The idea of a president convincing his own Justice Department to furnish him with nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer cash seems too absurd to take seriously.
Putting aside unfathomable ethical implications, such a move would be one of the most glaring examples of a political tin ear in modern times, as many Americans struggle to pay rent or buy groceries.
For this reason, there must be a good chance that Donald Trump’s reported claims for damages over the DOJ’s past investigations into his conduct is a step too far even for him.
Yet Trump has often fashioned a new normality with his outlandish moves. His life in business and politics has been one long and lucrative attempt to apply leverage for personal or financial gain and to sate his thirst for payback. In an inverted political world, where he’s destroyed curbs that constrain presidents and turned the DOJ into a boutique personal law firm, the notion of a bumper personal payout cannot be immediately dismissed as a fantasy.
Trump declined the chance to do so himself in the Oval Office Tuesday after the New York Times reported on the claims. While he initially seemed hazy on details of the two claims, he didn’t rule anything out, saying they “could be” something he’d pursue.
And in his unique way, in which he sometimes seems more like a commentator on his own presidency than its perpetrator, he put his finger on what makes this situation so bizarre — without apparently computing why people are worried about the idea. “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” the president mused before his political antennae kicked in and he pledged to donate any money he might get to charity.
Although Trump has often described himself as the nation’s top legal officer, he wouldn’t in theory have the final say on the matter. That would fall to officials including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. But since Blanche is Trump’s former personal lawyer, that distinction may not matter very much.
A full 24 hours after the Times story broke, there was still no full on-the-record denial from the White House. The complaints were filed as an administrative claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act — a first step to see whether a settlement is possible before someone can sue for damages. The Times reported Trump was seeking $230 million in total compensation in claims filed before his reelection over alleged rights violations in the Russia investigation during his first term and the probe into his alleged hoarding of classified documents. CNN previously reported on that claim, which sought $100 million. Special counsel Robert Mueller did not find that Trump or his 2016 campaign conspired with Russia. The classified documents case was dropped when Trump won the 2024 election on the grounds that presidents cannot be prosecuted.
One word that rarely worries the White House: ethics
Trump would face multiple political and ethical hurdles if he decided to push his claims to a conclusion. The role of Blanche — who acted for the president and presumably billed him for his services in the classified documents case — is only one of the concerns.
To begin with, the symbolism of a billionaire president lining his pockets with taxpayer money would be jarring, especially when the government is shut down, thousands of essential workers are showing up without pay and nutrition benefits for needy Americans are in danger of running out.
“Particularly right now, we’re talking about a quarter of a billion dollars transferring, maybe, to the president when we’re in a shutdown posture, so it’s at very best bad timing, but I think it’s horrible optics,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who is more prone to speaking out than many of his Trump-fearing colleagues since he’s not seeking reelection.
Sen. Thom Tillis talks to reporters as he walks to the Senate Chamber at the US Capitol on June 25 in Washington, DC. – Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Even a Democratic Party that has struggled to pin down Trump with an effective counteroffensive could surely make hay with such a spectacle, especially amid a shutdown they triggered over high health care costs. Trump would risk a voter backlash in testing economic times. A CBS News poll earlier this month found that the economy, jobs and inflation were top concerns. Some 75% thought Trump wasn’t focusing enough on the price of goods and services at a time when he’s threatening to send troops into US cities, conducting lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats on the oceans, and pursuing personal vanity architectural projects.
Still, Trump has never shown great concern about reaching beyond his political base. And many of his voters share his view that he was persecuted by the Justice Department, despite substantial evidence of wrongdoing — which the president denied — and two grand jury indictments. He’s often proved he’s got more leeway than many pundits think.
“Taxpayers pay for a lot of things … about $2 trillion more than they should every year,” Trump loyalist and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Wednesday. “But I hope they work it out. And I know the president is just trying to put pressure on the DOJ, to say, ‘Listen, this was wrongly done.’”
An increasingly profligate administration
Any decision to pay Trump would underscore the president’s felling of the traditional wall between the White House and Justice Department.
Normally, the officials involved might be expected to recuse themselves. But the fate of Jeff Sessions, the Trump first-term attorney general who recused himself from any involvement in the Russia investigation — and bought himself a ticket out of the administration — offers a cautionary tale. And can there be any expectation that Blanche or Attorney General Pam Bondi would risk their jobs to defy Trump after multiple examples of Justice Department obedience to a president who is using the machinery of government to pursue his political enemies?
“I think it’s one more example where Donald Trump is using the Justice Department as his private playground, trying to fleece his pockets,” Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday. “He’s just going to just see if his puppets that he put in that Justice Department are going to perform for him … he doesn’t think they should conflict themselves out. Perhaps they will. But he deliberately put his personal lawyers in there.”
If Trump did snag a big payout from the DOJ, he’d exacerbate criticisms that he’s using his post to boost his personal and familial wealth, despite his past vows to “drain the swamp.” Democrats have complained that Trump and his clan made hundreds of millions of dollars in a cryptocurrency boom unleashed by his government’s friendly policies toward the industry. The US has meanwhile taken delivery of a jumbo jet from Qatar that he plans to use for his new Air Force One and that raised massive ethics concerns, given the Gulf nation’s role in US foreign policy. And first lady Melania Trump will feature in a big-budget Amazon documentary.
A DOJ award to the president would be the latest example of an administration increasingly willing to throw huge amounts of money at its pet projects while slashing government programs. The Washington Post reported last week that the Coast Guard plans to spend an estimated total of $200 million on two private jets to be used by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other top officials. And Trump is planning a $20 billion bailout of Argentina, conditional on voters supporting his populist friend and MAGA hero President Javier Milei.
A huge Justice Department payout to Trump might top all that. But surely, given all the political liabilities and ethical nightmares, he wouldn’t go ahead.
Or would he? Before this week, no one can have imagined that the wrecking-ball president would have demolished a beloved part of the White House, without consulting the people, the true owners of the home where he’s just a temporary resident.
But the historic ghosts of elegant quarters once graced by Jacqueline Kennedy now lay buried in the rubble of the East Wing, before Trump’s vast new ballroom rises — a kind of Mar-a-Lago on the Potomac.
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