Trump’s second term has been marked by levels of
corruption unprecedented in US history. But the regime’s creation of a $1.8
billion slush fund for the president to dole out to insurrectionists and other
political allies is perhaps the most corrupt, lawless act of all.
In the United States, Congress has the power of the
purse. Only they have the constitutional authority to apportion funds. If a
president can raid the treasury through sham lawsuits and dole out our taxpayer
dollars as they choose, that’s an end-run around our constitutional order that
makes the executive not a coequal branch of government, but an autocratic one.
Congress cannot accept this usurpation of its power and subversion of our constitutional order. There are already several pieces of legislation in Congress that could block this money and create guardrails around federal settlement funds.
Every Member of Congress, regardless of party, should be opposed to this egregious overreach, and the good news is, members of both parties are. But we need to demand they go beyond concerned statements and actually act. The slush fund not only threatens to reward people who attempted to overturn a free and fair election, it incentivizes Trump’s rabid supporters to try to help him do so again.
And there’s no reason to expect this to be a one-time
gambit. If Congress doesn’t act, Trump could sue his own administration again
for some other imagined slight, order his underlings to settle, and draw new
funds for whatever program or patronage system he wants to implement.
But while the slush fund is unimaginably dangerous,
it’s equally unpopular. Polling shows that even a majority
of Republican voters oppose it. The fund is so unpopular that
it spurred a backlash on Capitol Hill and caused the GOP’s reconciliation bill
to stall in the Senate last week. Vulnerable Republicans in Congress know that
Trump’s corruption will be a liability in the midterms -- we need to keep up
the pressure and make them act, if not for loyalty to their oaths of office,
then in a desperate bid for political survival.
Congress will be back in session on Monday. Let’s
make sure when they return, their inboxes are flooded with demands to shut down
Trump’s corrupt slush fund.
If you’ve already emailed your Members of Congress, you
can drive the message home by calling as well. Click here to call your representative's office and
then contact your senators here.
In solidarity,
Indivisible Team
P.S. -- Today, a federal judge temporarily halted
payouts while legal challenges against the fund move through the courts. This
is good news, but we still need Congress to act, and we need every Member of
Congress on the record supporting or opposing the Trump regime’s corruption.
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