THE MOBSTER’S NEW SCHEMES

WERE THIS A 1930S MOBSTER FLICK, it would be absurd but entertaining. But, instead, it’s the warped reality of Trump the Don, his consigliere Todd Blanche, and others of his mobster underlings.

Trump Sues the Government (i.e., Us). This recent brouhaha began on January 29, 2026, when Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization sued the I.R.S. as being responsible for the leak of their confidential tax returns by an agency contractor. 

Pause for translation: The I.R.S. itself didn’t do the leaking; contractor Charles Littlejohn did (and he’s currently in stir for it). However, the Trump mob figured why not go after the people with the money, i.e., the I.R.S., the U.S. government, us. Like Willie Sutton apocryphally said about robbing banks: “because that’s where the money is.”

Did Trump Have a Chance of Winning the Suit? NPR, February 18, 2026, quoted Edward Whelan, former lawyer at the Justice Department and a political conservative who once clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia: “There is a glaring conflict of interest with Trump being on both sides of the claim. It is outrageous that he and those answering to him would be deciding how the government responds to these extravagant claims.”

Notes The New York Times, May 19, 2026, “I.R.S. officials prepared a 25-page memorandum outlining what they saw as flaws in Mr. Trump’s suit and advising the Justice Department to move to dismiss it, according to two people familiar with the memo. That memo was provided to Treasury officials in April, and it is unclear if they passed it along to its intended recipients at the Justice Department, according to the people, who spoke anonymously to discuss internal government deliberations.”

A Deal Struck. The headline reads, “The I.R.S Thought It Could Fight Trump’s Lawsuit, But It Struck a Deal Anyway.” The Times’ Andrew Duehren describes, “The Justice Department instead made a highly unusual deal in the case. In exchange for Mr. Trump’s dropping the suit, the Trump administration created the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for people who say they were wrongly targeted by the federal government.”

Another pause for translation: Here, for “the federal government,” read “Democrats” or “the Biden Administration.” And note the inanity of choosing specifically 1.776 billion; some sort of Mob in-joke??

Images from Andy Borowitz Substack.

Duehren continues, “While the Justice Department has said that Mr. Trump will not receive money from the new fund, critics have slammed the arrangement as a corrupt attempt at paying Mr. Trump’s political supporters, including, potentially, those who were convicted and later pardoned for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Here’s an image of people being wronged. My pick: It’s the people on the right.

Not surprisingly, Duehren reports, “The Treasury Department and the I.R.S. did not respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department did not respond to questions about why it chose to settle the case.”

Enter Consigliere Blanche. Duehren further describes, “Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, will be able to appoint five people to a commission that will oversee the disbursement of the money, though Mr. Trump can fire any of those people at will. The Justice Department has so far offered few other details about who will be eligible for payments from the fund.”

An Editorial Board’s View. No less than the Editorial Board of The New York Times states “There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This,” May 20, 2026: It summarizes, “The fund manages to combine three of Mr. Trump’s most alarming behaviors. One, it is an obvious form of corruption, coming from a president who has used his office to enrich himself, his family and his allies. Two, the fund continues his pattern of using the Justice Department as an enforcer to punish his perceived opponents and protect his friends and allies. Three, the fund is his latest attempt to rewrite history about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.”

“After President Richard Nixon’s abuses in the Watergate scandal,” the Editorial Board describes, “Congress and the executive branch built rules and traditions to ensure that federal agencies, especially the Justice Department, operated in the public interest, rather than that of the president. Mr. Trump has tried to break this system. Once he is gone, it will need to be rebuilt, and better than before. He has exposed and exploited its flaws and gaps. Unless they are filled, Mr. Trump’s corruption and perversion of justice risk becoming the norm.”

“In the meantime,” the Editorial Board concludes, “Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals.”

Get Out Of Jail Free. Sam Levine reports “U.S. Justice Department ‘Forever’ Bars IRS From Auditing Trump’s Past Returns,” The Guardian, May 19, 2026: “The addendum, signed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, says the government is ‘forever barred’ and ‘precluded’ from examining the tax returns of Trump, his family, company and ‘related companies.’ The agreement applies to anything filed before the agreement was reached. It was posted on the justice department website on Tuesday morning, a day after the department announced creation of the fund.”

By the way, Brian Morrissey, the Treasury Department’s general counsel, resigned in protest over creation of this “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”  

Who’da Thunk? The Guardian summarizes, “Later in the day, Trump said he ‘wasn’t involved in’ the creation of the fund and said it would be run by a committee of ‘very talented people.’ ”

Yeah, sure. And who’s Capo di Tutti Capi of this committee? ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026