{"id":2202,"date":"2026-05-31T09:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2202"},"modified":"2026-05-31T09:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:34:57","slug":"blue-states-pitch-100-percent-tax-on-trumps-anti-weaponization-payouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2202","title":{"rendered":"Blue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump\u2019s \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 payouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad, we\u2019re taking it,\u201d one New York lawmaker said.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Jake McCarthy hits 2-run homer, drives in 4 runs in the Rockies\u2019 8-3 win over the Giants<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has endorsed the idea of taxing any payouts from President Donald Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” (Annabelle Gordon\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Democratic state leaders around the country have an unusual strategy to stymie President Donald Trump\u2019s $1.8 billion settlement fund<\/a> for people who claim they were wrongly investigated by the government.<\/p>\n

Their plan: Tax the payouts at 100 percent.<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has endorsed the idea, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s an action we look forward to taking.\u201d State legislators in New York and Wisconsin are crafting bills on the topic. And Democratic candidates are rallying behind the tactic in blue states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slush fund is a blatantly corrupt theft of taxpayer dollars, and we need to do everything we can to stop it,\u201d <\/i>Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) said in an interview with The Washington Post. Bennet is the leading Democratic candidate for governor in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think this won\u2019t wear well with Republicans or Democrats in America,\u201d <\/i>Bennet <\/i>said of the politics of Trump\u2019s fund.<\/p>\n

The issue is particularly relevant in Colorado, where Gov. Jared Polis (D) recently granted clemency<\/a> to Tina Peters, a former county clerk who helped secretly copy voting machine hard drives in an effort to bolster Trump\u2019s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance said it was \u201creasonable\u201d that Peters \u201cget some compensation\u201d from the fund.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration drew backlash from Democrats as well as some Republicans when it announced this month that it was establishing a fund to pay people who claim they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted, echoing the president\u2019s claims of a \u201cweaponized\u201d justice system. Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records in exchange for creating the $1.776 billion pool of money.<\/p>\n

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked<\/a> the Trump administration from moving ahead with the fund as critics question how the money will be distributed and worry that it will go primarily to Trump allies.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Congress reacted to the fund with outrage but have limited options to respond while they are in the minority. At the state level, however, Democratic officials have more options to try to block the payments.<\/p>\n

In California, Assembly Budget Committee Chair Jesse Gabriel (D) said Democrats are planning to put a tax on the payouts in the state budget. \u201cThat money belongs to taxpayers, and we\u2019re going to make sure it stays with taxpayers,\u201d Gabriel said.<\/p>\n

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) suggested she was interested in a similar plan after lawmakers in her state began discussing a 100 percent tax.<\/p>

Read more Mariners hit 4 homers for 2nd straight game, beat Diamondbacks 5-1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI have no problem with there being consequences for people who accept that money,\u201d Hochul told reporters this week, calling it \u201cobscene\u201d to \u201caward people who have committed crimes or injustices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The push in New York is being spearheaded by Alex Bores, an Assembly member who is running for Congress. Time is of the essence for Bores and others pushing this legislation because the legislature is set to leave Albany for the year next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simple: If you\u2019re a New Yorker and you take from this illegal slush fund, New York state will tax 100 percent of it,\u201d Bores said in a video posted on X. \u201cIf you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad, we\u2019re taking it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 100 percent tax idea is gaining traction beyond blue strongholds. In battleground Wisconsin, Democrats hope to flip the GOP-controlled legislature in the fall and have introduced the No Taxpayer Dollars for Insurrectionists Act \u2014 alluding to Trump critics\u2019 concerns that the payments could go to people prosecuted for their role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election or storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D) said she was inspired by Bores\u2019s proposal in New York and reached out to his office to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cl truly hope that people ask everybody who\u2019s running for office if they believe they should be using taxpayer money to pay insurrectionists,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Natalie Baldassarre \u2014 a spokesperson for the Justice Department, which announced the fund \u2014 responded by criticizing Democrats\u2019 governance.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of flaunting their love of lawfare and taxing constituents into oblivion, blue-state governors should focus on preventing more of their residents from fleeing in droves to free states with lower taxes, less crime, and governments that actually serve the people they represent,\u201d Baldassarre said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The states\u2019 strategy of taxing the payouts could face legal challenges. Lawrence Zelenak, a Duke Law School professor with expertise in taxes, noted that the late Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said that \u201cthe power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits,\u201d nodding to the tool\u2019s limits.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s $1.8 billion fund faces legal questions, too. The judge who temporarily blocked the plan, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Virginia, has scheduled a June 12 hearing on the matter.<\/p>

Read more France detains hundreds of rioters after Paris Saint-German wins Champions League<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad, we\u2019re taking it,\u201d one New York lawmaker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nBlue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump\u2019s \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 payouts - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2202\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump\u2019s \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 payouts - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cIf you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad, we\u2019re taking it,\u201d one New York lawmaker said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2202\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-31T09:34:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/25be2933da5e26369d65d3f885c5655d-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Blue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump\u2019s \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 payouts\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T09:34:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202\"},\"wordCount\":913,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2d281ef9517cbdbbe4a28bd14abd641d-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202\",\"name\":\"Blue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump\u2019s \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 payouts - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2d281ef9517cbdbbe4a28bd14abd641d-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T09:34:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2202#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2d281ef9517cbdbbe4a28bd14abd641d-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2d281ef9517cbdbbe4a28bd14abd641d-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"FILE PHOTO: California Governor Gavin Newsom gives remarks at the Center for American Progress Ideas Conference at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2026. 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