Taxpayers
2017
2017-12-22 Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, later renaming it the Trump Tax. According to AI, this legislation widened the deficit in Trump’s first term. According to one article, the billionaire “boom” was 120%.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/effects-of-the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-a-preliminary-analysis
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tcja-2-years-later-corporations-not-workers-big-winners/
https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaires-2-2-trillion-richer-since-2017-trump-gop-tax-law/
https://populardemocracyinaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Trump-Corporate-Oligarchs.pdf
https://x.com/barronsonline/status/1877264406230310976
2019
2019-02-15 Trump declared a national emergency so he could redirect $8B in military construction and treasury funds into building the border wall***, and the ACLU sued.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R45908
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37241284
2023
2023-05-24 Several States (Nebraska, for example) had passed laws forcing taxpayers to pay taxes that would go to private schools for the elite. For context, if the richest people in the States were concerned enough about the quality of education in public schools or the safety of the schools that they wouldn’t send their own children to them, that leaves the question why more funding is being diverted away from public schools rather than being invested in them.
https://southerneducation.org/publications/how-are-public-funds-diverted-to-private-schools/
2025 January
2025-01-20 State government resources outline how the Trump tax cuts will lower taxes for the wealthy while increase taxes for the poor.
2025-01-20 The Big Beautiful Bill expanded tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high-income earners, with the top 1% receiving over $1T in tax cuts over the next decade.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-ways-the-big-beautiful-bill-cuts-taxes-for-the-rich/
https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-tax-cuts-2024-election-rich-corporations
2025 May
2025-05-20 (for context – because most low wage workers are near, at or below the poverty line) The Trump administration announced plans to pass a lackluster “No Tax For Tips” bill. The bill ended up being temporary in nature, featured an income cap up to an unlivable $25,000 per year, and excluded payroll and state taxes. Altogether the bill offered little or no benefit to low-wage workers.
https://www.epi.org/publication/everything-you-need-to-know-about-no-tax-on-tips/
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/how-does-no-tax-on-tips-work-in-the-one-big-beautiful-bill/
https://itep.org/conforming-to-the-no-tax-on-tips-gimmick-just-got-riskier-and-costlier-for-states/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_tax_on_tips
2025 June
2025-06-24 The Trump administration scrambled to rehire key federal workers after the sweeping and unscrupulous DOGE firings. Estimates suggest the actions by DOGE between firings and rehiring had cost American taxpayers roughly $135B.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/politics/doge-fired-workers-rehired
2025 August
2025-08-05 Trump stated that DOGE cuts would be “surgical”. Instead, the Trump administration made indiscriminate cuts to a wide chunk of agricultural, educational, scientific, research, environmental, and civil engineering services designed to help millions of Americans thrive. After Elon Musk left DOGE, the Trump administration continued to make slashing cuts across the board, primarily in Democrat-led cities as a retaliatory measure.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/doge-cuts-by-city-state-and-congressional-district/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_federal_agencies_targeted_by_DOGE
2025 September
2025-09-14 (context/spending) Trump asked Congress for an additional $58M to increase security for his administration. Taxpayer expense.
2025-09-14 News outlets reported that by this date government spending for immigration deportation had reached $75B (billion) taxpayer dollars.
2025-09-24 The Trump administration continued to rehire many federal workers formerly let go by DOGE but only gave them until the end of October to return. The rehiring would cost taxpayers. The fact that the Trump administration had to rehire crucial workers back to federal positions goes against their previous claim August 5th that their firings would be done with “surgical precision”.
[https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/federal-fallout/trump-administration-moves-rehire-laid-off-federal-workers/65-4b677119-5100-4709-9ae9-4d5f217c71e5](https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/federal-fallout/trump-administration-moves-rehire-laid-off-federal-workers/65-4b677119-5100-4709-9ae9-4d5f217c71e5/)
2025 October
2025-10-12 The Trump Administration bailed Argentina out with $40 BILLION in American taxpayer dollars. In November the Senate refused to vote for a takeback of those funds during the shutdown while millions of American families went hungry.
https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413878
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3mdvle78o
2025-10-16 (for context) Trump proposed building himself a “victory arch”. No word about how much the arch would cost taxpayers, but Trump did share his proposal during a government shutdown while he withheld food benefits from millions of Americans. The plan was to construct the arch overlooking the Arlington Cemetery, and the structure would be nearly twice the size of both the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7e8lv176go
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/16/nx-s1-5576506/president-trump-arch-us-250th-anniversary
https://turtledove.fandom.com/wiki/German_Arch_of_Triumph
2025-10-22 Trump demanded to go forward with his lawsuit against the DOJ, forcing taxpayers to pay up the $230M lawsuit.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/trump-doj-request-230-mil-explained
2026 January
2026-01-14 The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost American taxpayers up to $125M for rebranding the DoD as the Department of War.
2026-01-29 Trump sued the IRS and Treasury for $10B for leaked tax information.
2026 March
2026-03-05 Trump finally fired incompetent and reckless Kristi Noem, stating he did not know she had spent $250M in taxpayer money on ad campaigns during her reign of ICE terror. He replaced her with Senator Markwayne Mullin.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-homeland-security-noem-mullin-38c583b3cef97b4ef60d84b8f8b5961a
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/05/nx-s1-5667546/kristi-noem-homeland-security-fired
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/us/politics/kristi-noem-markwayne-mullin-trump.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedzep6gp07o
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bodycam-video-ice-fatal-shooting-ruben-ray-martinez-texas/
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/06/south-padre-immigration-officer-shooting/
2026-03-10 News agencies reported that Pete Hegseth went on a spending spree with taxpayer money from September 2025 on, spending $9M on crab legs, $6.9M on lobster tail, $98,000 for a grand piano, $5.3M on Apple devices, $15.1M for steak, $124,000 on ice cream machines, $139,000 on doughnut orders, $225M on furniture, $12,000 for fruit basket stands, and $50.1B on grants and contracts. This all came just before the Trump administration decided to withhold SNAP benefits for American families and their children.
https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab
https://mashable.com/video/jimmy-kimmel-pete-hegseth-spending-93-billion
2026-03-10 The first six days of the war in Iran cost American taxpayers $11B.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/12/iran-war-cost-pentagon-00825666
2026-03-17 The Trump administration reportedly planned to pay $1B (in taxpayer money?) to stop offshore wind farm projects outside New York and North Carolina.
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/trump-team-weighs-paying-1b-215115862.html
https://electricityinfo.org/news/us-wind-8/
2026-03-19 Pete Hegseth requested another $200B for the war in Iran after entering its third week. For contrast: The war in Iraq cost $815B but that was over the course of 13 years.
https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-us-pentagon-972ec1bd956a2c3633e6ab7fff389791
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/hegseth-iran-war-budget.html
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/19/politics/iran-war-cost-republicans-congress
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/19/congress-braces-for-200b-iran-war-request-00835914
2026-03-20 In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins, Scott Perry said he’d like to see Iran pay for the war.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5793393-scott-perry-iran-war-bill/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/republican-demands-iran-pay-trump-163712593.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scott-perry-iran-pay-trump-war-cost_n_69bd4de2e4b0284f9be0117b
2026-03-23 Trump paid a French energy company $1B in American taxpayer money to cancel offshore wind farm projects.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/23/g-s1-114868/trump-totalenergies-offshore-wind-leases
SUB WALL https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/climate/offshore-wind-gas-trump-total.html
2026-03-29 Trump touted more plans for his ballroom to include bulletproof glass and drone-proof construction. This during a war in Iran, the lowest job-market in decades, surging inflation, unaffordable healthcare, increasing poverty, and a shutdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6x2Y50Egs&list=WL&index=1&t=10s
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5807115-donald-trump-military-complex-white-house-ballroom/
2026 April
2026-04-03 The Trump administration demanded $1.5T in defense spending to support Israels war and pay for the “Golden Dome”, while making further cuts to domestic necessities like heating and cooling and food. During an event at the White House Trump said, “It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual…things. They can do it on a State basis. You can’t do it on a Federal – we have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country”. In other words, Trump wants to funnel American taxpayer dollars into funding Israel’s power-grabbing war in the Middle East.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0IV2JT26Ls&list=WL&index=4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEURbAHBPvg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GFcmIVM3Yc
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/02/politics/donald-trump-iran-war-daycare
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5814887-15t-defense-budget-request/
2026-04-15 The White House submitted plans for the Triumphal Arch (estimated to cost at least $125M, overshadows all other memorials including Arlington).
2026-04-23 The GOP used a reconciliation measure to bypass Democratic vote and get an additional $70B in ICE funding.
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/23/g-s1-118330/congress-dhs-spending-reconciliation
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5844515-senate-republicans-budget-resolution/
2026-04-27 Lindsey Graham proposed and pushed for taxpayers to fund Trump’s $400M ballroom. Remember, Trump promised in the beginning while he bulldozed the East Wing that his billionaire friends were funding it. Side note, having private donors fund a government-used building is also a conflict of interest.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5853917-trump-ballroom-funding-controversy/
2026 May
2026-05-03 The Trump tariff refund claims process proved to be a farse when small businesses started receiving rejected claims.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/03/nx-s1-5805045/tariff-refunds-small-business
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5723862/trump-tariffs-refunds-small-business
2026-05-05 Protestors joined at the Met Gala to protest Jeff Bezos sponsoring the red-carpet event. They placed bottles of fake urine in the halls signifying Amazon’s choice to not allow employees to take bathroom breaks (and having to pee in bottles), as well as signs such as, “If you can buy the Met Gala, you can pay more tax”.
TIMESTAMP 10:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmFI8zifRY8&list=WL&index=1&t=166s
2026-05-06 Now the GOP want taxpayers to pay $1B for the “security features” of Trump’s ballroom.
https://www.today.com/video/gop-bill-would-fund-1b-in-taxpayer-money-for-trump-ballroom-262830149683
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/us/politics/republicans-immigration-bill-trump-ballroom.html
2026-05-11 Taxpayers will expect to pay $13.1M to cover Trump’s reflection pool project.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5872939-reflecting-pool-renovation-cost-increase/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c202nj46p7wo
2026-05-12 When reporters asked him about the war in Iran, Trump replied, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation – I don’t think about anybody”.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/12/world/live-news/trump-iran-war-news
2026-05-14 Trump’s puppet JD Vance denied that Trump said, “I don’t think about American’s financial situations…”.
https://newrepublic.com/post/210395/jd-vance-donald-trump-never-said-care-even-little-bit-americans
2026-05-14 The White House erected a stage at the National Mall to host a religious ceremony for the U.S. 250, featuring Franklin Graham, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Pastor and Samuel Rodriguez. This is another effort to advance Christian Nationalism, exclude other religions or respect non-followers, and dismantle the separation of church and state. This was taxpayer funded. Co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation Annie Laurie Gaylor wrote, “Our Constitution is godless by design. The government has no authority to organize religious revivals, much less use them to promote a Christian nationalist agenda”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ISa1_YQPXc&list=WL&index=7
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/17/politics/national-mall-prayer-event
2026-05-16 Trump reportedly dropped his $10B lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a taxpayer-funded $1.7B anti-weaponization fund (slush fund) to compensate allies of Trump who claimed they were targeted under the Biden administration. Recipients could include anyone charged in the J6 insurrection.
https://time.com/article/2026/05/16/trump-irs-lawsuit-weaponization-fund/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/16/trump-irs-lawsuit-compensation-fund
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/17/politics/irs-doj-trump-fund-billion
2026-05-19 As part of Trump’s IRS settlement, the DOJ agreed to drop any pending tax claims against Trump and his family, barring any investigations.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/19/g-s1-122938/irs-trump-settlement-tax-returns-audit
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/19/politics/irs-barred-investigating-trump-new-settlement-term
2026-05-20 (CONTEXT - FOLLOW UP ON SLUSH FUND) Two officers filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s $1.8B “anti-weaponization” fund to reward J6 insurrectionists for their attack on the Capitol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rm_2tYr8HE&list=WL&index=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EPDnUEagYo&list=WL&index=1
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/g-s1-123293/officers-who-defended-capitol-sue
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/20/trump-weaponization-fund-lawsuit-jan-6-00929342