‘Straight Grift’: Trump Reportedly Wants $230 Million From Taxpayers for DOJ Probing Him: “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it,” said Pace University’s Bennett Gershman. “It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.”
Source: Silent-Resort-3076
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From the article:
* President [Donald Trump](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/donald-trump) is facing fresh allegations of attempting to corruptly profit from his office after *The* [*New York*](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/new-york) *Times* %5Breported%5D(https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/us/politics/trump-justice-department-compensation.html) Tuesday that the Republican is demanding that the [US Department of Justice](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/us-department-of-justice) pay him about $230 million in taxpayer dollars for previous federal investigations into him, and his allies at the DOJ are expected to make the final decision.
* Trump filed the administrative claims—which are submitted to the department for potential settlements to prevent lawsuits in federal court—before he returned to the [White House](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/white-house) earlier this year, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper. However, the president [nodded to](https://x.com/Acyn/status/1978556182114816002) the legal battle in public comments at the White House last week.
* “They [raided](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/08/trump-says-mar-lago-under-siege-raided-and-occupied-fbi) my house in [Florida](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/florida). It was an illegal raid,” the president said beside Federal Bureau of Investigation ([FBI](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/fbi)) Director Kash Patel, US Attorney General [Pam Bondi](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/pam-bondi), and her deputy, Todd Blanche—Trump’s former lead criminal defense lawyer and one of two people who can green-light such settlements.
* “I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said, I’m sort of suing myself. I don’t know,” Trump continued. “How do you settle the lawsuit? I’ll say, Give me X dollars, right? And I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit. It’s a great lawsuit. And now I won—it sort of looks bad. I’m suing myself, right?”
* **It’s hard to think of an action more purely corrupt than a president ordering the executive branch to pay him hundreds of millions of dollars,”** [**said**](https://x.com/DavidAFrench/status/1980719725026902487) **David French, a** ***Times*** **columnist and visiting professor of public policy at Lipscomb University. “I cannot wait to read the MAGA defenses of this (and there will be many). They’ll display Soviet levels of sycophancy.”**
*Nothing* is too outlandish where the paedophile and rapist Donald Trump is concerned.
He already took that much to buy Kristi Noem private jets.
Mark my words, he’ll get it too.
I have no words.
I mean Trump openly declares he wants $230 million from DOJ. And that money is your money. The money you pay for your taxes.
Come on, America. What’s next? Trump declares he is not a King but an Emperor.
>It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.
I think we’re way beyond that now.
How much is the ballroom renovation supposed to cost again? Seems awfully convenient that those two figures match up so closely.
You can probe me for $1M
The Trump family has spent his entire time in office monetizing the presidency.
Lets start with Qatar “gifting” Trump a luxury plane valued at $200-400 million—now $1B in taxpayer funds to renovate. For perspective, the value of the plane totals more than the cost of all foreign gifts bestowed on every former president *combined.*
Qatar has been cashing in on this “bribe,” receiving in return explicit US security guarantees, economic and defense deals, and US approval for a Qatari military training facility in Idaho.
Foreign investors in Trump’s cryptocurrency have been stocking up on his meme coin, stating explicitly that they plan to use their investment to literally purchase influence with Trump.
Trump has spent his life and career exploiting his power and privilege to enrich himself. He has normalized moneymaking schemes that would end the career of anyone else in Trump’s position.
Remember when the GOP spent most of Biden’s term launching partisan investigations into the so-called “Biden crime family?”
Their allegations would actually be credible if levied against the Trump family. Hunter Biden’s cash flow was a tiny fraction by comparison. They’ve done more to monetize the presidency than anyone else in history.
For instance, the Trump family and its associates have so far amassed over $300 million in trading fees from their $TRUMP cryptocurrency scheme.
Thousands of investors lost nearly $2 billion after the coin’s value crashed, but the Trump family brought in significant financial gains.
Many have criticized Trump for this blatant conflict of interest. As president, he’s been pushing crypto-friendly policies that directly benefit the Trump family, their political connections and investors.
They’ve also used the presidency to open an exclusive club in Washington called “The Executive Branch.” The price to join the club was $500,000 per person.
Trump even hosted an exclusive dinner earlier this year at his Virginia club for over 200 investors in $TRUMP cryptocurrency.
Access to the event was based on how much money investors contributed towards a business that Trump benefits from financially.
Despite Truth Social’s wild overvaluation and revenue losses, Trump Media refiled to register Trump’s shares for sale worth around $2 billion. The filing also registered shares for sale held by Trump allies like Pam Bondi.
The Trump family and affiliates are also currently set to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues from the World Liberty Financial project, a “decentralized finance platform” which the Trump family deviously took control of back in January. The paper value of their holdings in the WLFI token is currently in the billions.
This move raises ethical and legal red flags and represents just one example of another conflict of interest and massive insider enrichment.
The Trump family has launched at least three additional meme coins directly associated with their brand.
Trump also continues to make money from his private business interests run by his sons who are profiting directly off of his presidency. The narrative that Trump has charitably sacrificed his net worth for the sake of running the country is a load of bullshit.
The Trump family has frequently used the influence and power of the president to pursue real estate projects overseas and make deals with foreign countries worth billions. His family also benefitted financially from trademarks from the Chinese government.
More recently, Trump has also been intimidating American companies and CEOs—mafia boss style—into giving the government a financial stake in their businesses and political leverage over them and their companies’ operations.
**Trump the “business man:”**
Trump is a notorious financial fraud who has bankrupted or crippled many of the businesses, products, and services that he’s tried to slap his name on.
Here’s a list of Trump’s business failures:
– Trump Casinos and Hotels
– Trump University
– Trump Magazine
– Trump Airlines
– Trump Beverages
– Trump “The Game”
– Trump Mortgages
– Trump Steaks
– Trump Travel Site
– Trumpnet
– Trump Tower Tampa
– Trump Vodka
– Trump Fragrances
– Trump Mattress
– Trump Network
– Tour de Trump
– Trumped!
– Truth Social
Trump has also been involved in over 4,000 legal cases, many of which include financial crimes.
Trump has profited off of screwing over small businesses and financial associates.
He has also profited off of lying about his wealth and the value of his properties; he even lied to get on the Forbes list. Let’s not forget Trump’s felony convictions for falsifying business records in order to conceal a crime.
While back in the 80s, Trump had lost more money than any other American taxpayer. But he continued borrowing money from his father and from banks; avoiding paying income tax for many years. He amassed unsustainable debts and dumped them onto others.
After squandering his riches, Trump received his lucky break—The Apprentice. The show played a significant role in boosting his income and public image.
During his first term, Trump was forced to pay more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing charitable funds at the Trump Foundation for political purposes
As part of the settlement, Trump was required to acknowledge his personal misuse of funds at the Trump Foundation and it was forced to shutter its doors and dissolve under court supervision.
Then there’s Trump University:
In 2013, A lawsuit was filed by New York’s AG accusing Trump of defrauding thousands of people who attended Trump University. New York regulators forced Trump to stop using the term “university” to describe the scheme, calling Trump’s use of the word, “misleading and even illegal.”
Former students recount being pressured to provide high approval ratings for the courses they were taking, or have their graduation certificates withheld. Thousands of students sought course refunds and claimed that they never received any benefits from the courses.
There was also a separate class action lawsuit against Trump University. Trump’s counterclaims were dismissed and he even tried to file a defamation suit against one of the students who made her experiences at the “university” public. Trump was eventually found to have defrauded students and was forced to pay $25 million in restitution.
Trump is also known infamously for not paying what he owes. This includes hundreds of millions in loan forgiveness and legal penalties, and unpaid bills for rally costs at cities around the country.
As president, Trump directed taxpayer money towards his businesses. The secret service and other government parties were forced to overspend at Trump properties.
Trump also booked events for foreign governments at locations he owns in order to curry favor with his admin.
Prior to his inauguration, Trump met in private with several billionaires who pledged millions of dollars towards his presidency, evidently in exchange for laxity, and were invited to sit in the VIP section at his inauguration while his supporters stood out in the cold. How symbolic.
Trump is a notorious grifter. Selling everything from hats, T-shirts, clothing and accessories, to watches and jewelry, NFTs and digital collectibles, commemorative medallions and coins, Trump currency and trading cards, tacky sneakers, overpriced Bibles, cologne and perfume, among other Trump branded merchandise that he continuously suckers his followers into buying.
Soooo being a president gets him immunity but he also wants payment for not being allowed to be guilty?
And yet, the smart money is on the bet that he’ll get it.
Funny, that would almost pat for his gold spray painted ballroom tent!
Even the guys at Enron are like, “bro…you crossing some lines.”
Kleptocracy
Grift? There’s no trick here. He’s just stealing it
Flip the tables and straight up refuse. That works for them.
At this point the entire trump organization, subsidiaries, offshoots, and trump estate and the estates of trump’s’ beneficiaries and the executives of his organization needs to be seized by the us government the moment someone other than donald trump or his sycophants are in power.
I want the state to go scorched fucking earth, and his family to be destitute. Not a single fucking penny to their name.
This needs to stop
This is a mockery of the POTUS position.
Why stop at just 230M, make it 230B. 👑
When you’re a celebrity, they let you do it.
He’s grabbing.
President treating tax payers money as a personal slush fund.
Goddamn this motherfucker needs to be impeached and removed. No, I’m not delusional about what the republicans are and know they won’t do it, but things are getting so illegitimate it is an emergency and crisis.
Scamerica.
The constitution specifically forbids this.
Article 2, section 1, clause 7:
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
He cannot accept any payment from the United States, nor any individual state, as long as he is in office.
All those rubes who say “Trump donated his presidential salary” what do you think of this?
I’m honestly surprised he’s not asking for more just knowing him
King of Fucking Welfare
Hello, DOGE, are you there? I feel like there are more efficient uses of $230M than to spend them on the president’s hookers.
And that’s our money.
I’m still lost on what the money is actually for. What is the justification for the amount?
But those protesters are far more dangerous obviously haven’t you been paying attention? This is heavy sarcasm
TBF he’s a ruthless POS with no morals and the ethics of a discharged turd.
What is the remedy? Tell me what lawsuit I need to support. Give me a statute to hound my congress people about
Grifters gonna grift
At least we can see the checks and balances aren’t actually working as designed. Trump is the “chaos monkey” as we call it in the IT world. Essentially the monkey comes in and pulls random cables out of the data center. Our constitutions bluff has been called and now it’s about how we respond to it.
I’m fuckin done yo