Golfing buddies Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham want you to pay them for their troubles

News and commentary for Floridians and Americans concerned about the future of our democracy

President Donald Trump wants American taxpayers to give him $10 billion.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham wants taxpayers to shell out for him, too—at least $500,00, but maybe a million bucks.

Both of these golfing buddies think they’re entitled to your money because they have been grievously wronged by the very government they run.

And you and I should pay for it.

In Trump’s case, if you do the math, it comes to $66.67 from every taxpayer. From your bank account to his. Not that much, actually, per person, I suppose, but times the 150 million or so U.S. taxpayers, it multiplies up.

Why do Donald and Lindsey think you should empty your wallet? Here’s their stories:

Trump

In Miami federal court yesterday, Trump sued the Internal Revenue Service — a federal agency he is in charge of — claiming the IRS didn’t do a good enough job keeping his tax records secret.

A subcontractor they used leaked his returns to the news media a few years ago, and it embarrassed him

Which was a little odd since he had promised he, himself, was going to disclose his returns like other presidents. But he didn’t like what was shared.

The returns, as reported by The New York Times, showed that even though he’s been telling everyone on the planet how rich he is, he didn’t pay any income taxes for at least 10 years.

That disclosure caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump,” according to his lawsuit.

Even though at the time, Trump said dodging taxes “makes me smart.”

So, now what happens?

Trump runs the executive branch of government that he is suing. Essentially, he is suing himself. Presumably, the Department of Justice, now run on his behalf by former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, would be defending the United States government against a lawsuit from its very own president.

How vigorous do you imagine that defense will be?

(I will now pause to give you a moment to stop laughing.)

Seriously, though? How would this work in a way that didn’t look like a total grift?

Yeah, I can’t imagine, either.

Graham

In Graham’s case, he and a half-dozen other senators had their phone records secretly subpoenaed by federal investigators looking into who Trump called while the nation’s Capitol was under siege on January 6, 2021.

Former special counsel Jack Smith talked about this last week during a congressional hearing, where he explained that while investigators did, indeed, get records of who Trump talked to, they did not see any content of those calls. Just that they were made and how long they were.

For this, Graham and others felt they were due some serious compensation at taxpayers’ expense, and the latest budget bill included language to that effect. But that provision got stripped out when the House recently passed the funding package that is before the Senate right now.

Graham threw a hissy fit yesterday, storming into Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office, demanding the money be reinstated.

Never mind that the Senate Ethics Committee said it would be improper for him to personally benefit like this. The other senators involved in the scheme are lying low.

Now Graham is threatening to hold up the entire funding debate because, you know, he wants you to pay him his money.

As for Trump and the enormous ethical — and legal — conflict his lawsuit creates, we will be watching to see just how the Justice Department and the IRS twist themselves into knots on this one.

There is a provision in law that allows any American citizen to sue the government. And the Justice Department has a special fund to settle these kinds of claims. And Trump, theoretically, could just tell Bondi to give him the money.

He’s already said he might do just that in a previous lawsuit he filed against the government.

As MS NOW reports:

In October, Trump demanded that the Justice Department he leads pay him roughly $230 million in compensation for the federal criminal investigations he faced after losing his 2020 re-election bid. He noted that it would ultimately be up to him to approve a payout to himself. “I’m the one who has to settle it,” the president told a group of supporters in North Carolina shortly before Christmas. “In other words, I am suing, and I’m the one that’s supposed to settle it.”

J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press, a Florida online news service dedicated to sharing news and commentary relevant to Florida readers, whether it originates in the Sunshine State or elsewhere. Bruce is an award-winning former newspaper editor, journalist and author living in Florida, his native state.

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It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog.

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J.C. Bruce

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