Trump’s slush fund offers countless ways to grift: analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event at The Villages Charter School at The Villages, Florida, U.S., May 1, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard

President Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion “slush fund” is a “multitool for corruption and maintaining MAGA discipline,” argues The Bulwark‘s editor, Jonathan V. Last, suggesting there are multiple ways Trump can use the fund — all involving corruption.

One of the obvious ways is bribery, writes Last. But another way is “more subtle,” he says. “It’s about holding people on side.”

Last reminds readers the president figured out that by using private lawsuits in civil court, he could “legalize bribery and extortion.” He explains, “that’s what his defamation suits against CBS and ABC were.”

“Trump understood that while it might be illegal to go to CBS and ABC and demand that they pay him protection money, he could use a civil lawsuit as justification for creating a private legal contract that amounted to the same thing,” writes Last. “He further understood that if he filed a civil suit against the U.S. government and then became president, he could direct the government to settle with him on whatever terms he desired.”

That’s how the $1.776 billion fund was created.

Last notes that Trump’s fund sunsets — disappears — just before he leaves office, so no other president can use it. But there’s another reason.

“If you were Trump, would you pay out money before your last days in office?” Last asks. “Because I would not.”

He argues that it’s more effective to pay out a few people early during the life of the fund to establish its legitimacy, then stop.

By stopping, you turn the problem of having just “1,700 million-dollar portions” into “tens of billions of dollars’ worth of promises.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you; you just have to wait a little bit longer,” Trump might say, while those who filed claims could be “thinking that, since he’s going to pay up at the very end, there’s enough cash for them to get theirs.”

That is how Trump can use the fund to solve the problem of being a “politically weak” lame duck president.

“Maybe the POTUS is becoming unpopular, so candidates need to distance themselves from him,” Last writes. “Maybe party elites are thinking about the future and how to take over once the old man is gone.”

The fund offers “the promise of a tangible reward for Republicans to stay on his side. Be nice to him. Do what he asks. Don’t freelance. And maybe there’s a pot of gold for you at the end of the rainbow.”

“It will encourage them to modulate what they say. And within the rest of the Republican ecosystem, having more people on-side than there otherwise would be will have a force-multiplier effect. Seeing people stick with Trump will cause more people to stick with Trump.”

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