The DOJ Is Considering Personally Handing Trump $10 Billion in Taxpayer Dollars

I can only presume that if the headline above does come to pass, it will register as a huge breaking news story not just around the country, but also around the world. With that said, it feels weird as hell that the DOJ is currently mulling over a settlement that could put $10 billion in taxpayer dollars directly into the pocket of the President of the United States, and only the most perpetually online of us seem to be talking about it.

How is this possible? Well, it’s a potential outcome of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, in which Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization allege that the IRS failed to prevent the leak of his tax returns by a former contractor, Charles Littlejohn, which were ultimately published by The New York Times and ProPublica. Littlejohn has since been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for the leak, but the DOJ has defended the IRS in lawsuits brought against it by other parties whose tax information Littlejohn also exposed, “in part by arguing that the government can’t be held liable for the actions of a contractor,” according to NYT. One would logically assume this same reasoning would apply to Trump’s case, but instead, it sounds like there’s a good chance the corrupt DOJ intends to just give Trump the $10 billion he’s asking for instead.

This is so disgustingly, brazenly corrupt. Donald Trump is using his compromised Justice Department to shake down the IRS for taxpayer cash for himself. Outrageous.

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— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) 9:43 PM · May 12, 2026

The level of inappropriate conflict of interest here is truly staggering in its scale. The Department of Justice is currently headed by Todd Blanche after the ouster of Pam Bondi, and Blanche is the President’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, a status that should automatically make it inappropriate for Blanche to be involved in any DOJ process involving Trump. But wait, there’s more: The IRS is also part of the Department of the Treasury, itself a part of the Executive Branch that Trump heads. He is, therefore, the ultimate overseer of the very agency he is suing, while his own former personal lawyer heads the “independent” DOJ investigating federal crimes. The lawsuit pretends that these sides are in opposition to each other, when in fact they’re all ultimately in cahoots to seemingly achieve a specific goal: Further enrich Donald Trump.

The DOJ, therefore, can simply choose to reach a settlement with the Trump-run IRS, and hand over the $10 billion in taxpayer dollars that the President personally requested. It would be, obviously, the largest transaction in history ever given to a President. A settlement could likewise bar the government/the IRS from conducting any future audits of Trump, his family and his businesses, fully enshrining our state of kleptocracy. So I’ll just ask again: How is this not the biggest news story in the country right now?

By the way, that $10 billion payment? That would more than double the net worth of Donald Trump, a man who has already tripled that worth since 2024 as he found myriad new ways to profit off the office of the Presidency. This is one of the things that makes the oft-repeated MAGA line about Trump “not accepting” the $400,000 official U.S. President salary so persistently infuriating–even if you somehow managed to believe that, would it not concern you that the man’s net worth in 2024 was $2.3 billion, and now it’s $6.5 billion after a year back in office, which is far and away the most wealthy he’s ever been? That $10 billion in taxpayer dollars Trump is seeking, by way of comparison, would be five times the 2026 budget of the entire National Park Service. Guess how much of it Trump would be spending on the new White House ballroom? Trick question: He’s requesting $1 billion in purely taxpayer dollars for that as well.

I must say, you’ve got to appreciate the boldness and contempt for reality in the dollar figures that Trump dreams up here. Sure, why not ask the IRS for $10 billion in damages for leaking your tax returns, when the tax returns in question pegged his entire net worth as $2.1 billion at the time? That math seems reasonable, yeah? You can say this for him; he never fails to dream big.

The DOJ is reportedly considering dropping any audits of Trump, his family, or his businesses as part of a potential settlement of his bogus lawsuit against the IRS.

That’s on top of the $10 billion in damages he wants.

This is corruption on steroids — and taxpayers will pay the price.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 3:15 PM · May 13, 2026

I am not a legal scholar or lawyer, and thus find myself wondering common sense questions like “Why would a judge allow this shit to happen?” As it turns out, however, the judge in the case may have no choice and no say in the matter. Federal judge Kathleen Williams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida is presiding over the case, and has ordered Trump’s personal lawyers, the Justice Department, and the IRS to submit briefs by May 20 explaining how it is they’re in conflict with one another, and Williams has also appointed a group of independent attorneys to submit opinions to her on the legitimacy of the lawsuit. She could theoretically throw out the entire case, but according to The New York Times, if the DOJ and IRS announce they’re reaching a settlement before Williams’ own deadline, she would have little recourse, and would not be able to stop Trump from withdrawing the suit and “coming to a private agreement with the federal government.” You know, the federal government that he largely controls? Yeah, that federal government. As the newspaper concludes: “Even if the judge were to ultimately find that the settlement was collusive or reached in bad faith, she would likely be hamstrung in any effort to stop money or other benefits from changing hands.”

And it certainly sounds like that is exactly what Trump’s own lawyers intend to do. In a prior filing in the IRS case, they said they were in discussion with DOJ officials that were “designed to resolve this matter and to avoid protracted litigation.” That would be a settlement that could net Trump a bigger single windfall than he’s earned in his entire 79 putrid years on this planet.

This is, suffice to say, tantamount to the President of the United States just stealing billions upon billions of dollars directly out of the pockets of everyday Americans, all because a former IRS employee leaked the same tax returns that all previous candidates for the Presidency had voluntarily submitted. That Donald Trump would try to do something so monumentally greedy, in an election year of all times, speaks to just how utterly invincible he views himself as being. When you get to sue your own underlings, and have a settlement negotiated by your other underlings, “invincible” may actually be the correct word.