The Friday Brief, May 20, 2026

A slightly shorter TFB This Week, written from Seat 1A of Delta Flight 769.

Inside

The Spectacle of Corruption
Spotted In Sacramento
The Slush Fund Flops With…Republicans
Massie: Why Are You Surprised
Ebola, Elon, and DOGE
An AI Backlash? Faster, please!
Never Run Again, Polis
What I’m Reading
Scenes From The Home Front

The Spectacle of Corruption

They tried to get cute by making the amount $1.776 billion.

That’s the part to focus on first, not the slush fund itself, which is grotesque, and not the Acting Attorney General’s addendum permanently barring the IRS from auditing Donald Trump, his sons, the Trump Organization, or “other family members,” which is so insanely unprecedented, and not even the explicit eligibility of Jan. 6 defendants for taxpayer-funded reparations, which is a category of obscenity we did not previously have a word for.

Focus on the number.

$1.776 billion. The year of the Revolution, rounded into a slush fund for Donald Trump’s thugs, degenerates, and minions. They could have made it $1.5 billion. They could have made it $2 billion. They chose to mock the founding because they wanted you to notice.

This is the week’s signature, and the signature of the era: corruption that is no longer concealed but performed. The Treasury general counsel resigned in protest after the deal was inked.

Doesn’t matter. Bloomberg Law’s columnists are flagging the DOJ lawyers who drafted it for potential fraud exposure. Doesn’t matter. Ron Wyden is promising to fight every element of what he called “self-dealing.” Doesn’t matter. The fund will be administered by DOJ with no independent oversight, will operate under Trump’s ultimate control, and will distribute taxpayer money to a class of people defined entirely by their loyalty to him. That isn’t a side effect. That is the design.

And the IRS deal is just the headline event. Look at the rest of the bill.

Monday afternoon, the Justice Department moved to drop criminal charges against Gautam Adani in Brooklyn. The same day, Treasury resolved an Adani sanctions probe. Last week, the SEC settled its fraud case. Three federal agencies, one weekend, one outcome: Asia’s richest man walks. No one at the press conference will use the word “bribery” but that’s absolutely what it is. Quid pro cha-ching

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