California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to strip his own residents of every dollar they might receive from President Donald Trumps new $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund by slapping a 100 percent state tax on any payouts.
The Democratic governors threat came after President Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and instead established the fund to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare, as reported by Western Journal. Legal scholars and constitutional conservatives immediately raised alarms that Newsoms proposal resembles an unlawful bill of attainder, a punitive measure targeting a specific class of people without trial, which Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution explicitly prohibits.
Anyone from California that receives any of those funds we want to tax 100 percent of those proceeds, Newsom told reporters during a press conference in his office, according to Politico. He derided President Trumps settlement as a slush fund, signaling his intent to use state power to neutralize the relief effort before a single Californian can benefit.
The underlying lawsuit was filed by President Trump in a Miami federal court in January 2026 against the IRS and the Treasury Department. His legal team argued that federal officials mishandled protected information after his confidential tax records from his first presidency were leaked in 2019, a breach that conservatives have long cited as proof of a politicized bureaucracy.
That leak was traced to Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who admitted to releasing 15 years of Trumps tax records to media outlets. Littlejohn was sentenced in January 2024 to five years in prison, a rare but telling punishment that underscored the gravity of the weaponization concerns now at the heart of Trumps new fund.
Critics on the left insist the anti-weaponization fund is a vehicle to funnel money to Trumps allies, despite the programs stated purpose of compensating victims of government abuse. Their opposition has quickly morphed into a coordinated effort in blue states to tax away every cent that ordinary citizens might receive.
In New York, Democratic Assemblyman Alex Bores has introduced legislation to impose a 100 percent tax on any payouts from the fund. His Democratic colleagues are pressing for a rapid vote on the measure even as Bores campaigns to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler in Congress, turning the attack on Trumps initiative into a political calling card.
A similar push is underway in New Jersey, where another Democratic lawmaker is drafting a bill to confiscate all proceeds from the fund, Politico reported. Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andrew Zwicker praised the idea, calling the 100 percent tax a brilliant counter to Trumps corruption, openly framing punitive taxation as a political weapon.
President Trump, for his part, has defended the fund as a lifeline for citizens targeted by partisan bureaucrats and prosecutors. In a May 22 Truth Social post, he said the fund is meant to help people who have been badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, highlighting what many conservatives see as a broader pattern of lawfare against political opponents.
As Democratic officials in deep-blue states race to block their own residents from accessing relief, the clash over the anti-weaponization fund is rapidly becoming a test of whether partisan hostility can override constitutional protections and basic fairness. For conservatives, the spectacle of governors and legislators scrambling to confiscate compensation from alleged victims of government abuse only reinforces the need for robust checks on bureaucratic power and for a justice system that cannot be bent to ideological ends.
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