Even by Trumpian standards, a $1.8bn fund for friends is bad

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.American courts are not supposed to be venues for performance art. If counter-parties in a lawsuit do not have adverse interests—say, because they answer to the same person—judges balk. So when Donald Trump sued his own administration seeking $10bn in damages, the judge had questions.

Rather than address them, on May 18th the president dropped his suit altogether. In exchange he secured a commitment by his own administration to compensate victims of government “lawfare”, to the tune of $1.8bn. In maga-speak, that means political allies prosecuted by Democrats: think January 6th rioters, pro-life activists and the like.

The scheme is of a piece with the self-dealing and the shakedowns that have defined this presidency. Rather than line his own pockets with taxpayer money—Mr Trump is not taking a cut himself—this one will line his supporters’.The lawsuit originated with a genuine wrong to the president. Between 2018 and 2020 a contractor at the Internal Revenue Service (irs) named Charles Littlejohn illegally leaked Mr Trump’s tax returns to the New York Times and ProPublica, an investigative outlet.

Mr Littlejohn was prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison. Other billionaires also had their information exposed, including Ken Griffin, a hedge-fund tycoon. Both Mr Griffin and Mr Trump sued the irs.

But whereas Mr Griffin only sought an apology, which he got, Mr Trump demanded $10bn. Never before had a president sued his own administration. “Essentially the lawsuit’s been won,” he said back in February, a seeming acknowledgment of the stitch-up.A standard payout for people with breach-of-confidentiality claims is $1,000 per violation.