The day after the Trump administration unveiled its unprecedented $1.776 billion compensation fund, Donald Trump suggested to reporters that he had nothing to do with it.
“I guess they made a settlement of some kind,” the president said on Wednesday. “I wasn’t involved.”
That detached posture didn’t last. Less than 48 hours later, Trump published an item to his social media platform in which he boasted about his direct role “in allowing” the fund “to go forward.” The same online statement added that, with these taxpayer resources, “I am helping others.”
The problem is obvious: Either the president was completely in the dark about an agreement he wasn’t involved in, or he personally allowed the initiative to advance as part of his commitment to magnanimity. It can’t be both.
The contradiction was jarring, but it was hardly the only bogus claim surrounding the highly controversial initiative.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama tried to defend the fund by arguing, apparently in reference to Jan. 6 rioters, “We are going to compensate people who were wrongly denied access to a lawyer.” In reality, all of the Jan. 6 rioters who were charged as part of the attack had defense counsel.
Two days earlier, Tuberville, who’s currently running for governor in Alabama, also argued, as part of the same defense, “Hundreds of innocent patriots sat behind bars over this made-up witch hunt.” Such rhetoric might placate conservatives, but it doesn’t change the fact that the justice system took steps to hold Jan. 6 rioters accountable for their actions, which is the opposite of a “made-up witch hunt.”
Speaking of GOP gubernatorial candidates floating bad arguments, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida told Fox News that the $1.776 billion fund exists as an extension of the president’s silly lawsuit against the IRS.
“The dollars are there because the IRS lost its case,” Donalds argued.
Except, the IRS didn’t lose its case. In fact, it was well positioned to win its case before Trump voluntarily withdrew his own litigation. Donalds, just days after these developments, described an imaginary set of circumstances to a national television audience.
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York told Fox Business that she believes “there are people who have been legitimate victims of weaponization under the Biden administration that deserve to be compensated.” She didn’t specify anyone by name, which was a familiar problem: Prominent GOP voices continue to argue that there were actual abuses (which they can’t identify) that led to actual victims (whom they also can’t identify).
The entire rationale for taxpayer-funded checks, in other words, is based on nonsense and conspiracy theories that Republicans barely even try to substantiate.
To be fair, there are plenty of Republicans who have voiced their opposition to the $1.776 fund — retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the fund a “payout pot for punks,” which was both memorable and alliterative — and those intraparty criticisms matter.
But so, too, do the GOP lawmakers trying to defend this corrupt gambit with talking points that collapse under minimal scrutiny.
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