DOJ Abandons Proposed $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s decision to kill the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund resolves one political crisis while intensifying another: why Donald Trump still enjoys extraordinary personal protections from tax scrutiny.

Blanche has repeatedly insisted that “we are not moving forward with the fund, period,” portraying it as “permanently dead” and stressing that the underlying concern — that “there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them” — remains valid. Conservative outlets frame this as a clean retreat from a controversial mechanism while preserving the broader grievance narrative that fueled it.

Liberal reporting, however, emphasizes what survives. Trump, his family, and related entities remain shielded from IRS audits and enforcement on past returns, and an addendum bars DOJ prosecutions based on vaguely defined “Lawfare and/or Weaponization.” Former officials note they “are not aware of a single other similar instance,” raising equal-treatment and constitutional concerns. For Democrats like Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the abandoned fund was a corrupt “slush fund” to compensate “violent criminals who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers,” and the ongoing immunity deal is proof of “flagrant corruption.”

Both left‑leaning and mainstream outlets highlight bipartisan alarm at the fund’s lack of oversight and the prospect of payouts to January 6 offenders. Yet they diverge in tone: Wonkette mocks Trump for caving on a “$1.776 billion slush fund for paying off all his best terrorist, criminal, and pedophile friends,” casting the reversal as evidence of a “weak president” outmaneuvered by his own party.

Conservative coverage largely sidesteps the unprecedented audit immunity, instead underscoring GOP lawmakers’ role in forcing DOJ to abandon a fund that was derailing their legislative agenda. Liberal pieces, by contrast, treat the fund’s demise as at best a partial victory — arguing that the real weaponization now runs in reverse, insulating the president personally while the public is told to trust verbal assurances Blanche refuses to formalize in writing.