{"id":152571,"date":"2026-05-21T15:08:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/21\/my-big-fat-presidents-big-fat-misappropriation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T15:08:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:08:59","slug":"my-big-fat-presidents-big-fat-misappropriation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/21\/my-big-fat-presidents-big-fat-misappropriation\/","title":{"rendered":"My Big Fat President\u2019s Big Fat Misappropriation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is anyone else outraged about the $1.776 billion slush fund<\/a> for Trump\u2019s cronies aka supporters that is coming out of our tax dollars? How do we say \u201cno way\u201d? Time for another Tea Party revolt? Not the one in 2010 but the original one in Boston in 1773.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My ATL colleagues are similarly outraged as every taxpayer should be<\/a>. Steven Chung\u2019s analysis lays out the the details<\/a> of the Trump lawsuit, the settlement, and why Trump has access to the government judgment fund. <\/p>\n

Remember how Stephen Colbert characterized the \u201csettlement\u201d by Paramount over Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the CBS network\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d as a \u201cbig fat bribe<\/a>\u201d? How about characterizing this latest money grab for Trump\u2019s cronies and followers as a \u201cbig fat theft\u201d? This latest Trump foray<\/a> into litigation land puts both the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s and Watergate in the 1970s to shame. Both those scandals were in Republican administrations, first Warren Harding in the 1920s and Richard Nixon in the 1970s, and now Trump. Three for three. Res ipsa loquitur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Time for another Boston Tea Party? Given that this year is the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, that may be appropriate. Hopefully, there will be a lot of taxpayer lawsuits ahead. We can only hope.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the world continues to turn, burn, or churn. Choose a verb.<\/p>\n

With the general bar exam just about two months away, after the graduations, parties, and other celebrations, it will be time to hunker time and study, trying to cram in all the material necessary to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The goal is to pass the first time. What kind of confidence should you have in order to prepare for that exam that is the start of your professional future? For many people, studying for the bar is a full-time job. It\u2019s reviewing the bar tested subjects over and over again (rinse and repeat), taking practice exams after practice exams ad nauseam, ditto multistate (or, as I prefer to call it, multiguess.) It\u2019s taking a bar review course. It\u2019s studying almost nonstop. This is the chance to make it to the other side, from law student to practicing attorney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are many peeps who didn\u2019t pass the bar the first time who went on to very successful legal careers. But the delay means added expense, added time, and usually the start of repaying whatever student loans are out there.<\/p>\n

By the way, the California State Bar Board of Trustees is recommending the implementation of the Next Gen Uniform Bar Exam in 2028 and the addition of a California component as soon as practicable after the statutorily required two-year notice. What will comprise that California component? That\u2019s up to the State Supreme Court to advise as to what subjects and skills should be tested<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How confident should you be going into the bar exam? Confidence can range from a negative number (what I had all those years ago) to what Michael Milken (the junk bond king of the 1980s) called \u201chighly confident<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0 <\/p>\n

There is now a new type of confidence:\u00a0\u201ctoxic confidence<\/a>.\u201d Although it may not have been called that, toxic confidence has been around as long as there have been lawyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember the old days of self-effacement, self-deprecation, and making sure that everyone involved gets a share of the credit for whatever? Those days are so pre-2016. Everywhere you look, there are lawyers (and others) who gladly embrace being numero uno. It\u2019s gone way beyond marketing. At the conclusion of the classic noir movie, \u201cWhite Heat,\u201d James Cagney says<\/a> that he is on top of the world. (And if you have never seen this classic, add it to your streaming queue.)<\/p>\n

Toxic confidence is expertise on LinkedIn, but is it really expertise? It\u2019s often the belief in supreme self-confidence. The issue is to what extent ego creates a level of unwarranted confidence that can play havoc with a healthy dose of trepidation. Just as no one knows what a judge or jury is going to do, the same holds true for the bar exam. Be prepared, but not overconfident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She\u2019s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact \u2014 it\u2019s not always civil. You can reach her by email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>oldladylawyer@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post My Big Fat President\u2019s Big Fat Misappropriation<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is anyone else outraged about the $1.776 billion slush fund<\/a> for Trump\u2019s cronies aka supporters that is coming out of our tax dollars? How do we say \u201cno way\u201d? Time for another Tea Party revolt? Not the one in 2010 but the original one in Boston in 1773.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My ATL colleagues are similarly outraged as every taxpayer should be<\/a>. Steven Chung\u2019s analysis lays out the the details<\/a> of the Trump lawsuit, the settlement, and why Trump has access to the government judgment fund. <\/p>\n

Remember how Stephen Colbert characterized the \u201csettlement\u201d by Paramount over Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the CBS network\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d as a \u201cbig fat bribe<\/a>\u201d? How about characterizing this latest money grab for Trump\u2019s cronies and followers as a \u201cbig fat theft\u201d? This latest Trump foray<\/a> into litigation land puts both the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s and Watergate in the 1970s to shame. Both those scandals were in Republican administrations, first Warren Harding in the 1920s and Richard Nixon in the 1970s, and now Trump. Three for three. Res ipsa loquitur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Time for another Boston Tea Party? Given that this year is the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, that may be appropriate. Hopefully, there will be a lot of taxpayer lawsuits ahead. We can only hope.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the world continues to turn, burn, or churn. Choose a verb.<\/p>\n

With the general bar exam just about two months away, after the graduations, parties, and other celebrations, it will be time to hunker time and study, trying to cram in all the material necessary to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The goal is to pass the first time. What kind of confidence should you have in order to prepare for that exam that is the start of your professional future? For many people, studying for the bar is a full-time job. It\u2019s reviewing the bar tested subjects over and over again (rinse and repeat), taking practice exams after practice exams ad nauseam, ditto multistate (or, as I prefer to call it, multiguess.) It\u2019s taking a bar review course. It\u2019s studying almost nonstop. This is the chance to make it to the other side, from law student to practicing attorney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are many peeps who didn\u2019t pass the bar the first time who went on to very successful legal careers. But the delay means added expense, added time, and usually the start of repaying whatever student loans are out there.<\/p>\n

By the way, the California State Bar Board of Trustees is recommending the implementation of the Next Gen Uniform Bar Exam in 2028 and the addition of a California component as soon as practicable after the statutorily required two-year notice. What will comprise that California component? That\u2019s up to the State Supreme Court to advise as to what subjects and skills should be tested<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How confident should you be going into the bar exam? Confidence can range from a negative number (what I had all those years ago) to what Michael Milken (the junk bond king of the 1980s) called \u201chighly confident<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0 <\/p>\n

There is now a new type of confidence:\u00a0\u201ctoxic confidence<\/a>.\u201d Although it may not have been called that, toxic confidence has been around as long as there have been lawyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember the old days of self-effacement, self-deprecation, and making sure that everyone involved gets a share of the credit for whatever? Those days are so pre-2016. Everywhere you look, there are lawyers (and others) who gladly embrace being numero uno. It\u2019s gone way beyond marketing. At the conclusion of the classic noir movie, \u201cWhite Heat,\u201d James Cagney says<\/a> that he is on top of the world. (And if you have never seen this classic, add it to your streaming queue.)<\/p>\n

Toxic confidence is expertise on LinkedIn, but is it really expertise? It\u2019s often the belief in supreme self-confidence. The issue is to what extent ego creates a level of unwarranted confidence that can play havoc with a healthy dose of trepidation. Just as no one knows what a judge or jury is going to do, the same holds true for the bar exam. Be prepared, but not overconfident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She\u2019s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact \u2014 it\u2019s not always civil. You can reach her by email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>oldladylawyer@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post My Big Fat President\u2019s Big Fat Misappropriation<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is anyone else outraged about the $1.776 billion slush fund for Trump\u2019s cronies aka supporters that is coming out of our tax dollars? How do we say \u201cno way\u201d? Time for another Tea Party revolt? Not the one in 2010 but the original one in Boston in 1773.\u00a0 My ATL colleagues are similarly outraged as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}