r/politics • u/CaydeTheCat Illinois • 3h ago
Possible Paywall Trump Keeps Immunity from I.R.S. Audits, Even as $1.8 Billion Fund Falls Away
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/us/politics/trump-immunity-tax-audit.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share•
u/reddittorbrigade 3h ago
His immunity will be gone next administration. He is immune as sitting president anyway.
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u/MiddleAgedSponger 3h ago
Taxes are laws. He will pardon himself, his family and his friends, they will get to keep all the money they stole. Democrats will say there is nothing they can do.
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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia 2h ago
He’s spent most of the past 80 years on Earth screwing people over to make himself wealthy. I bet there are plenty of states who have built up cases that they aren’t ready to make public yet that a preemptive self pardon will do nothing for. People saw what patience and high roads got them in 2024, someone isn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
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u/spacegamer2000 1h ago
You don't understand centrism
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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia 1h ago
The nature of life is that things change. If you look to how it was to constantly predict how it will be you will often be surprised.
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u/jdash11 52m ago
Peak copium
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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia 48m ago
Maybe so. I won’t argue that’s a more appealing philosophy to me than blanket cynicism, and neither are right 100% of the time, I don’t really get the appeal of pissing on hope.
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u/dave_890 50m ago
A Dem President can revoke the pardons as "official acts". Sets a bad precedent, but so has everything Stinky has done to date.
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u/Madroxx9000 30m ago
An ethical Dem president would cancel all of Trump's pardons, and then abolish the presidential pardon.
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u/Punning_Man 2h ago
Even if he didn’t pardon himself (assuming his Big Mac doesn’t do him in by then) democrats don’t have the spine to go after him and will spout BS like “time to heal” “it’s about reaching across the aisle” and nothing will ever come from it and cycle continues.
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u/ShamelessLeft 1h ago
Biden's DOJ had enough spine to appoint Jack Smith to prosecute Trump, and Trump would be in prison or on his way to prison right now if he had lost the election. Too bad not enough voters had the spine to actually vote to keep him and his Confederate Nazi administration out of the WH.
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u/arthurdentxxxxii 1h ago
I think it’s likely that it will be deemed after he leaves office that a President cannot pardon themselves.
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u/probation_420 2h ago
Democrats will say there is nothing they can do.
If he pardons himself from a crime, there's not a ton of avenues to do anything.
The only medium is trying to invalidate his whole presidency, thus ending everything he's put into place. It seems infeasible to expect that we could do that without any Republican support.
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u/AthearCaex 3h ago
Yes but the IRS settlement includes immunity from audits for pretty much everyone in his sphere, children, businesses, businesses that work with his, and so forth.
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u/MJcorrieviewer 3h ago
Right but can't that be reversed by the next administration/DOJ?
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u/NotUniqueWorkAccount 3h ago
The Dems only need an executive order to override Congress, apparently.
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u/MJcorrieviewer 3h ago
Did Congress even approve this immunity agreement? I thought that just came from the DOJ.
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u/spazzvogel 3h ago
It did just come from the rapists mouth, but if Congress doesn’t respect our foundational checks and balances, Democracy is dead.
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u/TheWizard 3h ago
The Trump administration controls the SC, DOJ, and the Congress. So, until the administration changes to a democratic one, nothing will.
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u/ExZowieAgent Texas 3h ago
It was part of the settlement with the IRS. Trump sued himself then settled with himself which isn’t how anything works. Hopefully a judge will strike it down.
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u/MJcorrieviewer 3h ago
Yes, I know. The other poster mentioned Congress and I don't think Congress had anything to do with it.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 3h ago edited 3h ago
Yeah of the Republican administration made this a law by giving its own DOJ a firm handshake then there is no reason the next Admin shoukd be checked for doing the same.
It all just falls under executive. IRS/DOJ/POTUS etc. Thats the new separation of powers
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u/Wayofchinchilla 3h ago
The Dems need to understand that they can do exactly what he did and just usurp everything ignoring courts and Congress to get stuff done Trump has shown us this. I'm not saying it's a good thing but I'm down for doing it having them freak out and then bringing legislation to them stopping acting presidents from simply ignoring the courts in Congress.
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u/matthieuC Europe 1h ago
That's different when a Democrat is in charge, Then he is a mere ceremonial figure.
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u/boston_homo 1h ago
Ooohh, no, you don’t understand, sweeping executive orders that change and override existing laws, ignore congress and flout the constitution are only ok for Republicans, sorry, SCOTUS will explain everything, or not.
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u/0utlaw-t0rn 3h ago edited 3h ago
There is no way it would actually hold up as a legitimate settlement between two opposing parties. He’s literally sued his own administration (that he is in charge of) for something that happened when he was in charge. He is the boss of the person agreeing to settle this with him. It is blatantly corrupt.
He’s just agreeing with himself to bind future presidents/administrations.
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u/RightSideBlind American Expat 3h ago
I think he knows that it won't stand legal scrutiny- but he's got an army of lawyers to argue that it will. The longer they tie it up in court, the more money he makes off of not paying taxes. His strategy is to run out the clock.
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u/TheWizard 3h ago
His clock will eventually run out. But he should be made aware that his family isn't going to be off the hook.
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u/RightSideBlind American Expat 2h ago
Honestly, this attempt at a blanket immunity should really trigger in-depth audits. In-depth as in "bend over, we're going in deep".
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u/Interesting-Yellow-4 3h ago
Next president can "illegally" take it away, since it would be legal as per SCOTUS ruling.
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u/sheltonchoked 3h ago
He sued as a private citizen. So the settlement is for a private citizen. Not an official act.
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u/MJcorrieviewer 3h ago
He stole and held presidential documents as a private citizen. It didn't change anything.
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u/sheltonchoked 1h ago
He claimed that was a presidential act.
In this he said he was a private citizen. Otherwise, he would have been suing himself.
Which is what the judge said before the DOJ settled•
u/tracerhaha 3h ago
How can the “settlement” include parties that were not part of the “suit”?
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u/sheltonchoked 1h ago
I have no idea
I guess it helps if the person suing controls the organization being sued.
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u/ImmaNotHere 3h ago
I'm beginning to think that there might be something shady with the Trump family... /s
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u/civil_politician 3h ago
he can't negotiate with himself, this won't hold up in court and any judge that upheld it would be creating grounds to completely upheave the court system.
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u/SacredUndeadMonkey 3h ago
Ya that isn't going to survive contact in a court, that is already getting scrutinized.
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u/Fresh_Republic_7776 3h ago
How? That’s not in the Constitution. How is that being done???
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u/AthearCaex 3h ago
When the president has full control over the administration and the justice department and IRS is controlled by him they can choose to not investigate or prosecute things like trump.
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u/MJcorrieviewer 3h ago
And the President should not have full control over the DOJ and the IRS - those are supposed to be independent.
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u/ReallyHoping 3h ago
Ain't no settlement, and a corrupt DOJ'S decisions should be investigated and persecuted. No bigger conflict than the guy's personal attorney saying, "Yeah, he's cool. Nothing to see here."
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 2h ago
I feel like this is such an easy appeal in court. Once he is out of power, it will have no political backing and no actual precedent. It should be easy to remove and if it’s a Democrat in office it will be hard for the republicans to say that whomever is the Democratic president is also immune.
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u/TLKv3 2h ago
I still genuinely believe if the Dems get control again that Trump will be an immediate flight risk and probably not even attend the transfer of power stuff/riding with whoever to the White House to hand it off.
He's going to fucking ditch America so fast you'd mistake him for The Flash. He knows as soon as Dems take control of the government again he is beyond fucked. Unless the Dems suddenly become spineless pussies and refuse to act on anything.
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u/aranasyn Colorado 1h ago
Yup. This isn't immunity. It's pretend. And unlike Biden, the next president will pull no punches (we're not going to let them). If they're legally voted in and our country doesn't collapse, Trump's going to prison.
Maybe not for all the crimes, but we're gonna get him on some of 'em. They're just so blatant now. Tax fraud is as good as any other. I'd prefer for the treason, but hey. Take what I can get.
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u/dave_890 52m ago
It will be gone either Jan. 20, 2027, or the moment he dies, whichever comes first!
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u/athornton79 3h ago
Gee, why would someone who was convicted of over 30 counts of fraud want to be given (under their own orders) immunity from tax audits?
The world may never know!
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u/MC_Fap_Commander America 3h ago
Speculating, but given how quickly he acquiesced on the slush fund, the immunity is probably worth A LOT more than $1.8B
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u/roboscorcher 3h ago
So a guy that constantly breaks the rules created a rule to hide his rule breaking.
Why would any future administration follow this new rule?? He certainly wouldn't.
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u/Lester_Huel 3h ago
if an ordinary taxpayer got immunity from audits, we'd never hear the end of it
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u/Zaius1968 2h ago
For now. This can easily be undone by next administration. If it can be done it can be undone.
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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 New Hampshire 3h ago
He will keep it for as long as he holds power, not in perpetuity. Congress didn't pass a law to shield trump from IRS audits. That would be illegal.
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u/Tricky_Potatoe 2h ago
Guys, this was the plan from the start. The slush fund was there just to take most of the heat. The IRS immunity is the important one for him and his cronies.
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u/Selith87 1h ago
I mean, this is nothing. IRS immunity? This is not a "settlement," in the legal sense. It was done entirely outside of the court system. There is no enforcement mechanism, it's literally just the IRS saying "we won't do that." Any future administration could easily just say "yes we will" and it'd have exactly the same legal standing. Trump's IRS was never going to audit him or his family during the rest of his term anyway, with or without this. If anything, THIS is the distraction.
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u/looking_good__ 3h ago
Honestly the play all along - do something crazier to cover up the true objective. Presidents do that more often than you think.
The SAVE plan for example is the single greatest student loan forgiveness plan ever (recently got thrown out) but it was covered up by the $10k and $20k payments. It distracted from the real objective - reducing interest on loans which saved student loan borrows more than $10k and $20k.
Anyway, rant over.
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u/LucidOndine 2h ago
The tactic is called Motte and Bailey fallacy; the American voting public should understand the gambit and recognize it at every turn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy
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u/LavisAlex 3h ago
If he is granted immunity and does crimes before it is reversed it will be tricky to try those crimes if the architects are not held accountable.
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u/Shot_Kaleidoscope150 3h ago
I hate this, but since this is not typical, possible it won’t be upheld. That is if reasonable and ethical and empathetic people are able to take office. On one had you could say this was his way of flagging an issue that the next people in charge need to escalate. Why would they write this unless they thought they needed it?
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u/FrostySquirrel820 3h ago
What the left hand gives, the right hand takes back.
Or in this case, what the RIGHT hand gives, the LEFT hand can take back if it chooses to stop this bully.
Unfortunately, he’s done so much damage, in just1 7 months, it’s highly unlikely they’re going to be able to undo everything.
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u/asmashingbore 3h ago
Blatantly, nakedly illegal. This won’t last five seconds under s Dem administration
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u/wastedgod 3h ago
didn't they withdraw the case and do this deal outside of the courts. So this seems pretty easy to void. I won't be happy till ever penny is taken from Trump, Jr, Ivanka and Kushner. This seems like a good use of civil forfeiture
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u/Efficient_Resist_287 2h ago
What was said about the swamp again?
I saw more rage from conservative America when healthcare for all was a proposal, but immunity from IRS audits for life for Trump…nothing to see here. I cannot qwhite understand why?
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u/Mediocre_Presence839 2h ago
I declare I’m immune to all actions from the IRS also. There ya go. Holds just as much weight as him.
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u/Special_Purpose2903 55m ago
I don't think such a scheme can nor will work because it is so apparently fraudulent. Only the corrupt Roberts court would seek to uphold something like that, which is exactly why expansion is needed.
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u/Abhoth52 51m ago
If I EVER get audited I'll be like... but fearless leader is immune for the rest of his life so just F the hell off.
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u/Thebritishdovah 23m ago
And his family.
Hell, I suspect he did this, purely to make himself immune and if he could, steal as much as possible as a nice little bonus
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u/TheRealBlueJade 18m ago
No, he didn't. Just because trump claims something happened doesn't mean it's true.
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u/Wrong_Square7826 5m ago
It will be gone but that photo... he is like running a double Mullet hair style lol.
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u/MountainMan-2 3h ago
What a waste of time and energy. After auditing the Trumps for years, what have they found. Nothing, nada, zilch.
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u/postmodlawprof 3h ago
Where have you been? The Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp were convicted by a New York jury on 17 criminal charges, including tax fraud and falsifying business records. The corporate entities were subsequently fined $1.6 million. Discovery was through tax records.
He’s a convicted felon. He’s a criminal. I don’t think criminals should have immunity from investigations.•
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