meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
PBS News Hour - Segments

News Wrap: Government to drop tax claims and audits of Trump

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In our news wrap Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the government will drop any tax claims and audits of President Trump, Blanche also defended the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund and President Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in next week's Senate runoff, rather than the Republican incumbent John Cornyn. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Well, there are new details on that deal. The IRS and Justice Department struck with President Trump.

0:06.0

The U.S. government has agreed to drop any tax claims and audits of the president, his sons, the Trump organization, to include, according to a letter signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

0:17.4

It comes a day after the government announced a $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization

0:22.7

fund to compensate some of the president's allies. Our justice correspondent, Ali Rogan, joins us

0:28.0

now with the latest. So, Ali, let's talk about this provision that bars the IRS from looking

0:31.8

into the president and his family. What more do you know about it? Yes, this document appears to have

0:36.0

been released this morning.

0:38.2

It says that the IRS is, quote, forever banned and precluded from reviewing any tax returns

0:44.6

filed by the president, his family members, or his businesses. This, Jeff, is part of that

0:49.4

larger agreement that President Trump agreed to drop this $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS after leaks

0:58.3

of his confidential tax returns several years ago.

1:01.3

The document says that this applies to, quote, any matters currently pending or that could

1:07.5

be pending.

1:08.4

That's definitely not language that is very clear. I spent part of this afternoon

1:13.8

trying to figure out what that meant. The DOJ told me this afternoon that it means that this

1:18.7

agreement only applies to tax returns that have already been filed, not to future returns.

1:26.2

I also spoke this afternoon to former IRS Commissioner John Koskinin,

1:30.0

who said the language in this document was, quote, designed to be impenetrable. And the fact that it was

1:35.4

released a day after the DOJ made this big announcement about this settlement and this $1.8 billion

1:42.2

anti-weaponization fund suggests that they were trying to sneak it by the public, as Kaskinan told me.

1:48.7

It's worth mentioning, though, that President Trump has long complained and claimed that the IRS has been auditing him even well before he became president the first time.

1:58.0

It's standard for the IRS to audit presidents each year, but a House

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PBS NewsHour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PBS NewsHour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.