Trump Admin Creates $1.8B “Anti-Weaponization” Fund
In January, President Trump and the Trump Organization sued the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion over the 2019–2020 leak of his tax returns by a former IRS contractor (who is currently in prison), alleging the agencies failed to prevent the disclosure. Because the president now controls both the Justice Department defending the case and the agencies being sued, ethics watchdogs called the suit corrupt from the start; IRS lawyers initially drafted a 25-page document outlining flaws in Trump's argument before being overruled.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced a settlement: Trump drops the suit and receives a formal apology but “no monetary payment,” while a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is created at Blanche's direction to pay others who say they were victims of government “weaponization and lawfare.”
A one-page addendum added the next day went further, declaring the U.S. “forever barred and precluded” from auditing or prosecuting President Trump, his sons, or his businesses on tax matters. Critics say that the deal is corrupt. The top lawyer at the Treasury Department, which will deposit the money into the fund, resigned after the announcement. The taxpayer-backed fund will be overseen by a five-member commission appointed by Blanche, President Trump's former personal attorney, and could bypass Congress to pay January 6 defendants, conservative activists, and former Trump aides.
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🗳️ Primary Day delivers wins for Trump: Tuesday's primaries in six states were another strong showing for Trump-backed Republicans. In Kentucky, Representative Thomas Massie—an outspoken Trump critic—lost to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein by 10 points in the most expensive U.S. House primary ever, drawing more than $32 million in ad spending. In Kentucky, Representative Andy Barr won the GOP primary for Mitch McConnell's vacated Senate seat, and in Louisiana, Senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, failed to finish in the top two of Tuesday's Louisiana GOP Senate primary after Trump backed Representative Julia Letlow. Finally, in Texas, after several weeks of deliberation, President Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Senator John Cornyn in Texas’s Republican Senate primary runoff, which is this Tuesday. Note: Some Republicans worry that although the President clearly has sway in a primary, his candidates may not do as well in the general election later this year once they are up against their Democrat counterparts, and in some cases could risk flipping a seat blue.
🕌 Deadly shooting at San Diego mosque: Three men were killed Friday outside a San Diego mosque, and two teen-aged suspected shooters were found dead by apparent suicide in a nearby car along with anti-Islamic writing. Two hours before the shooting, the mother of one suspect had warned police her son was suicidal and had gone missing with a companion, her vehicle, and several weapons. One of the victims was a security guard whom authorities say may have prevented a deadlier massacre by intervening.
🌎 Green card overhaul: The Trump administration announced Friday that most foreigners seeking green cards will have to return to their home countries to apply through consular processing, a change U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said would limit in-country approvals to “extraordinary circumstances.”
⚖️ Musk loses OpenAI lawsuit: A California jury unanimously rejected Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft on Friday, ruling after less than two hours of deliberation that he waited too long to file under the three-year statute of limitations. Musk had sought up to $134 billion in damages and Altman’s removal from the board, arguing OpenAI abandoned its founding nonprofit mission by accepting billions from Microsoft. Musk vowed to appeal, writing on X that the verdict creates “a precedent to loot charities.”
🚁 Permanent helipad coming to South Lawn: President Trump is reportedly planning to build a permanent helipad on the White House South Lawn to keep the powerful new VH-92A Patriot Marine One helicopters from scorching the grass. Officials have known since 2018 that the new aircraft—which replaces the VH-3D Sea King that’s flown every president since Gerald Ford—could damage the lawn. The President is also expected to install a helipad at Mar-a-Lago while it's closed for the summer.
🎗️ Gabbard resigns: Tulsi Gabbard resigned as Director of National Intelligence effective June 30th, saying she needed to step aside to support her husband, who has a rare form of bone cancer. This follows a Congressional hearing last week where a whistleblower testified that the CIA had blocked access to and illegally spied on the Director’s Initiative Group (DIG), a now-disbanded group under Gabbard responsible for investigating the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, the origins of COVID-19, Crossfire Hurricane, the Biden Administration’s domestic surveillance, Anomalous Health Incidents (known as Havana Syndrome), and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Gabbard has already declassified well over half a million pages of government records, and according to reporting from the Daily Wire, will release findings from the DIG’s investigations before departing office.
📈 Trump's Palantir play: Newly released U.S. Office of Government Ethics records show President Trump purchased as much as $530,000 in Palantir stock in March before posting a Truth Social shoutout to Peter Thiel's surveillance firm—including its stock symbol—after the company suffered its worst week in over a year. The President reportedly made more than 3,700 stock trades in Q1 2026, totaling tens of millions of dollars.
💊 TrumpRx expands: President Trump announced Monday the addition of more than 600 generic medications to the government’s discounted drug website, TrumpRx, an answer to criticism that the site has been largely performative. The expansion was fueled by partnerships with Amazon Pharmacy, GoodRx, and Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, though TrumpRx itself is just a facilitator pointing Americans to drugmakers' direct-to-consumer sites and pharmacy coupons.
🚽 Seattle spends $116K on a smart toilet: With the World Cup coming to Seattle, the city is spending $464,000 on four solar-powered public restrooms near Lumen Field that require users to scan a QR code, text a number, or use an app to enter. Seattle tried something similar 20 years ago and ended up selling the toilets on eBay for pennies on the dollar after they became magnets for crime and drug use.
Good News
🛍️ First Container Store x Bed Bath & Beyond opens: After Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its physical retail stores in July 2023, it was subsequently acquired and is making a phased comeback.
The brand has merged with The Container Store, bringing dedicated Bed Bath & Beyond products and popular deep-discount coupons into their retail stores nationwide. The first dual-branded location opened Saturday in Fort Worth, with the concept set to roll out at all Container Store locations nationwide this year.
The stores will honor old Bed Bath coupons and are actually running a contest for the oldest one. Bed Bath & Beyond President Amy Sullivan calls it a "forever together, co-branded" concept rather than a shop-in-shop.
