Trump secretly built a network of thugs to crack the skulls of his MAGA foes

There is a reason why we can’t stop talking about the “president’s” breathtakingly appalling IRS “settlement.” It is not in the slightest hyperbolic to call it the most scandalous and despicable arrangement in American history. And in the era of Trump, that’s really saying something.

The $1.776 billion slush fund arranged by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch — otherwise known as Trump’s chief enabler — and the rest of the president’s corrupt cronies is a blatant admission that the criminals now have full control of the country we once knew as the United States. It’s now little more than a banana republic.

The very idea that Trump is referring to this as the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is sickening beyond comprehension. The shameless Department of Injustice is calling this money “a perpetual appropriation,” which means it’s being set up to reward misconduct in perpetuity — and it’s we taxpayers who are astonishingly having to do the rewarding.

You know the fix is really in when Blanche has full control of the thing. He’s appointing the five-member commission that’s forking over the money. Trump can remove any member without cause if they protest. Only the AG will see the quarterly reports of who gets the money, with no obligation to run it by Congress, much less the public.

Anyone who says they were harmed by the Biden Administration can grab a piece of the action. That includes the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, most of whom were pardoned. Now they can receive compensation for their violent destruction, too.

Sorry to have arrested you for beating cops and destroying the building. We’re letting you out for bad behavior, and here’s $100K for your trouble.

Who says crime doesn’t pay? In fact, in the Trump Administration, it often pays incredibly well and is getting better all the time.

It’s like a bank owner pardoning the robbers who trashed his own branch, then giving them employee bonuses for “showing initiative.”

It’s like a parent whose son sets the house on fire, and instead of consequences, hands him the insurance payout and the keys to the car.

Trump didn’t just excuse the arsonists. He hired them as fire inspectors.

This is the federal government transformed into a full-scale enterprise of organized crime. The Mafia would be wise to take note.

Let’s not sugarcoat this but call it what it is: an ATM for thugs, loyalists, propagandists, and insurrectionists. Anyone who lied or busted a few heads for the president or his allies will now be compensated. Heck, you could turn it into a full-time job. Attack a Trump enemy each month, file a claim, bingo — it’s essentially a salary.

Indeed, it would be shortsighted to think this will only reward past crime. This fund is designed to let everyone know that not only will you not be abandoned if you break the law on Trump’s behalf; your bank account will benefit, too. Interfering in our elections is now a well-compensated career.

If you take care of the president, he’ll take care of you right back. Loyalty officially has an assessed financial value.

It’s the transparent looting of America by a felonious movement that no longer even bothers to conceal its contempt for integrity and constitutional order. The president is raiding the Treasury like a third-world dictator and sharing the gold with those who continue to prop him up.

Could this conceivably be legal? Of course not. But legal no longer factors into the mix. Now, it’s just about what you, and he, and they, can get away with. Rule of law? C’mon, that’s so last century. The law is now effectively defined as whatever you can get away with.

You’ll notice that no one seems capable of stopping this latest piece of authoritarian horror. Trump just does it. Who knew there would be no consequences for brazenly defying all rules of moral and ethical behavior at the highest levels of government?

And now consider this: every crazy MAGA loyalist will now be even more emboldened to do their king’s bidding. No matter how nasty their deed, so long as it’s done on Trump’s behalf, they’ll have a pardon and a payday awaiting them for their trouble.

Lawlessness reigns supreme, ladies and gentlemen. That was made even clearer on Tuesday when the DOJ issued an order permanently barring the U.S. from pursuing any tax claims or other legal actions against Trump, his family, his trusts, and his companies, forevermore — all because his feelings were so hurt when his tax returns got leaked.

I had to read this three times to be sure it wasn’t The Onion.

As if the man’s unfathomable immunity while on duty weren’t enough, now he’s free to pursue any and all forms of fraud (tax and apparently otherwise) without fear of prosecution. Because Todd Blanche needed to drive home that point about his boss being above the law just a bit more forcefully.

To repeat, this means that Trump can cheat on his taxes with impunity, or pay none at all, and there’s not a thing anyone can do about it. Sound familiar?

All of this shows what can be accomplished when embarrassment and disgrace no longer factor into the mix. It speaks volumes about where this country stands on the cusp of its 250th anniversary. And it’s positively tragic.

Forget Iran, or Russia, or China, or any of the other crisis spots impacting the country from outside our borders. The greatest threat to the republic remains the collapse of democracy here at home, and there has never been a more dire risk since at least World War II.

It’s like we’re being run by a bunch of mustache-twirling villains who don’t even seem to fully comprehend everything they’re doing to destroy us on a daily basis.

Oh who am I kidding? They just don’t care.

Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.