Trump Wants the
American People to Pay Him $230 Million
Oct. 22, 2025
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editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by
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President Trump has
demanded that the Department of Justice prosecute his political enemies. He has ordered his
aides to use the fearsome tools of the law to investigate fund-raising by the Democratic
Party and liberal groups who oppose him. He has spared his
own supporters from the consequences of law breaking. And now, in a
breathtaking act of self-dealing, he wants the department to hand over nearly a
quarter-billion dollars of taxpayer money and place it in his personal bank
account as payment for his personal grievances.
Given the eagerness of
Justice Department officials to do his bidding, there is reason to expect he
may get that money. One official authorized to approve the payment worked on
Mr. Trump’s personal legal team, and another represented Trump allies. His Justice
Department has already proved itself willing to put his interests above law and
country.
Mr. Trump claims he is
owed $230 million from the Justice Department as compensation for previous
federal investigations of him, The Times reported on Tuesday. Those investigations looked into
his refusal to turn over classified government documents he had taken from the
White House and the contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives.
The president’s conflict of interest
in this situation is so broad as to have no parallel in American history. One
ethics expert called it a “travesty.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of
Connecticut, called it “head spinning chutzpah.” Even Mr. Trump seemed to
acknowledge the bizarre nature of the demand that the government he controls
pay him a fortune. “I’m the one that makes the decision, and that decision
would have to go across my desk, and it’s awfully strange to make a decision
where I’m paying myself,” he said. But no sense of shame seems likely to stop
his demand for payback. His promise to give the Treasury cash to charity adds
to the outrage, given his record of exploiting philanthropy for personal gain.
He claims that he
deserves the money because the investigations were unfair and he suffered great
damage from them. But the inquiries were legitimate (unlike the two
prosecutions he initiated against the former F.B.I. director James Comey and
the New York attorney general, Letitia James).
Robert Mueller’s
investigation into Russian election interference helped uncover at least 140 instances of contacts between the
Trump campaign and Russian nationals, WikiLeaks and their intermediaries. Mr.
Mueller did not bring charges against Mr. Trump, but the report that Mr. Mueller wrote made clear that
the investigation was a worthy one: Mr. Trump’s conduct “presents difficult
issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct
occurred.”
The classified-documents
case was also serious: Unlike other officials accused of improper handling of
classified material, Mr. Trump repeatedly refused to return the documents when
asked to do so and concealed how many he had kept. After leaving office,
he also shared apparently classified information about
American nuclear submarines with an Australian businessman during conversations
at Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
The larger point is not
about the two investigations or the supposed damage to him. Even if the cases
against him had been weaker than they were and even if he could point to
personal damage, he should not be using his power as president to award himself
damages. Ordinary citizens can rarely obtain damages from the government even
when they have been treated unfairly. And the Constitution bars the president
from receiving any compensation from the United States other than salary and
modest expenses. Having his appointees rubber-stamp a compensation claim is
essentially giving him a blank Treasury check to sign.
His demand for a $230 million payment
from American taxpayers fits with an unconscionable pattern of self-dealing by
the president and his family. He hosted a dinner for people who bought the most
Trump-branded cryptocurrency. His company, the Trump Organization, is
collaborating on real estate projects with Middle Eastern countries that rely
on the United States in many ways. He has engaged in similar conflicts of
interests with Serbia and Vietnam. The list goes on and on.
Mr. Trump should not profit from his
presidency. He should pay a political price for his brazen corruption. Instead,
he is telling American taxpayers to pay a price, directly to him.
