by Steve Benen | May 19, 2026 | Justice Department, Maddowblog, News, Politics
In broad strokes, the deal between Donald Trump and his own administration appears corrupt but straightforward: The president withdrew his deeply foolish $10 billion civil suit against the Internal Revenue Service, and in exchange, he and his team will put $1.776 billion of taxpayer money into a “fund” that is expected to benefit the Republican’s allies.
These basic contours of the agreement, widely panned as a “slush fund” by Democrats and legal experts, were evident not only in public reporting from independent news organizations but also in a nine-page agreement that Trump’s Justice Department released on Monday, offering details about the structure of the scandalous deal.
One day later, Trump’s team quietly decided to add something important. Politico reported:
[A] one-page document posted on the DOJ website early Tuesday includes a sweeping release under which the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses.
The waiver specifically encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was Monday.
The brief, three-paragraph addendum was signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (who, incidentally, did not sign Monday’s nine-page agreement), and posted online on Tuesday afternoon after Blanche’s appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee wrapped up.
In addition to the “fund” worth nearly $1.8 billion, Trump can also take comfort in knowing that, according to his DOJ, the IRS won’t pursue any pending tax claims against him, members of his family or his highly controversial family businesses.
A New York Times report added, “[P]rotection from audit could be quite remunerative for Mr. Trump. In 2024, The Times reported that a loss in an I.R.S.
by Steve Benen | May 19, 2026 | 2026 election, Maddowblog, News, Politics
It’s hard to overstate the intensity of Donald Trump’s contempt for Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. Put it this way: The president appears to hate the Kentucky congressman and windmills in roughly equal measure.
With this in mind, Trump and his political operation have gone after the incumbent lawmaker with a vengeance, as part of what’s become the single most expensive congressional primary in American history. As part of the effort, the president even deployed a high-profile surrogate to Kentucky the day before Primary Day. The New York Times reported on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s stunning return to the campaign trail:
Speaking at a campaign event for Ed Gallrein, Mr. Massie’s rival in the Republican primary, Mr. Hegseth attacked Mr. Massie as an obstructionist, accusing the seven-term libertarian known for bucking the party line of betraying his fellow Republicans — in particular Mr. Trump, who has often raged against Mr. Massie in public statements.
“Too often Massie’s instinct is to throw elbows at fellow Republicans instead of the people who are destroying our country or want to destroy our country,” the beleaguered Pentagon chief said, in apparent reference to Americans who dare to disagree with the White House.
Part of the problem with Hegseth’s efforts in Kentucky is that he presumably had other things to do on Monday. Indeed, according to the secretary’s boss, as recently as Monday morning, the president was moving forward with tentative plans for a renewed military offensive in Iran (which Trump called off hours later). It stands to reason that the nation’s defense secretary would’ve been rather busy on such a day, and intervening in a congressional primary in Kentucky
by Steve Benen | May 18, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
The stated purpose of Sunday’s “Rededicate 250” event at the National Mall was to “rededicate our country as One Nation Under God.” That phrasing, however, was just vague enough to tell the public effectively nothing about the significance of the gathering.
The truth was more straightforward — and more alarming. As Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons explained in a compelling piece for MS NOW, the event was actually “the largest and most prominent display of Christian nationalism” in recent memory, “with the full backing of the federal government in the White House and leadership in Congress.” Graves-Fitzsimmons added, “This is what theocracy looks like.”
Over the course of roughly nine hours, attendees and viewers watched a prayer event, paid for with millions of American taxpayer dollars, in which many of the nation’s most powerful federal officials made the case that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation” (it was not) and that Americans should do more to blur the church-state line (it should not).
The gathering was not altogether surprising. The Trump administration has spent the last year and a half abandoning all subtlety when it comes to embracing and endorsing Christian nationalism — though there was a related problem with the speakers’ pitch that went largely overlooked: The American mainstream isn’t buying what they’re selling.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released two weeks ago, for example, found that most Americans were deeply uncomfortable with recent religion-related statements from Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A Pew Research Center report released late last week pointed in similar directions:
Support for ideas that are sometimes associated with Christian nationalism is mostly unchanged in recent years. For example,
by Steve Benen | May 18, 2026 | Health, Maddowblog, News, Politics
When we think about the many officials in the Trump administration who hold positions of power and authority despite their backgrounds and lack of qualifications, we tend to focus on high-profile figures, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, among others.
But just below this level is another group of officials in key positions. Their names might not be immediately recognizable to most Americans, but they have important responsibilities despite their backgrounds and lack of qualifications.
Marty Makary, for example, recently left his position as the head of the Food and Drug Administration, leading a young Florida lawyer named Kyle Diamantas to serve as the acting FDA commissioner. As Rolling Stone noted, Diamantas, who has no medical background, is perhaps best known for being hunting buddies with Donald Trump Jr., before he took on a role helping lead the administration’s food safety program.
There are countless related examples — the teleportation guy leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Response and Recovery also comes to mind — though another unexpected one emerged last week when we learned more about Dr. Brian Christine, one of the top public health officials in charge of infectious disease policy.
Though Christine, who came highly recommended by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, is not well known nationally, he recently spoke at the Trump administration’s press conference on the U.S. response to the hantavirus outbreak.
Viewers probably didn’t fully appreciate why Christine was a provocative choice to speak on behalf of the administration. CNN reported:
Before he joined the Trump administration last year, Christine was
by Steve Benen | May 18, 2026 | Economy, Maddowblog, News, Politics
It seemed like a straightforward question. During a Q&A with reporters last week, Donald Trump was asked, “When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal?”
Without hesitating, the president replied, “Not even a little bit.” The Republican added that, as part of his focus on preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”
It was a brutal quote, not only because of its callousness, but because Trump has spent so much time proving the underlying point true. As my MS NOW colleague Zeeshan Aleem added, “The truth, in this case, is that Trump obviously doesn’t care about ordinary Americans’ financial well-being. It’s sticky not just because he said it, but because he has long been acting like it.”
As last week came to an end, the president sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier, who offered his guest an opportunity to walk back the rhetoric. He did the opposite.
Trump on saying he doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situation: “It’s a perfect statement. I’ll make it again. Everybody agrees.”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-15T22:24:51.064Z
“That’s a perfect statement; I’d make it again,” Trump said. He added, “Very simple, when people hear me say it, everybody agrees.”
As the interview progressed, the president went on to concede that he’s imposing “a little pain” on Americans (phrasing that echoed his rhetoric from last year about his tariffs agenda), though he insisted the “pain” is temporary and ultimately will be reversed after the war in Iran ends.
When Baier asked Trump to respond to the concerns of a retired
by Steve Benen | May 18, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, Maddowblog, News, Politics
After Donald Trump left the White House in early 2021, many prominent figures in Republican politics assumed that he’d effectively set his political career on fire. By any sane measure, this was an understandable assumption: The then-former president had just plotted to seize illegitimate power and bore responsibility for an insurrectionist attack on his own country’s seat of government.
The idea that Trump would maintain a leadership role in American politics wasn’t just wrong; at the time, it seemed utterly ridiculous.
With this in mind, when the then-former president was impeached for his role in trying to overturn the results of a free and fair election, several GOP officials felt comfortable voting their conscience instead of toeing the party line. Indeed, the impeachment vote was the most bipartisan in the nation’s history: 10 House Republicans voted to hold Trump accountable, as did seven Senate Republicans.
Almost all of those 17 GOP lawmakers are now gone from Capitol Hill, and one will soon join them: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana suffered an embarrassing loss on Saturday, finishing third in his primary race and failing to advance to a June runoff. Six years after winning re-election by a 40-point margin, the incumbent finished with just under 25% of the intraparty vote.
There’s no great mystery as to what happened: The incumbent president set out to destroy Cassidy for his 2021 impeachment vote, and Trump succeeded in his goal. The senator had spent the last year and a half trying to thread a partisan needle — up to and including confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s health secretary, in direct contradiction to the senator’s
