The Trump Crime Family now demanding that Department of Justice now pay directly them $230 million of taxpayer money.

"The situation has no parallel in American history"

“What a travesty,” said Bennett L. Gershman, an ethics professor at Pace University. “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”

He added: “And then to have people in the Justice Department decide whether his claim should be successful or not, and these are the people who serve him deciding whether he wins or loses. It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/us/politics/trump-justice-department-compensation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vE8.uTex.DnLhUoivr6Jr&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Anonymous wrote:

A billion to someone who’d never had a federal contract. 😳

It’s not enough that American taxpayers are in the hook for $20 billion to a country that had defaulted 9 times. The admin is also leaning on private American banks for another $20 billion. WSJ reports they are “hunting” for it. What could possibly go wrong for American taxpayers if our biggest banks lose their shirts on loans that dear leader wants?

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-banks-hunting-collateral-back-20-billion-argentina-bailout-wsj-reports-2025-10-20/

Argentina has defaulted 9 times but Bessent betting this one will pay off for American taxpayers. When the administration picks winners and losers, you can bet that the taxpayer is the real loser.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/us/politics/trump-argentina-bailout-bessent.html


“If the U.S. stops providing dollars to the country, it is unlikely that they will be repaid, and Argentines will suffer,” she said. “If the U.S. decides to help Argentina regardless, it still faces the likelihood of nonpayment or endless arrears, while Argentina flounders with its unsustainable currency regime.”

Noem is buying two planes now costing $172 million. The lead Democrat on appropriations committee wants to know where the money is coming from.

Article details Noem’s long history of grifting both as Secretary of HS and also as governor of South Dakota.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/politics/kristi-noem-dhs-gulfstream.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump’s dumb and wasteful vanity projects

https://reason.com/2025/08/22/500-million-to-paint-the-border-wall-5-of-trumps-strangest-most-expensive-vanity-projects/

$1 billion transferred to retrofit this qatari plane. That's on top of $4 bn for the two new Air Force One planes he ordered in his first term that are still behind schedule!

Sending that Qatari plane to the airplane boneyard in Tucson one day?

Priceless.

How much money is Noem spending to produce videos that violate the Hatch Act? Airports refusing to air them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2025/10/13/kristi-noem-shutdown-video/

No $$ for children's cancer research, but they will spend billions to build more wall!

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have awarded $4.5 billion in new contracts to expand wall construction along the southwest border.

The projects will add roughly 230 miles of new “Smart Wall” barriers and nearly 400 miles of integrated surveillance and detection systems."

https://www.newsweek.com/dhs-announces-nearly-5bn-for-new-border-walls-10860741

From Heather Cox Richardson's blog.

"The hurried actions of those working for DOGE collapsed vital services, leaving government officials backpedaling. On September 24 the Associated Press examined the effect of DOGE on the General Services Administration (GSA), an agency established in the 1940s to manage the thousands of workplaces used by federal employees. DOGE employees targeted the GSA as a prime example of waste, fraud, and abuse. They abruptly canceled almost half of the leases for government space—without telling the tenants—and called for generating savings by selling off federally owned buildings. They also cut staff at headquarters by 79%, portfolio managers by 65%, and facilities managers by 35%.

The Associated Press reports that 131 leases expired without the government actually leaving the office space, costing the agencies steep fees. Now officials are asking hundreds of GSA workers to come back after what the Associated Press says “amounts to a seven-month paid vacation.” Chad Becker, a former real estate official with the GSA, told the Associated Press: “Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed. They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”

Anonymous wrote:

This is ridiculous. What a poser.

Anonymous wrote:

WTF is a challenge coin? Whatever this is, it is not serious. The entire government is a circus meant to entertain and deceive.

Trump sent Lebanon $230 million before government shutdown.
"The Trump administration sent $230 million to Lebanon in a last-minute action to save the funds from expiring during a government shutdown, assistance that helps protect a fragile ceasefire between Beirut and Israel.

The funds are aimed at strengthening the Lebanese military in its push to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed political and military force severely weakened by Israeli actions, but not fully defeated."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5536635-trump-administration-funds-lebanon/

America First! Right, MAGA?

Taxpayers are on the hook for at least $85 million to dismantle (read: damage) the Discovery shuttle from a free Smithsonian museum and move it to a museum in Texas where people have to pay to see it. The full cost is expected to $120 mn to $150 million, not including the cost of new facility in Texas. Cornyn and Cruz will definitely be back to ask for more money.

https://www.ffxnow.com/2025/10/02/new-smithsonian-directed-to-prepare-space-shuttle-discovery-for-relocation/