What Happened
Reuters reported Wednesday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will try to impose a 100% tax on payments distributed from the Trump administration's nearly $1.8 billion fund for alleged victims of political "weaponization."
"Anyone from California who receives any of those funds, we want to tax 100% of those proceeds," Newsom said, according to Reuters. The governor's press office described the $1.776 billion pool as a "slush fund."
Reuters noted the fund was announced as part of President Donald Trump's legal settlement with the IRS after he sued over the leak of his tax returns. The fund has already drawn legal challenges, including from police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Why This Matters
The fund was already weird enough: a giant federal compensation machine tied to an IRS settlement, political grievance claims, pardoned January 6 defendants and arguments over whether the Judgment Fund can be used this way at all.
Now California is proposing a state-level countermeasure that sounds less like tax policy and more like fiscal slapstick. It may become a legal fight about federal payments, state taxation and whether one government can build a money chute while another government parks a vacuum cleaner underneath it.
The Dumb Part With The Turnstile
The dumb part is that the country has reached the point where the policy debate is: should a person paid by the federal political-grievance fund get to keep the money, or should California eat the whole check at the door?
That is not exactly a normal civics worksheet. It is a lawsuit nesting doll wearing a tax hat. First the fund is challenged as legally dubious. Then the state threatens to tax it into dust. Then everyone involved gets to pretend this is a solemn conversation about institutional integrity and not a vending machine fight over who gets the quarters.
The Bottom Line
California has not yet said when it would impose the tax, and the Trump administration did not immediately comment to Reuters. The real stupid shit is watching a nearly $1.8 billion grievance payout plan become a federal-state toll booth war before most people even know where the line forms.
Sources
Reuters: California to impose 100% tax on Trump's January 6 'slush fund,' governor says
Reuters: Trump's $1.776 billion weaponization fund sparks outrage, court challenges