The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded compensation program for allies claiming they were “weaponized” by the Biden administration, including potentially Jan. 6 defendants.
The proposal would reportedly allow a commission handpicked by Trump to distribute the money with little transparency or oversight.
Meanwhile:
- descendants of slavery? “Too divisive”
- victims of discriminatory housing policy? “Too expensive”
- communities harmed by redlining? “Move on”
- Jan. 6 defendants who stormed the Capitol? Potential compensation fund
That’s a signal.
Not just about money.
About who the state recognizes as deserving restoration.
The same political movement that mocked reparations for historical injustice is now discussing taxpayer-funded payouts tied to an effort to overturn an election.
That inversion matters.
Your title isn't accurate at all. From the article
Do you have any idea of the sheer number of people whose names ended up on lists and files, who were wiretapped and investigated, who were not even there? Reporters are included in this group as well.
Jan. 6th was horrific but what transpired after the fact was still out of line and illegal in multiple situations.
Put it this way. The Judge for the WHCD apologized to the individual who attempted to storm the event and opened fire over the conditions of the DC jail. The DC jail has been terrible for decades, and after Jan. 6th, it finally came to light. Here is a Times article that was entered into the Congressional Record discussing how bad the conditions had been for decades.
As for your other complaints. I will tackle the big one first with descendants of slavery. How are you going to define this? Former President Obama turns out that his mother's side owned slaves; what about those whose lineage stems from ancestors born as a result of assaults? Suddenly, the whole thing becomes quite messy, and no one has pointed out a point where the line can be drawn. Jeh Johnson and Sonny Hostin are two more examples of people who went on a show like Finding Your Roots only to find out that either their ancestors were directly tied or were highly likely tied to owning slaves.
Discriminatory housing is illegal. Are you talking about historically? You make it seem like it is a current thing, which, if so, is federally illegal on multiple fronts.
Redlining is also illegal, and interestingly enough, ya know who tried to do something about it? President Trump in 2017 when he established the creation of economic zones to encourage investment and development in the very areas you are talking about. Also, funny enough, redlining really kicked off because of..... The New Deal which Democrats love to say was so positive for everyone when it wasnt if you were not white. PBS covered this forgotten history in 2017..
You try to make this a cut and dry thing when the fact of the matter is it has a ton of levels and honestly Jan. 6 is newer and thus easier to deal with both politically and legally speaking.
I don’t think my title is inaccurate. I think your own quote proves the point.
The article says the fund could cover “anyone” claiming harm from Biden-era “weaponization,” including nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants and potentially Trump-associated entities.
Yes, other people may be included.
But the political signal is still obvious:
A $1.7B taxpayer fund is being discussed for Trump allies and Jan. 6 defendants, with a commission Trump can reportedly influence, little required transparency, and possible private recipients.
That is not normal “legal compensation.”
That is a state-backed restoration project for the president’s political coalition.
And the reparations comparison is the point:
When the harm is slavery, redlining, discriminatory housing, or generational wealth theft, we suddenly hear:
But when the beneficiaries are politically useful Jan. 6 defendants and Trump-aligned claimants?
Suddenly complexity is manageable.
That tells you who this government sees as worthy of repair.
So two points. First off, Trump is dismissing two lawsuits over this, including one that everyone I know, be it Democrats or Republicans, knew he was going to win over the leaked tax documents. I mean, that's significantly illegal lol. That lawsuit alone was $10 billion. Plus, he is dropping the $230 million Mar-a-Lago one, and this fund would put an end to all of the lawsuits flooding the courts by Jan. 6th protestors.
I mean, I can speak from experience since I was at the Capitol Complex that day, and as soon as it turned rowdy, I left. Over a year later, I found out that the Justice Department had acquired all of the ID's of people who pinged at the Complex before, during, and after that time.
I didn't do anything wrong. I was on the opposite side of the building, walking around to see what was going on, but I still ended up on a list that could, in theory, have been used against me. On this list alone, there are well over 15k people, and using your number of 1.6k, that seems like a significant overstep by the government when that method was not needed, given all the CCTV, social media, body-cam, etc., footage out there.
Given these lists, a hell of a lot more people are highly likely to be eligible on both sides of the aisle. There were plenty of people who were against the protest on those grounds that day esp. on the East side of the Capitol facing the Supreme Court Building. They all got tagged and listed.
This is a move that prevents complexity more than it manages it. It ends hundreds of lawsuits and saves the taxpayers at a minimum of $8.53 billion. Do I like or agree with it? No, not really, but compared to what was coming, this was a pretty easy deal to take to end two major lawsuits and hundreds of smaller ones across the U.S.
Also.... you kinda didn't address anything I said about how you would address those things. This is one that does have a clear path; those others, I don't see any ideas being presented. These are important things that need to be addressed but no one seems to really be providing any sort of solution that could address this stuff.
Quite frankly, one of the biggest steps taken to address your complaints has been the establishment of Opportunity Zones by President Trump. There are 8,764 zones across all 50 states and 5 territories. In 1.0 of these zones, over $100 billion has been invested, creating 400k homes and half a million jobs. This success has led to 2.0 going into effect Jan of 2027 to make these permanent and further them.
I think we’re talking past each other a little.
I’m not defending illegal leaks, abusive surveillance, or sloppy dragnet investigations. If innocent people were swept into lists because their phone pinged near the Capitol, that deserves scrutiny. Civil liberties do not disappear because the crowd was ugly.
But that does not erase the signal in this proposed fund.
The article says the fund could compensate “anyone” claiming Biden-era weaponization, including nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants and potentially Trump-associated entities. It also says the commission could distribute $1.7B with little transparency, and Trump could remove commission members.
That is the part I’m pointing at.
Opportunity Zones are not the same thing.
OZs are investor tax incentives. They may have drawn capital into distressed areas. Fine. But they are not direct restitution to families harmed by slavery, redlining, discriminatory housing policy, or generational wealth extraction.
That distinction matters.
When the claim is repair for historic racial harm, the answer is usually:
“too complicated”
“too messy”
“where do you draw the line?”
But when the claim is repair for Trump allies, Jan. 6 defendants, and politically useful “weaponization” narratives, suddenly the government can imagine a path, create a commission, and attach $1.7B.
That was my point.
Not that every claimant is guilty.
The signal is who gets complexity solved for them.