Media Must Cover Trump's Slush Fund as an Ongoing Threat

The Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge to file sworn declarations — under penalty of perjury — that the president's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" is dead. The Acting Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, and the Secretary of the Treasury all refused, citing "separation of powers concerns." Meanwhile, White House officials have continued privately telling Trump's allies that some form of payment is still coming, even as administration spokespersons claim publicly that the fund has been abandoned.

Yet too much media coverage has treated this story as resolved — a legal dispute that courts already handled. The administration's refusal to swear in writing that the fund is finished is not a footnote. It is the story. When officials won't put their claims under oath, journalists should be asking why — and who stands to benefit from keeping the door open.

We call on the media to cover Trump's Anti-Weaponization Fund as the active accountability story it remains — tracking the administration's court filings, scrutinizing its public denials against its private assurances, and following the money wherever it leads. The public deserves reporting that treats a refusal to tell the truth under oath as exactly the red flag it is.