Jonathan P. Baird

Presidents come and go. During my years of political awareness, I have seen more than ten men hold the position of president. Whether they were Democrats or Republicans, they conformed to American political norms and traditions. Some presidents accomplished part of an agenda like Obama with health care while others like Bush Jr. presided over disasters like the war in Iraq and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Whether they served one or two terms, they did their time and left office when the time came.

Nothing has prepared us for the presidency of Donald Trump. Expectations based on past behavior of any president have not prepared us for his second term. It is a mistake to size Trump up compared to past presidents. I would suggest a different frame of reference since reality has proven to be stranger than fiction.

The character I would compare Trump to is Ian Fleming’s character, Goldfinger. In the novel, Goldfinger has a plan to steal the gold reserves from Fort Knox. The plan is called Operation Grand Slam. Trump might as well be backing up a Brink’s truck to Fort Knox. His scheme to remove $1.776 billion from the U.S. Treasury is Goldfinger-like.

Consider the Trump slush fund. When his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS proved to be a non-starter, he revised the plan to allow a supposed settlement of the non-dispute where he could grab $1.776 billion of taxpayer money. He has been trying to settle the case with himself and cut out any judicial interference.

What we are seeing is a heist movie. Even the least ethical presidents like Richard Nixon never tried for anything on a scale like this. Trump is, in effect, saying, ” I can take anything I want. Sky is the limit”. He is not asking Congress or any entity for permission Normally the Department of Justice would defend a lawsuit like this but the acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is behaving as Trump’s consigliere. The DOJ is supposed to be the steward of the peoples’ money but we are so far past that point. They have become the tool of a thief.

Congress was supposed to be the entity that appropriates taxpayer money but they have become supine. Trump is using his alleged Article II power as a smash and grab. There is no constitutional or other authority that allows Trump to take this money.

The most egregious aspect of the slush fund affair is the side deal inserted and signed by Todd Blanche that states the government would be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” pending tax claims against Trump, his family members and his businesses. This amounts to a free pass forever from any IRS investigation, audit or prosecution.

To appreciate the magnitude of this side deal, it must be recognized that Donald Trump has long had IRS problems. The IRS audited Trump because he claimed questionable deductions to reduce his taxable income. During the years 2016 and 2017, Trump paid $750 each year in federal income taxes. When he ran for president he said he could not release his tax returns because he was being audited.

According to a New York Times investigation in 2020, in 10 of the previous 15 years, Trump paid no income taxes to the federal government. In 2022, the Trump Organization was convicted of 17 counts of tax fraud . The New York Times has written that an audit battle with the IRS could have cost him more than $100 million

This side deal approved by Blanche would be a dream come true for Trump. If the deal goes down, Trump would never be responsible for any tax crime he, his family or his organization have committed or would commit.

This hasn’t been mentioned much in the reporting of this story but there is a federal law that bars the President, the Vice-President or their aides from influencing or directing an IRS investigation. Tre top lawyer at the Treasury Department, Brian Morrissey, resigned over concern about Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. He must want to keep his law license.

Not only is the slush fund a shakedown, it can be seen as an investment in the future. Trump can use the fund to pay off his private army of January 6 rioters to insure loyalty in case he needs them again. Also, knowing Trump, it is hard not to imagine some of the slush fund money flowing into his own pocket. Todd Blanche gets to pick all five of the members of the board who will decide who gets a cut of the fund.

The word corruption barely begins to describe this betrayal of the public trust. Every time something is written about Trump’s corruption it is almost instantly outdated as new developments surpass the previously known criminality. There are and will be multiple lawsuits around the slush fund.

We, the public, did not have enough imagination to anticipate that something like Donald Trump might happen. Trump is a sociopathic plutocrat like Goldfinger. He is an older and less mobile version of Goldfinger. They both are obsessed with gold and gold ornamentation. Both share qualities of boundless greed and cruelty. Todd Blanche is Trump’s less physical Oddjob. Blanche will do the dirty work.

Trump and Goldfinger also share a love of golf. Goldfinger is a golf cheat whom James Bond outsmarts on the course. Trump has a reputation for cheating at gold too. Rick Reilly wrote a book on this theme,Cammander in Cheat. Reilly wrote that Trump “always gets a turbo-charged golf cart that goes three times as fast as yours, so he’s always 200 yards ahead, and that gives him time to cheat”. He wrote Trump puts his ball in better position and puts his opponents balls into bunkers before they arrive. As Reilly says, “cheat at golf – cheat at life”.

With the heat on Trump increasing as his popularity wanes, Trump must know his glory days are coming to an end. He is grabbing what he can while the getting is good.