In a way, you have to hand it to Donald Trump. When you think he can’t sink any lower, he somehow finds a way to get even worse.
After just 10 months, Trump has personally enriched himself more than any other president in American history, with estimates that his net worth has increased by an incredible $2-3 billion since January (by comparison, Barack Obama’s net worth increased by around $700k-$1 million over eight years).
Now he’s seeking to give this already colossal sum a boost – and guess what, you’re picking up the tab. In a request so jaw-dropping it’d cause Republicans to turn up at the White House with torches and pitchforks if a Democrat did it, Trump has told the U.S. Department of Justice to pay him $230 million in personal compensation for investigations during his first term and a legal case brought against him after he left office.
As Trump is ordering the government to enrich him personally, this is your hard-earned tax dollars being directly poured into his bank account. Even Trump himself seems surprised he’s being allowed to get away with this one, saying it’s “awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself”:
Trump: "It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself. But I was damaged very greatly and any money I would get I would give to charity." pic.twitter.com/k7MVfcZX6z
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2025
Trump says he alone has the right to decide how much he’s owed from the government, as “I was damaged very greatly”, so he won’t feel even a slight conflict at signing a presidential order to directly benefit himself.
The final humiliation
If you’re happy to handwave this away because Trump says he’s donating the money to charity, then frankly, you’re dangerously gullible. Even if Trump donated $230 million to charity – and I can almost guarantee he won’t – that’s still your money being spent at his discretion, tax money that’s supposed to be spent funding the government!
And anyway, he almost instantly began to walk that promise back, saying he might give it to charity or he might just spend it on restoring the White House:
Trump on asking taxpayers to compensate him: "They probably owe me a lot of money. But if I get money from uhhhhh our country I'll do something nice with it, like give it to charity or give it to the White House where we restore the White House." pic.twitter.com/6a3uD8i8c5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2025
All this makes me remember a line from the excellent Andor: “They don’t even bother to lie badly anymore. I suppose that’s the final humiliation.” We’re at a point where Trump doesn’t even need to hide that he’s pouring America’s money into his wallet: he can just say he’s doing it, and Republicans will obediently cheer him on.
