President Donald Trump injected fresh uncertainty over the status and future of the “anti-weaponization” fund Wednesday, a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department would no longer pursue the $1.8 billion fund, which has sparked bipartisan blowback.
Asked in the Oval Office whether the fund was dead or just on hold, Trump responded: “I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don’t know.”
“The weaponization fund, as far as I’m concerned, was a beautiful thing,” he told reporters. “I love it. I think it’s so important.”
The Trump administration signaled Monday that it was going to back off creating the fund after a federal judge temporarily blocked it. The Justice Department said in a statement Monday that while it “disagrees strongly with the decision,” it will “abide by the Court’s ruling.”
Pressed about the matter Tuesday, Blanche said at a congressional hearing that the Justice Department was “not moving forward with the fund, period.” He declined to put the commitment in writing.
After Trump’s comments Wednesday, his first public remarks about the fund since the Justice Department’s court filing, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on X: “This is EXACTLY why @SenateDems will be forcing a vote this week to outlaw Trump’s MAGA slush fund permanently.”
The Justice Department created the fund last month as part of a settlement between the IRS and Trump, the Trump Organization and two of the president’s sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — after Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the IRS over his leaked tax documents.
Both Democrats and Republicans have condemned the fund, which was designed to compensate Trump allies who were “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” In their early defense of the fund, administration officials did not rule out providing compensation to Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump who were convicted of violently attacking police as they stormed the Capitol.
Even before Trump’s comments Wednesday, several congressional Democrats warned that they needed to pursue legislation to permanently shut down the fund.
“Not taking Blanche’s word for it,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote Tuesday on X. “Congress must kill this corrupt ‘anti-weaponization’ slush fund so every Republican is on record.”
