In a remarkable and unprecedented U-turn last week, Donald Trump went into full retreat. His acting attorney general and former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, announced the scrapping of an extraordinarily controversial $1.8 billion (€1.54 billion) taxpayer fund. The fund had been set up to compensate Trump supporters for their alleged legal persecution by the previous administration.

This was a bridge too far for many of his loyal republican supporters in congress, and for the judge who, apparently inadvertently, enabled the plundering by Trump of state assets. Such is the egregiousness of this now failed plunder of state coffers, however, that it remains a story that needs recounting.

Blanche did not undo the other part of the unique “settlement” brokered between Trump’s lawyers and former lawyers now working for the state, in the president’s flimsy $10 billion suit against the tax service (IRS). The settlement also gave broad immunity to Trump, his family and businesses from all supposedly politically inspired lawsuits, including tax audits.

The AG wrote that the Government is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing claims against Trump involving “lawfare and/or weaponisation” or tax returns. At a stroke, a potential tax liability of, some estimates suggest, $100 million looked to have been wiped out.

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