[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 84 (Monday, May 18, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S2318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Department of Justice

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, let me first talk about this DOJ slush 
fund.
  As working families shorten their grocery lists, as they struggle to 
make ends meet, Donald Trump has added a nearly $2 billion slush fund 
for his MAGA allies and January 6 insurrectionists to his wish list of 
pet projects he wants to fund with taxpayer dollars.
  Of all the corrupt things Donald Trump has done, this MAGA slush fund 
at the Department of Justice is one of the most depraved. Trump is 
shaking hands with himself in order to fund his insurrectionist army to 
the tune of billions of dollars. Trump is shaking hands with himself, 
making his own deal with himself, in order to fund his insurrectionist 
army to the tune of billions of dollars. He is signing a contract with 
himself to use these funds for illicit purposes.
  Can you believe it, America? How low can we go with this President?
  Trump pardoned violent insurrectionists who assaulted your Capitol to 
overturn your votes, and now he wants to give them your hard-earned tax 
dollars as a reward. Can you believe that? He is taking money out of 
your paycheck, America, and putting it into the pockets of his cronies, 
criminals, and cop beaters.
  This settlement with the IRS is a farce. Trump sued his own 
government. He is the President, and he sued the government. He asked 
for $10 billion--the gall of this man. And then Trump's own Justice 
Department, with his own appointed attorneys general, settled with 
Trump. Trump settled with Trump, and now Trump gets a nearly $2 billion 
slush fund as part of that settlement.
  What is he going to do with it? He is going to reward his own allies, 
loyalists, and insurrectionists. How crooked can it be? How perverted? 
How slanted? How far away from American ideals?
  No President--none--should be able to use the Department of Justice 
as a personal rewards program for the people who helped him attack our 
democracy.
  Again, America, he sued America for $10 billion, and then he settled 
with himself and said: OK, I will settle for $2 billion, and then I can 
use that to aid my cronies.
  America, are you listening? What is this guy doing? We have never 
seen anything like this. Even in the worst and most corrupt 
administrations we have had, we have never seen anything like this. It 
is self-dealing. It is corruption. It is abuse of power. And it is 
happening in broad daylight.
  Where are our Republican colleagues when something so abysmal, so 
low, so degrading to what America is all about--where are they? 
Shrugging their shoulders: Whatever Donald Trump wants, let him do, 
even though we know what a bad human being he is.