One of the grave consequences for American Constitutionalism of the untrammeled concentration of power in the hands of President Donald Trump — the putative goal of Project 2025 — is his total control over the Department of Justice. There is no separation between President Trump and his Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former criminal defense lawyer, no independence between the White House and the DOJ. What Trump wants, Trump gets — the result of the political ethos of authoritarianism and the fact that Blanche is auditioning for official appointment by Trump as the Attorney General of the United States.
This arrangement has produced an unprecedented level of corruption in the executive branch, masterminded by President Trump, which serves his historic pursuits, political goals and lines his pockets, those of his children and his business interests. Trump’s creation of the DOJ’s “anti-weaponization” fund, a $1.8 billion theft from American taxpayers, is a cynical, Orwellian euphemism for a slush fund, brazenly illegal and unconstitutional, for him to pay off his allies, including those who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and engaged in an insurrection in an effort to overthrow the presidential election and thwart the will and voting rights of the sovereign people.
The Trump-Blanche caper makes Richard Nixon and his criminal counterpart at the DOJ, Attorney General John Mitchell, look like choir boys. This slush fund represents a staggering betrayal of the public trust, American democracy and the rule of law. It is made worse by the inclusion of a “Release of Claims,” a protective bubble for Trump, his family, his associates and his businesses, unlike any in our history. The government agrees in this document, signed by Blanche, that it will never prosecute or pursue any civil claims against any of the Trumps, “whether presently known or unknown” that could have been brought as of the date of the document, May 28, 2026. The IRS, which, like the DOJ, Trump also directs, is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related businesses and trusts. Proceedings against Trump, over tax returns or crimes committed before the date of the document, are off limits.
This arrangement is the Golden Fleece of American taxpayers.
President Trump has exhibited no penitence for his flagrant acts of usurpation of congressional power, documented in this column, acts that shred the separation of powers and checks and balances. This new act, which Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has warned, represents a slush fund for his “private militia,” violates the congressional power over appropriations. The fact is, Congress has never appropriated funding for Trump’s program. Without the appropriation of funding, Trump may not proceed, legally or constitutionally.
In the name of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, founders who crafted the Constitution and cared deeply about the constitutional allocation of powers and checks and balances, Congress must step up to defend its institutional integrity and stop Trump’s illegal project. In any case, it will fall to congressional Democrats to protect the public and block Trump’s unconstitutional and illegal project.
It should be noticed, moreover, that Congress is prohibited by Section 4 of the 14th Amendment from appropriating funds for insurrection or rebellion. Thus, any money that Trump wishes to give to any of the 1,600 rioters and insurrectionists, whom he pardoned, would violate that post-Civil War Clause of the Constitution. That prohibition also prevents congressional resort to enactment of a private bill to support the insurrectionists.
As in other episodes of Trump’s aggrandizement of congressional powers, lawsuits will be the mechanism for halting his unconstitutional actions. Two officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, have sued the Trump administration to stop the creation of the fund, which, they argue, requires congressional authorization. Democratic members of Congress are filing similar lawsuits. Almost certainly, federal court rulings will declare Trump’s project unconstitutional. But readers may wonder, where are Republican members of Congress? Why do sit on their hands? Why are they willing accomplices in this giant theft from the U.S. Treasury? What has become of their sense of obligation to defend the Constitution, to which they have sworn an oath? Why are they content to watch Trump amass power in the executive that has turned our Constitution on its head?
David Adler is president of The Alturas Institute, a non-profit organization created to promote the Constitution, gender equality and civic education. This column is made possible with the support of the South Dakota Humanities Council, South Dakota NewsMedia Association and this newspaper.
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