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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   9568 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026

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It is basically political suicide for Republicans to come out against this without getting meaningful legislation banning it. Obama and Biden did the same thing dozens of times, for totals far higher than the current fund, for more spurious reasons. Unilateral disarmament is never a good idea.

Obama and Biden did the same thing dozens of times, for totals far higher than the current fund, for more spurious reasons.

The main difference for Obama and Biden era sue and settle, was that that the people footing the bill for the slush funds were private companies, or where there were large payouts from the taxpayers, congress voted and approved it.

The Trump situation is the current president suing the government he now controls in his capacity as a private citizen for a wrong done to him while he was previously president, by people who he was theoretically in charge of. The money is coming from the taxpayers, and the slush fund is being administered by the federal government. There's lots of ways this could have the whiff of corruption on a different order than the Obama and Biden era precedents.

There's lots of things Trump could have done differently:

  1. He could have held the case in abeyance until after his presidency was over.
  2. He could have done the settlement, but have himself administer the fund as a private citizen, instead of having the government administer it. Since he's the wronged party, under a fair settlement this would be perfectly fine. Once money is yours, you can spend it however you want.
  3. Since he was the executive then, and he is the executive now, he could exercise the powers he has to achieve a resolution (firings, audits, etc.)

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