{"id":159391,"date":"2026-08-03T14:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T22:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/03\/the-trump-slush-fund-is-dead-long-live-the-trump-slush-fund\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T22:47:34","slug":"the-trump-slush-fund-is-dead-long-live-the-trump-slush-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/03\/the-trump-slush-fund-is-dead-long-live-the-trump-slush-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Slush Fund Is Dead. Long Live The Trump Slush Fund."},"content":{"rendered":"

Late Sunday night, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a signed order to X<\/a> rescinding the Anti-Weaponization Fund<\/a>. The death of the Trump slush fund, that is, the fund personally created by Blanche earlier this year as part of a deal to drop Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns,\u00a0is something Blanche has repeatedly said, but (until last night) wouldn\u2019t write down. But the written commitment is what Senators Cornyn and Tillis had been demanding for weeks while Blanche insisted, over and over, that words said out loud were plenty sufficient and what on earth would be the purpose of writing anything down. Now that *something* is on paper, the Senate Judiciary Committee has rescheduled its vote on his confirmation for Tuesday. He\u2019ll almost certainly get through.<\/p>\n

But I wouldn\u2019t get too excited about the end of the slush fund. <\/p>\n

The order reads, \u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s May 18, 2026 Order establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund (\u2018Fund\u2019) is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.\u201d A second document purports to affirm the limits of Trump\u2019s tax audit immunity, narrowing it to the original plaintiffs. Cornyn and Tillis declared themselves satisfied. \u201cWe are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund,\u201d they said in a joint statement, adding they \u201clook forward to voting to advance his nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not AT ALL some enforceable guarantee that the American people will be protected from another slush fund dressed in a trench coat. There\u2019s the, ahem, shaky legal ground of a unilateral modification to a settlement agreement<\/a>. Plus an AG order rescinding a previous AG order can be superseded by \u2014 wait for it \u2014 another AG order! As Republican lawyer Mike Howell admitted, \u201cCan be undone after Tuesday<\/a>.\u201d The slush fund is dead, long live the slush fund.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s what we actually know \u2014 Trump wants the fund back. He said so Saturday morning.<\/a> Blanche wants whatever Trump wants, something he\u2019s made abundantly clear for the last 18 months.<\/a> This order is nothing more than a smokescreen, designed to get Blanche through the confirmation process. Nothing more. Pretending it is real is an insidious form of gullible that allows terrible abuses to occur.<\/p>\n

Oh, and while we\u2019re establishing that rumors of fund\u2019s death are greatly exaggerated: Jezebel reported last week<\/a> that anti-abortion extremist Paul Vaughn, one of 23 Trump pardoned activists convicted under the FACE Act<\/a> for blocking access to reproductive health clinics, received a $1 million payout from the DOJ. \u201cThis unlawful seven-figure payout to an anti-abortion extremist is all the proof the Senate should need that the so-called anti-weaponization slush fund is far from dead,\u201d the National Women\u2019s Law Center told Jezebel. The fund doesn\u2019t even need to formally exist to do its work.<\/p>\n

All this is a familiar page of the Trump 2.0 confirmation playbook. Senator Bill Cassidy conditioned his support for RFK Jr.\u2019s confirmation on specific promises about vaccines<\/a>, promises Kennedy proceeded to break almost immediately after being confirmed, firing the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory panel, cutting vaccine funding, and adding baseless content to the CDC website casting doubt on vaccine safety. Cassidy has declined to say whether Kennedy broke his commitments. Now Cassidy is watching Cornyn and Tillis extract written commitments from Blanche on the slush fund, and one imagines he has some institutional knowledge about how this plays out. But the GOP of 2026 has about as much spine as a wet noodle. When CBS News asked<\/a> Cassidy last week whether he\u2019d vote for Blanche today, his answer was: \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer that because I\u2019m still in the information gathering stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd Blanche will be confirmed as Attorney General of the United States. He will almost certainly still be sycophantic about it<\/a>. And when the slush fund comes back \u2014 in some form, under some name, in some creative reinterpretation of what \u201crescinded\u201d means \u2014 I, for one, will nod and say: yes, of course it did.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Trump: I\u2019ll Pull Blanche\u2019s Nomination And Resubmit After Cornyn And Tillis Are Gone. Cornyn: Cool, Roll The Dice.<\/a>
Todd Blanche\u2019s Confirmation Vote Gets Postponed Because He Just Won\u2019t Put His Promises In Writing<\/a>
Blanche Pantsed By Trump Rants<\/a>
Todd Blanche\u2019s Confirmation Is Being Held Up By Todd Blanche<\/a>
The DOJ\u2019s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Has A Child Molester Problem<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post The Trump Slush Fund Is Dead. Long Live The Trump Slush Fund.<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Late Sunday night, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a signed order to X<\/a> rescinding the Anti-Weaponization Fund<\/a>. The death of the Trump slush fund, that is, the fund personally created by Blanche earlier this year as part of a deal to drop Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns,\u00a0is something Blanche has repeatedly said, but (until last night) wouldn\u2019t write down. But the written commitment is what Senators Cornyn and Tillis had been demanding for weeks while Blanche insisted, over and over, that words said out loud were plenty sufficient and what on earth would be the purpose of writing anything down. Now that *something* is on paper, the Senate Judiciary Committee has rescheduled its vote on his confirmation for Tuesday. He\u2019ll almost certainly get through.<\/p>\n

But I wouldn\u2019t get too excited about the end of the slush fund. <\/p>\n

The order reads, \u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s May 18, 2026 Order establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund (\u2018Fund\u2019) is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.\u201d A second document purports to affirm the limits of Trump\u2019s tax audit immunity, narrowing it to the original plaintiffs. Cornyn and Tillis declared themselves satisfied. \u201cWe are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund,\u201d they said in a joint statement, adding they \u201clook forward to voting to advance his nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not AT ALL some enforceable guarantee that the American people will be protected from another slush fund dressed in a trench coat. There\u2019s the, ahem, shaky legal ground of a unilateral modification to a settlement agreement<\/a>. Plus an AG order rescinding a previous AG order can be superseded by \u2014 wait for it \u2014 another AG order! As Republican lawyer Mike Howell admitted, \u201cCan be undone after Tuesday<\/a>.\u201d The slush fund is dead, long live the slush fund.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s what we actually know \u2014 Trump wants the fund back. He said so Saturday morning.<\/a> Blanche wants whatever Trump wants, something he\u2019s made abundantly clear for the last 18 months.<\/a> This order is nothing more than a smokescreen, designed to get Blanche through the confirmation process. Nothing more. Pretending it is real is an insidious form of gullible that allows terrible abuses to occur.<\/p>\n

Oh, and while we\u2019re establishing that rumors of fund\u2019s death are greatly exaggerated: Jezebel reported last week<\/a> that anti-abortion extremist Paul Vaughn, one of 23 Trump pardoned activists convicted under the FACE Act<\/a> for blocking access to reproductive health clinics, received a $1 million payout from the DOJ. \u201cThis unlawful seven-figure payout to an anti-abortion extremist is all the proof the Senate should need that the so-called anti-weaponization slush fund is far from dead,\u201d the National Women\u2019s Law Center told Jezebel. The fund doesn\u2019t even need to formally exist to do its work.<\/p>\n

All this is a familiar page of the Trump 2.0 confirmation playbook. Senator Bill Cassidy conditioned his support for RFK Jr.\u2019s confirmation on specific promises about vaccines<\/a>, promises Kennedy proceeded to break almost immediately after being confirmed, firing the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory panel, cutting vaccine funding, and adding baseless content to the CDC website casting doubt on vaccine safety. Cassidy has declined to say whether Kennedy broke his commitments. Now Cassidy is watching Cornyn and Tillis extract written commitments from Blanche on the slush fund, and one imagines he has some institutional knowledge about how this plays out. But the GOP of 2026 has about as much spine as a wet noodle. When CBS News asked<\/a> Cassidy last week whether he\u2019d vote for Blanche today, his answer was: \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer that because I\u2019m still in the information gathering stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd Blanche will be confirmed as Attorney General of the United States. He will almost certainly still be sycophantic about it<\/a>. And when the slush fund comes back \u2014 in some form, under some name, in some creative reinterpretation of what \u201crescinded\u201d means \u2014 I, for one, will nod and say: yes, of course it did.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Trump: I\u2019ll Pull Blanche\u2019s Nomination And Resubmit After Cornyn And Tillis Are Gone. Cornyn: Cool, Roll The Dice.<\/a>
Todd Blanche\u2019s Confirmation Vote Gets Postponed Because He Just Won\u2019t Put His Promises In Writing<\/a>
Blanche Pantsed By Trump Rants<\/a>
Todd Blanche\u2019s Confirmation Is Being Held Up By Todd Blanche<\/a>
The DOJ\u2019s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Has A Child Molester Problem<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late Sunday night, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a signed order to X rescinding the Anti-Weaponization Fund. The death of the Trump slush fund, that is, the fund personally created by Blanche earlier this year as part of a deal to drop Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":159374,"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-159391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-81wq67.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159391","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=159391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}