MAGA grifters & insurrectionists line up for a piece of Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘slush fund’

A growing roster of convicted political operatives, January 6 rioters, and disgraced Trump allies are reportedly preparing to seek taxpayer-funded payouts from President Donald Trump’s controversial new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a program critics say increasingly resembles a federally backed MAGA slush fund.Among the names now publicly tied to the fund are former congressman George Santos, Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, and ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, the Washington Post reports.The fund was created days ago as part of an extraordinary settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax returns. Under the agreement, the Justice Department established a taxpayer-funded compensation pool, controlled by Trump, for people who claim they were victims of political “weaponization” by the federal government.Critics across the political spectrum have called the arrangement unprecedented, corrupt, and unconstitutional. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin described the fund as a “slush fund.Current and former police officers injured during the January 6 attack filed suit Wednesday seeking to block it entirely. And now, some of the country’s most infamous Trump-world figures appear eager to cash in.Santos, the out gay former Republican congressman from New York, was expelled from Congress in 2023 after a blistering House Ethics Committee investigation found evidence he used campaign funds for luxury purchases, Botox treatments, OnlyFans subscriptions, and personal expenses while fabricating major portions of his biography. Federal prosecutors later secured convictions when he pleaded guilty to charges tied to fraud and campaign finance crimes.Related: Donald Trump uses the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection to attack transgender peopleHis political rise and implosion became one of the defining scandals of the post-Trump Republican Party. As a candidate, he lied about his education, work history, religion, family backgr