The New York Times editorial board has delivered a scathing, 1,200-plus-word critique of Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
In a lengthy editorial, the newspaper’s board opened with the stark question: “Has there ever been an episode of presidential corruption so blatant and threatening to constitutional order?”
“Certainly not in modern times,” it answered itself, before laying out exactly why it believes that is the case.
The board fiercely condemned the use of “taxpayer money to create a $1.8 billion political slush fund” and predicted its purported aim of compensating “those who the department claims have ‘suffered weaponization and lawfare’” will just “in fact reward loyalists.”
The editorial contextualized the fund, the result of a legal settlement after Trump sued over the leak of his tax records, within a broader pattern of behavior by Trump and his MAGA allies — who often claim the Justice Department has been weaponized against them.
“He is destroying pillars of American democracy to empower himself,” the board said, noting how he “claims elections are legitimate only if he wins,” “uses federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute his perceived enemies” and much more.