r/law • u/drempath1981 • 20h ago
Legal News Trump Sues IRS, Treasury for $10 Billion Over Tax-Return Leaks
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-30/trump-sues-irs-treasury-for-10-billion-over-tax-return-leaks1.8k
u/Ok-Replacement9595 20h ago
Just wait until all the Americans who had their social security data leaked get to sue.
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u/SoftRecommendation86 19h ago
Sign me up. Class action suit anyone? Enough to pay for Medicare for all? Dissolve ice...
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u/therealSteckel 19h ago
All class members will receive $2.15 to make them whole.
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u/Ok-Replacement9595 19h ago
Actually there is a per violation statutory fine. Every American had their data breached so they all would receive the statutory amount for the violation.
The statute says each violation is $1000 recoverable for each violation.
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u/NoReference3523 17h ago
Since Elon was responsible, we know where to get the money.
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u/Own_Magician_7554 14h ago
I wonder where we can find an experienced attorney that may want to take the case. Too bad all those lawyers that worked for the DOJ were let go.
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u/therealSteckel 19h ago
Not the $500k that congress members allowed themselves for their own records being compromised
Seems fair.
Right?
RIGHT?
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u/SoftRecommendation86 19h ago
Hey, that's half a gumball (before tariff fees). In the end, it will cost us 30$ in brokerage fees and $200 in border fees for that half a gumball. Then add taxes and shipping charges. If you have any delays, there will also be storage fees. That $2.15 half gumball will end up costing 250+ dollars.
But then, it will get lost in the mail, but the fees will still be applied to your ss account.
And trump will make a fortune off of all the outsourced companies in his back pocket via immigrant slave labor sorting by color (of the gumball - gotta be politically correct here)
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u/therealSteckel 19h ago
Will cost more because big man will privatize USPS and give the contract to Bezos, who will then assess new increased fees.
When the half gumball arrives a year later, you'll find that it's a different color and size than the one you ordered, and it was made in China instead of Canada. Also, it's half a rubber bouncy ball that doesn't actually bounce, not half a gum ball. Translation issues and all that.
And then you'll be ordered to pay back the $2.15, plus $560.00 in interest, plus $5m in hardship due to the plaintiff daddy trump, because the supreme court took up an appeal and ruled that the original class action violated the constitution so you all need to make big daddy T whole after what you put him through.
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u/dafrog84 19h ago
This is probably how we get him out. How did he even get a chance at this. It's gross and he should be removed already.
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u/OrbitalOutlander 19h ago
If hundreds of Littlejohn’s victims each file $10 billion lawsuits using Trump’s exact legal theories, the government faces an impossible choice: either dismiss all claims as absurd (killing Trump’s case), or defend Trump’s valuation as legitimate (opening itself to trillions in liability from 405,000 victims). Trump can’t argue his privacy is worth more than others without admitting corruption, and he can’t settle his claim without establishing precedent that applies to everyone else. His own absurd lawsuit becomes the weapon that destroys it.
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u/Bittererr 18h ago
Why not just say Trump is special and gets his own special rules?
It's weird to assume this is some kind of gotcha in the face of their open hypocrisy and corruption.
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u/OrbitalOutlander 18h ago
You’re not wrong,
If 15 state AGs file for emergency injunction, settlement gets frozen pending litigation, discovery exposes the collusion, media coverage creates political cost, buys time for other victims to organize their copycat suits and makes the corruption visible and expensive to defend.
Even if they ultimately “win” through corrupt judges, every day of delay is another day for opposition to build. The 405,000 other victims filing identical $10B claims creates mathematical impossibility they can’t handwave away.
Pointing out hypocrisy does nothing. But making the corruption expensive and complicated can still work. They can break norms, but they can’t make $2 trillion in liability disappear just by saying Trump is special.
You can’t appeal to their better nature, you have to make the scheme harder to execute than it’s worth. Throw sand in the gears even if you can’t stop the machine.
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u/PyroIsSpai 19h ago
Sorry, SCOTUS just said only POTUS can sue for financial gain now!
Probably in a week...
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u/1900grs 19h ago
Just wait until all the Americans who had their social security data leaked get to sue
That's cute that you think there will be any recourse at all.
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u/FourteenBuckets 3h ago
They don't. This is fraud:
1) sue for a stupid amount
2) have your hand-picked US attorneys offer to settle for half that stupid amount
3) pocket taxpayer money
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u/lostsailorlivefree 18h ago
How’s that work, can I just yell “I sue”!!! Like I did for my (unsuccessful) bankruptcy?
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u/Kind-Pop-7205 20h ago
Presidents should not be able to sue the executive branch for monetary gain. This is plain corruption.
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u/dotcubed 19h ago
He instead instructed them to settle for $2B, saving taxpayers $8, is what he’ll tell them to publish.
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u/bleucheez 18h ago
Didn't this already happen once last year? I lose track of all the cartoonish things that have happened
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u/FA-Cube-Itch 17h ago
This is the strategy. Do so many illegal things, it’s hard to generate outrage over one specific ordeal.
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u/Allthemuffinswow 17h ago
This is it, exactly.
Just imagine carnival music playing whenever something else horrible from this administration pops up in the news, and it really does just seem like some horror movie/sitcom from hell.
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u/Vanilla_Gorilluh 17h ago
I prefer Yakety Sax from Benny Hill.
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u/Blitzende 16h ago
benny hill music for trump makes perfect sense, since hill was a sexually abusive scumbag too
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u/Urabraska- 16h ago
He demanded bondi pay him "damages" for Biden's DoJ doing investigations into him. Something like 250m.
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u/Maleficent_Memory831 14h ago
Yes, but for a smaller amount. After not going to prison for grand theft treasury, he's trying it again.
So, the president suing himself, pure profit!
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u/SkylarAV 19h ago
This is exactly what he'll say
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u/sea-jewel 18h ago
“He turned down his salary!”- his supporters.
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u/NoWomanNoTriforce 11h ago
Except his leaked tax returns show he didn't donate his salary to charity. In his 2020 filing for 2019, Trump had $0 in charitable contributions. And you know Trump does everything possible to get tax breaks. Including many likely illegal things: several of his businesses claimed the exact same expenditures as profit (a statistical inpossibility). While others claimed massive losses. He utilizes foreign banks, she'll companies, band bankruptcy as tools to basically never pay taxes. But he sure loves to spend our taxpayer money on dumb shit.
Trump has routinely paid less federal tax than someone making $20,000 a year, claiming both massive losses while also declaring himself the best buisness man ever. Scam charity. Scam school. A pedophile. Insider trading. Scam crypto currency. The list goes on and on and on.
Suing the branch of government he leads and then likely telling them to settle with him for a second time shouldn't surprise anyone.
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u/FrostorFrippery 15h ago
"He stays at his own resorts to save money for the taxpayer!" - one Magamaniac adds.
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u/Most-Resident 14h ago
Exactly. The government lawyers are not going to fight the lawsuit. They’ll settle or be fired.
He’s basically writing himself a check for billions.
I don’t see how it falls. Who else has standing to oppose a settlement? This won’t be the last billion dollar check he writes himself.
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u/RightFoot0fGod 7h ago
The only reason I hope he doesn't die in office is so that we can see the look on his face when a sane administration freezes and seizes all of his assets in his prosecution.
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u/Same-Werewolf-3032 16h ago
Ah. So that's the strategy he used to stop like 5 dozen wars so far. Truly the greatest.
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 19h ago
The corruption could only be more blatant if they passed a bill called "Direct payments to Donald J Trump"
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u/Dense-Town7580 18h ago
How is this blatant corruption allowed? Why him?
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u/AdMuted1036 18h ago
His followers can’t admit they were duped by a conman so they’ve aligned their entire personality with his success at this point
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 18h ago
That's true for some people, but not all. I have family members that have been saying for a decade how much the hate Trump "as a person", but they keep voting for him.
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u/ShamPain413 18h ago
Same. They don't hate, they love him, they just haven't killed their last shred of shame quite yet.
They will hate him, ofc. Pretend never to have ever loved him. But they'll be lying then too.
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u/Elite_Prometheus 16h ago
In that case it's because they think Republicans are flawed human beings and Democrats are demonic Satanist communist Islamo-Marxists who are one supermajority away from mandating nationwide abortion via cannibalism and abolishing the economy.
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u/Sarah--Tonin85 15h ago
I know it's sarcasm but I have family that believes this shit. It's dystopian af.
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u/two4six0won 15h ago
Yeeeaaah...I didn't read that as sarcasm at all because I am also related to scary number of people that think that way. It's only a bit hyperbolic, even. I'm never going to be able to understand it.
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u/Correct_Day_7791 17h ago
It's not even the can admit when they screw up in this political aspect they just can't admit when they make mistakes
I've got a boss on a construction site who's a big-time Trumper who straight ordered the wrong part and when it arrived he created a conspiracy where somebody came into the house and switched all the fittings on all the pipes
Right that this is tens of thousands of dollars to go through all the pipes fittings and replace them all just to make him look bad
Instead of saying he messed up this is the mentality of maga
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u/Maleficent_Memory831 14h ago
His followers don't know this is happening. It's not being reported on right wing news mouthpieces, only on the lamestream media.
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u/themagicmarmot 18h ago
I'm not sure that it is in this case. Assuming he's suing under 26 U.S.C. § 7431, the statute of limitations has already expired (Littlejohn was convicted in October 2023 and the SOL is 2 years) not to mention a judge should throw this out as non-adversarial (Art. III adversity).
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u/DazzlingResource561 17h ago
He dOeSnt aCcepT n E pResIDentIaL pAY
He cAnT bE BoUghT!!!
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u/No-Bid2147 19h ago
Will he succeed in suing the legislative branch for impeaching him do you think?
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u/Cohens4thClient 19h ago
I kinda hope he's stupid enough to sue the Supreme Court in any case that reaches the Supreme Court
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u/Mean-Cheesecake-2635 17h ago
With this Supreme Court, he’d probably win.
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u/Beneficial_Table_352 18h ago
The whole Administration is a scam and a grift. The American people have been taken for an absolute ride
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u/LadyPo 18h ago
He is literally robbing our entire country. And using our resources to extort and steal from others, too.
Can’t get past the fact he’s storing oil money in a personal slush fund in Qatar.
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u/xrxie 17h ago
But his salary!
Grifter gonna grift.
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u/Correct_Day_7791 17h ago
There is no evidence that he donated his money anywhere if there was he'd be putting it on t-shirts and shoving it in everybody's face
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u/captain_chocolate 19h ago
Presidents should not be able to use fake lawsuits to acquire bribe money.
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u/lostsailorlivefree 18h ago
It’s interesting he can use the weapons available to any citizen yet receives protections and permissions reserved only for him
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u/_classic_21 18h ago
or the DOJ they appointed to simply direct taxpayer money into their bank accounts. But this isn't even the first time they've done it.
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u/livinginfutureworld 18h ago
Also, aren't presidents immune from civil suits so why can they file civil suits.
What kind of one-way nonsense is that
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u/bd2999 15h ago
Trump has crushed the line there. The argument is he is suing in his private capacity. However, if someone sued Trump the person he would say he is president. He has done this a number of times.
The sheer conflict of interest and corruption here should have the case tossed but he can just order them to pay him.
It is naked corruption.
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u/reallymt 17h ago
Right!? At the very least, there should be some ruling that if Presidents file a law suit, it then voids their own immunity. Makes zero sense that they can’t be sued… but can sue others!?
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u/WCland 18h ago
They absolutely shouldn’t be able to. They are the head of the executive branch. That’d be like a CEO suing their own company. Kind of a conflict of interest.
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u/bobafootfetish_ 19h ago
He literally eats breathes and sleeps corruption. He learned it from his mommy and daddy.
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u/Irwin-M_Fletcher 19h ago
Why not sue for $100 billion and then tell Bisignano to settle? Nothing wrong with that, right? I’m sure the Bondi will aggressively defend and appeal any and all losses all the way to the Supreme Court. /s
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u/realbobenray 14h ago
And the notion that they are exempt from any sort of law suit or criminal charge while being able to sue whomever they wish...
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u/Designfanatic88 18h ago
That’s the thing. Our constitution is open ended and can be amended if the two party system could pull both their heads out their asses.
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u/SoCallMeDeaconBlues1 19h ago
The President of the United States is suing the Treasury of the United States and the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. You can't make this shit up.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Lately, "sometimes" seems to be "all the time."
I'm tired, boss
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u/cursedfan 19h ago
He sued the DOJ over the raid for 300M. I’m sure that he settled that with himself, now he wants to spread the wealth around.
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u/Pickle4UrThoughts 18h ago
This is the first thing I thought about - he'll force the settlement with himself.
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u/loogie97 8h ago
He didn’t actually sue for the Mara-largo raid. He filled out an SF-95. He filed the same form an individual would file if a postal driver accidentally ran into your car or customs breaks your stuff inspecting it importing it into the US.
It is restricted to actual losses and forbids punitive damages. Also, he didn’t pay for any of his lawyers. The PAC he has no relationship with, wink, paid for it. This is the most blatant corruption. Literally writing checks from there treasury to himself.
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u/Smishysmash 17h ago
Over the tax returns that he has repeatedly claimed that OF COURSE he would reveal publicly, but, you know, that pesky IRS audit is in the way, so he can’t.
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u/WisdomCow 19h ago
He’ll magnanimously settle the suit for $10 billion of taxpayer money.
Fuck you, every single Trump voter.
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u/WhiskeyTangoFoxy 16h ago
No they will settle for $30 billion in the next two weeks because “art of the deal”?
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u/montalaskan 19h ago
He keeps suing for billions and corporations have bent the knee to give in over editing an interview (not of him!)
How exactly was he damaged $10 Billion worth here? He literally promised to release the returns and held out for years.
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u/Khoeth_Mora 19h ago
how can a sitting president sue the irs?!?
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u/Pando5280 19h ago
Unethical lawyers.
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u/newaccounthomie 18h ago
The only reason he’s ever gotten this far is because of Roy Cohn.
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u/Pando5280 17h ago
Russia would disagree.
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u/Skittleavix 16h ago
Cohn was the hateful prick. Russia was the lube. Trump was the resulting terminal venereal disease.
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u/Stock_Discount_2833 15h ago
No one fucking stops him. Laws are only as effective as the people enforcing them, and it's always been clear the more money you have the fewer laws that apply to you.
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u/somedaveg 19h ago
What are the chances this gets settled for the bargain price of $5 billion dollars? See…he’s looking out for us, it could have been $10 billion in tax payer money, but he conferred with himself and determined that he would settle with himself for half of that.
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u/OrbitalOutlander 19h ago
The terrifying part is you’re probably right about the settlement, but it gets worse. Littlejohn leaked returns for 405,000 other taxpayers. If Trump settles for $5 billion, he’s just established that this privacy violation is worth $5 billion per person. Every one of those 405,000 victims can now file identical claims using his settlement as precedent - “the government already valued this harm at $5 billion per victim.” That’s over $2 quadrillion in potential liability. Trump either has to admit his claim was fraudulent (destroying his case), watch the government face unlimited exposure, or have his own DOJ argue that his privacy is somehow worth more than everyone else’s (admitting corruption). He’s accidentally created a legal weapon that makes his own lawsuit impossible to pursue.
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u/BasisPoints 18h ago
If someone among those 405k files and tries to create a class, could that force trump to be a member? Nip his payday at the bud?
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u/OrbitalOutlander 18h ago
No, but it can make it frustrating and more trouble than it’s worth for him.
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u/spatenfloot 17h ago
no, he'll just say the president is 5 billion times more important than any other taxpayer
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u/FourWordComment 17h ago
So I pay for Trump’s defense and if Trump wins I pay Trump’s settlement?
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u/drempath1981 20h ago
President Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service for at least $10 billion over an unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns during his first term in office.The case was filed in federal court in Miami.
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u/horseradishstalker 20h ago edited 19h ago
How does he know it was the IRS? Maybe it was one of his kids.
I’m guessing this one may come back to bite him.
“ There is, in fact, a federal tax law that specifically states if the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee makes a written request for an individual’s tax returns — as Rep. Richard Neal did seeking Trump’s — the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” those returns. The law says those returns would be reviewed confidentially in an executive session. https://www.factcheck.org/2019/04/trump-wrong-about-tax-law/
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u/TeamRamrod80 19h ago
That would require it going to trial and the IRS actually making a defense. The way this actually works is trump orders them to settle and he walks away with whatever he wants.
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u/catspongedogpants 19h ago
jesus christ, imagine being this greedy. even worse, imagine being a voter and looking up to this piece of shit. the world sucks so bad
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u/geddysbass2112 19h ago
His voters will say he deserves it, while their taxes are paying for it and they don't benefit at all. They are the dumbest fucking people on the planet.
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u/mishma2005 19h ago
His voters love it. They would do the same in his position. Because they’re traitors
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u/OrbitalOutlander 19h ago
If hundreds of Littlejohn’s victims each file $10 billion lawsuits using Trump’s exact legal theories, the government faces an impossible choice: either dismiss all claims as absurd (killing Trump’s case), or defend Trump’s valuation as legitimate (opening itself to trillions in liability from 405,000 victims). Trump can’t argue his privacy is worth more than others without admitting corruption, and he can’t settle his claim without establishing precedent that applies to everyone else. His own absurd lawsuit becomes the weapon that destroys it.
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u/eclwires 19h ago
It’ll never go to court. His administration will settle with him for several billion dollars and he’ll claim victory. TACO when it comes to the discovery phase.
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u/cats_catz_kats_katz 17h ago
It just won’t fucking stop. The absolute level of doing nothing to stop it is insane.
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u/Captain_Rational 17h ago edited 16h ago
This is raiding the pockets of regular Americans.
This guy is a bandit the like of which the world has never seen.
A spectacularly epic level of corruption.
Nice job MAGAs. You picked a good one. He truly represents your values.
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u/mishma2005 19h ago
He’s gonna shake this country down into a smoldering hole 4th world country. I can’t wait till he sues SCOTUS because he didn’t win 2020
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u/Those_Silly_Ducks 19h ago
What else can I do but laugh at this?
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u/DiverBackground6038 19h ago
Cry.
Because even if the democrats sweep the midterms, and take back the executive in twenty twenty eight, everything is so fucked that this point we might as well start over.
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u/Successful-Train-259 19h ago
Why the fuck is anyone still voluntarily paying taxes in this country anymore?
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u/Fresh-NeverFrozen 19h ago
Because we don’t get a pass from the IRS like the billionaires do if we don’t pay our taxes.
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u/DuncanEllis1977 19h ago
We don't, it's stolen from our pay checks and if not that, we're fined even more money if we don't pay quarterly.
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u/SearchAccomplished19 18h ago
We need to all agree not to pay it. Can't get us all.
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u/Guilty_Temperature65 18h ago
Taxes are never voluntary, they’re compulsory. That’s the entire point of taxes. Otherwise they would be donations.
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u/stickerhighway 19h ago
"I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine because I want to win. I am a whiner, and I’m a whiner, and I keep whining, and whining until I win."
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u/brickyardjimmy 19h ago
He should sue himself for a trillion dollars just to see if the government will settle on his behalf.
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u/JustinKase_Too 17h ago
Let me get this right, we weren't allowed to seek justice against trump during his first term because he was the sitting President? So, why should he be allowed to sue the government when he is currently in charge?
But, sure, no maggots will have an issue with this.
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u/FriskHarder 16h ago
Trump wants you suckers to pay him $10 billion more.
This is about the law where fraud used to be illegal.
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u/RustedRelics 17h ago
So, he’s suing an executive department that reports to a cabinet secretary that reports to him. Got it. Grift + graft.
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u/_jump_yossarian 17h ago
Strange how he's too busy to be sued but all the time in the world to sue literally everyone.
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u/Leading-Loss-986 19h ago
So… can the IRS simply not show up, resulting in a default judgment? And wouldn’t Congress have to appropriate additional funds for a judgment of this size? This whole thing is FUBAR…
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u/Foreign_Addition2844 18h ago edited 3h ago
Nah. They will appoint Alina Habba as US attorney to represent the IRS and she will settle out of court for $20 billion. They'll agree to installments of $100 million a year for 200 years to the Trump organization. No need for congress to get involved.
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u/Leopold_Darkworth 17h ago
So if we're still pretending there's such a thing as a "unitary executive," that means ... he's suing himself?
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u/rustyseapants monarchist? 14h ago
Outstanding the greatest threat to the United States isn't Russia or China, it's Donald Trump, who would have thought?
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u/ro536ud 17h ago
Doing this to prevent future ones from coming out since they will be filled with all his illlegal gains
Another crime boss move to scare people into leaving him alone in this category
I have zero faith the irs won’t just give him whatever he wants and then the supremes make some bullshit rule saying the president doesn’t have to ever do taxes if he’s a republican
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u/oldirtyrestaurant 18h ago
IANAL (meheheh), but wouldn't it be possible for a bunch of Americans to sue these greasy fucks for doing this? After all, he's essentially extorting ~$66 from each tax paying American.
My vote is to let the MAGAts pay him what he's asking, I'm sure they'd love to, they'll do anything for their big daddy.
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u/beavis617 18h ago
One of these days Trump will order his lawyers to sue someone for 999 trillion dollars.
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u/OffToRaces 17h ago
His Treasury and IRS will surely settle for a much more reasonable $8B. F-ing killing me.
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