentially receive money from a fund his own DOJ created to settle his own lawsuit

The January 6 defendants were already pardoned. Now they may be paid. With taxpayer money. From a secret fund. Without disclosure.

The structure is designed to avoid oversight

• Five commission members decide who gets money by majority vote
• Trump can fire any of them at will — meaning the commission serves at his pleasure
• No disclosure of procedures, criteria, or recipients
• Funded through the Judgment Fund — bypasses Congress entirely

Every element is designed to avoid the two things that normally prevent a president from paying his allies with public money: congressional approval and transparency.

The reaction

A House Democrat called it "the largest single act of grand larceny in American history." The Democracy Defenders Fund stated: "The IRS is not President Trump's personal ATM." NPR had reported earlier: "Trump would like the government he leads to pay him billions."

The context

This comes while:

• 1,000+ TSA officers quit during the 76-day DHS shutdown because they couldn't get paid
• Federal workers are being fired by the thousands via DOGE
• NIH grants cancelled — 40% budget cut, 7,800+ grants lost
• FEMA gutted before hurricane season
• Trump told Americans he doesn't think about their financial situation "not even a little bit"

The government can't fund TSA officers, can't fund FEMA, can't fund NIH, can't fund the Coast Guard during a war — but it can find $1.776 billion for a secret fund to pay the president's pardoned allies and potentially himself, drawn from Treasury without a vote, overseen by a commission he controls, with no public accounting of where the money goes.

The officers fight back

On May 20, Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and DC officer Daniel Hodges — both beaten defending the Capitol on Jan. 6 — filed the first legal challenge to the fund. Their lawsuit calls it "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century" and argues it violates the 14th Amendment's ban on paying debts "incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion." The men who were beaten defending democracy are now in court trying to stop the government from paying the men who beat them.