Will President Trump help himself to Missouri and Kansas tax dollars? | Opinion
Let me give you the Trump administration in four facts:
- Since Donald Trump took office last year, the foundation of America’s economy — the once mighty dollar — has fallen in value by about 10%. That means everything in America is worth less.
- Since Trump imposed his “Liberation Day” tariffs to bolster American manufacturing, U.S. manufacturing has lost jobs for eight months in a row. Spending on manufacturing-related construction has also declined in every one of those months. That means there is less for the blue collar workers who powered Trump’s rise.
- Farm leaders are warning Congress that American agriculture like that in Kansas and Missouri faces “widespread collapse,” in part driven by the trade chaos spurred by those same tariffs doing so much damage to American manufacturing. That means there is less for the rural farmers and ranchers who powered Trump’s rise, even as Trump offers a partial bailout that will reach bank accounts here this month.
- Since Trump took office, his family has seen its wealth grow by $4 billion dollars, including a dubious $500 million crypto investment by a shady Arab sheikh, revealed this week by The Wall Street Journal.
Looking at those facts, it is easy to conclude that Trump might just be in this more for himself than for the people in the political movement that made him president for the second time.
The silver lining in this is that the money the Trump family is swimming in doesn’t belong to us. Mostly it is from foreigners and other dupes looking to curry favor. That kind of corruption is bad enough, whether it is Jeff Bezos’ millions for Melania’s ridiculous movie or that sheikh’s “investment” in Trump-branded crypto.
But that may be about to change. Trump has sued the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department for $10 billion. That’s more than 40 times what he demanded in an earlier lawsuit against the Justice Department.
It didn’t get much attention last week when it happened, because there isn’t time in the day to cover all the scandalous things Trump does, from closing the Kennedy Center to usurping the Congressional power to write trade law, or deploying masked immigration police to gun down American citizens on our streets.
These two lawsuits, in which Trump alleges the Justice Department maliciously prosecuted him and that the IRS leaked his personal information, are different from all the others the famously litigious kleptocrat has filed. That’s because he essentially is filing the lawsuits against himself — and if he wins, it will be our money that makes up Trump’s booty.
Decisions about legal strategy and whether to settle will be made by Trump appointee Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary and acting IRS commissioner, and the reliable Trump crony at Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi. Whom do they report to? Trump.
Trump will obviously control the plaintiffs’ side of the cases, so who knows how much he will tell his appointees to give him from the public coffers they control when it comes time to settle the disputes? Whether it is millions or billions is up to Trump and a couple of judges who will have to bless any settlement, a move that is a rubber stamp in most normal court cases.
Trump says he’ll give any winnings to charity, a move in the past he has used to fund his presidential library and other interests.
If the president starts transferring taxpayer dollars to his own bank accounts, I hope at least some of the MAGA world wakes up to the reality of Donald Trump. I doubt they will.
David Mastio is a national columnist for The Kansas City Star and McClatchy.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 2:28 PM.
