Trump admin retreats from Anti-Weaponization Fund after headwinds mount
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a surprise move, the Trump administration announced that it was retreating from a $1.776 billion-dollar Anti-Weaponization Fund that would have been established as part of a settlement President Donald Trump made with the IRS over leaked tax returns. The fund was intended to compensate people who believe they had been unjustly targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice department, including people involved in the Jan 6th attack on the capitol. The fund was already in legal limbo after one court put the fund on hold last week while a second re-opened the IRS case for further scrutiny. Meanwhile, pushback from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had mushroomed. We spoke before this news broke with USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi about the dramatic legal and political headwinds the Trump administration was facing.
Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
Episode transcript available here.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Is the Trump administration's anti-weaponization fund legal? |
| 0:08.2 | Is it ethical? |
| 0:09.7 | The $1.8 billion fund would have been established as part of a settlement President |
| 0:14.1 | Donald Trump made with the IRS regarding leaked tax returns during his first administration. |
| 0:19.2 | One big sticking point with lawmakers was that the fund |
| 0:22.2 | could have been used to compensate people who believe they've been unjustly targeted by the Biden |
| 0:27.0 | administration's Justice Department, including people involved in the January 6th attack on the Capitol. |
| 0:32.8 | One court put the fund on hold last week, while a second reopened the IRS case for further scrutiny. |
| 0:39.0 | Meanwhile, pushback from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers mushroomed. USA Today's sources |
| 0:44.8 | have confirmed as of early Monday evening the Trump administration will abandon its fight |
| 0:49.9 | to establish the fund. What led to this dramatic change of heart? |
| 0:54.8 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. |
| 0:58.0 | Today is Tuesday, June 2, 26. |
| 1:00.9 | We spoke before this news broke with USA Today Justice Department correspondent, Aisha Bakshi, |
| 1:06.3 | about the dramatic legal and political headwinds the Trump administration was facing. |
| 1:11.4 | Here's our earlier conversation. |
| 1:13.3 | Aisha, thank you so much for coming on. |
| 1:15.3 | Thank you, Dana. I'm happy to be here. |
| 1:17.2 | Let's start with the first ruling that came down on Friday, putting the breaks on the fund. |
| 1:22.3 | What did that judge rule? |
| 1:24.6 | It's a very kind of temporary ruling. |
| 1:26.7 | It's not that the judge looked at the substance of |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.