Trump Demands Justice Department Pay Him $230 Million

[applegrove]

Trump Demands Justice Department Pay Him $230 Million

October 21, 2025 at 2:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 218 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2025/10/21/trump-demands-justice-department-pay-him-230-million/

“President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit,” the New York Times reports.

“The situation has no parallel in American history, as Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims. It is also the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president’s former lawyers atop the Justice Department.”

Taegan Goddard:

This would be the most corrupt act in presidential history.

[walkingman]

1. Is this a DOJ decision to make?

[Irish_Dem]

2. Who will stop the DOJ from writing Trump a check for $230M?

[dalton99a]

8. Precisely.

[walkingman]

15. From their budget? The House is supposed to be in charge of the $$$ aren't they?

Of course Trump seems to have an open pocketbook for anything he wants. Crooked bastard.

[Irish_Dem]

16. Ha ha. Congress is only to happy to pay Trump any amount of money.

Of course they think they might get a slice of the $$ action.

Bastard is the world that best describes Trump yes.
I can no longer make a post without cussing.

[Faux pas]

3. We, the people

should send him a bill for 10 billion for what he's already stolen and for what he will steal.

[Irish_Dem]

10. This is what I am saying. He must reimburse the American people for all the damage

he has done. And all the money he has stolen.

[Faux pas]

11. Great minds

and all that jazz Irish Dem

[Irish_Dem]

12. If Americans had any sense they would start confiscating all Trump's assets

and put him in prison for his crimes against humanity and the American people.

Yep we are on the same page about this.

[IA8IT]

4. Pound Sand pResident Skid Mark

[Turbineguy]

5. He'll have to give them immunity first.

[Takket]

6. i mean... he's impeached now right???????

i mean even the gop isn't going to just let him write himself a check off the treasury and deposit it into his own bank account, right?

they are going to remove him from office now, right?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. MaddowBlog-Trump eyes $230 million payout from Justice Dept. as repayment for earlier investigations

“What a travesty,” one ethics lawyer said. “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”

Mike Johnson won't swear in Adelita Grijalva. So we're suing. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb... GOOD! Mike Johnson is a weak little man who thinks he works for the Disease in the White House. He is paid by & works for the American People.

— Liberty & Justice (@stand4truth.bsky.social) 2025-10-21T22:11:10.455Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-eyes-230-million-payout-justice-dept-repayment-earlier-investiga-rcna238987

After whining about the FBI’s court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago and peddling a variety of false and familiar claims about his classified documents scandal, the Republican said, “I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said I’m sort of suing myself.”

He quickly added, “I don’t know, how do you settle the lawsuit? I’ll say, ‘Give me X dollars,’ right?”

The comments went largely unremarked, although they’re suddenly relevant anew. The New York Times reported:

President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit.

......Will such a gambit succeed? The Times’ report added, “According to the Justice Department manual, settlements of claims against the department for more than $4 million ‘must be approved by the deputy attorney general or associate attorney general,’ meaning the person who oversees the agency’s civil division.”

The deputy attorney general, it just so happens, led Trump’s criminal defense team before he was tapped to lead the DOJ. What’s more, the chief of the department’s civil division, Stanley Woodward Jr., also represented people in Trump’s orbit, including a Trump co-defendant and Patel (before the latter was confirmed to lead the FBI).

Bennett Gershman, an ethics professor at Pace University, told the Times, “What a travesty. The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”

He added, “And then to have people in the Justice Department decide whether his claim should be successful or not, and these are the people who serve him deciding whether he wins or loses. It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.”

[dalton99a]

9. And if the DOJ doesn't pay Trump $230M in 30 days, he'll add penalty and interest and make it $500M

Don't delay or he'll own the DOJ building and all physical assets

[Grim Chieftain]

13. Demands?

Demands? This idiot with thirty-four felonies and a sexual assault conviction demands our justice department pay him? Are you freaking kidding me?

I swear, we are living in The Twilight Zone. I keep hoping and praying I'll wake up from this nightmare, yet here we are.

[oasis]

14. Pay Trump with his own gypto/crypto currency.

Fake pay for frivolous complaint.

[JoseBalow]

17. Haven't you heard? He's going to give it to charity!

You didn't think it was to enrich himself personally, did you?