Critics were left dumbstruck on Friday after President Donald Trump characterized a taxpayer-funded settlement he reached as an act of selflessness, a remark that some noted had also severely undercut his own past remarks.
On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump complained Friday morning that he “gave up a lot of money” after agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for a nearly $1.8 billion settlement, with the funds earmarked for payouts to those who allege to have been unfairly targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.
Trump said that in lieu of a personal payout that could have been an “absolute fortune,” he instead opted to “help others” who were “badly abused by an evil, corrupt and weaponized Biden administration.” His remarks also come after he previously claimed to not be “involved” in the creation of the fund.
Trump’s framing of securing a nearly $1.8 billion payout from taxpayers to potentially secure payments for the president’s donors or violent Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, critics argued, was stunning.
“Not content to just rip us all off, he expects praise for it,” noted author Jennifer Erin Valent in a social media post on X.
Others, like podcast host “Hal for NY,” whose videos on YouTube have amassed more than 71 million views, pointed to what appeared to be a glaring contradiction Trump made in his remarks.
“Funny, because he told us he had nothing to do with it. Now he wants a thank you?” they wrote in a social media poston X to their nearly 18,000 followers.
And Joanne Carducci, a prominent Democratic political commentator, wrote to her more than 1 million followers on X: “I thought he said he had nothing to do with the slush fund?”
I thought he said he had nothing to do with the slush fund?
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) May 22, 2026
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