VANCE ON FIRE

Trump officials are retooling the IRS to make it easier to target Trump’s opponents, according to a new report. JD Vance once warned that such a move would mean we “no longer live in a free country.”

• Republicans famously hate taxes. And they’ve long been suspicious of those pesky federal agents tasked with making sure everyone actually pays their share. Don’t take it from me! Just listen to what one former senator from Ohio had to say about unproven claims from the right that the Biden administration’s Internal Revenue Service might have singled out conservatives.

• “If the IRS can go after you because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we’d no longer live in a free country,” now-Vice President JD Vance told Fox News in 2023. “This is about whether we have functional constitutional government in this country.”

• My goodness, how times change. Back in the day, weaponizing the tax service was bad, and President Donald Trump could be “America’s Hitler” (as Vance also once famously quipped). But now? The Trump-Vance administration is reportedly overhauling the Internal Revenue Service to make it easier to pursue criminal inquiries against Democratic donors and groups, the Wall Street Journal reported.

• A list of potential targets includes billionaire George Soros and his affiliated groups, according to the outlet. Trump recently claimed that Soros, who has donated to and launched progressive groups, “should be put in jail,” without explaining why. Trump, the only convicted felon to ever serve as commander-in-chief, said that Soros and his son should face federal charges under the RICO Act, which was originally created to take down mob bosses. (Trump himself pleaded not guilty when charged with Georgia’s state-based version of RICO.)

• Vance, of course, strenuously opposed using tax-based investigations against political opponents — back when he thought the targets might be conservatives. “It’s fundamentally an assault on peoples’ First Amendment rights,” Vance said at the time. “It’s very dangerous, and we have to call it out. We have to fight against it.”

Trump’s tax flex is just the latest update in his revenge campaign against Democrats and his rivals.

• Federal prosecutors indicted a third high-profile Trump critic today: John Bolton, the president’s own estranged former national security advisor. Bolton was charged with 18 counts related to allegedly mishandling classified documents, two months after the FBI searched his home and office. Bolton has frequently traded barbs with Trump, and denied wrongdoing.

• Trump singled out three other former Department of Justice officials for possible prosecution in a rambling Oval Office appearance yesterday, including former special counsel Jack Smith. In the past, Trump has even called for probes of celebrities he dislikes, including Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé.

• Trump has unleashed a wave of violent unrest in Chicago via immigration agents, deployed troops to quell protests in Los Angeles, and taken over Washington, D.C.’s police force. Now, Trump officials are reportedly planning on diverting funds for terrorism prevention from blue states to red states.

• Trump’s crackdown on opponents was solidified in an executive order last month, which requires the administration to “investigate, disrupt and dismantle” people and groups associated with the “militarist, anarchist enterprise… Antifa.” Never mind that “Antifa” is a loosely-defined radical left-wing movement with no centralized leadership, membership roster, or — conveniently for Trump — any ability to speak for itself.

• “There’s this giant Antifa conspiracy, and therefore we have to have effectively a state of emergency,” Timothy Snyder, a leading historian on authoritarians, told The xxxxxx. “And the whole government has to be turned against the liberals and the Democrats and everybody who tries to organize themselves in the United States.”

I’ll have an interview with Ezra Levin, one of the lead organizers of the No Kings rallies this weekend, for you tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Special Call Out: Have you been impacted by the Trump administration and its policies? Crooked’s newest podcast, Runaway Country with Alex Wagner, wants to hear from you — whether these policies have impacted you for better or worse. Send us an email or one-minute voice note at [email protected] and we may be in touch to feature your story.

WHAT ELSE?

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans say that their monthly expenses have risen between $100 and $749 over the past year, according to a new poll. Monthly! That finding throws pie in the face of Donald Trump’s boisterous claims that there’s “virtually no inflation” and that “prices are ‘WAY DOWN’ in the USA.” As right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro would say, facts don’t care about your feelings! And neither does the price of eggs.

Donald Trump said he’ll meet with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Hungary soon to discuss an end to the war with Ukraine, following a phone call between the two leaders today. The news comes a day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with Trump at the White House, so I guess that’s already off to a rocky start. Let’s hope Zelenskyy remembers to wear a suit…

Trump hosted corporate donors at the White House last night for a glitzy dinner to fundraise for his new ballroom. Attendees included executives for Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon.com and Palantir Technologies… and even the infamous Winklevoss twins. Now that’s my nightmare blunt rotation.

Venezuela criticized Trump’s announcement that he had authorized covert CIA action in the country. “How long will the CIA continue to carry on with its coups? Latin America doesn’t want them, doesn’t need them and repudiates them,” President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised speech. It’s unclear whether Trump has greenlit an overthrow of Maduro’s dictatorship, he did suggest that ground strikes in Venezuela are on the table.

The U.S. dropped from the world’s top 10 powerful passports list for the first time ever, thanks to Trump’s visa restrictions on a dozen countries and threat to ban others. “Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind,” the creator of the passport index said.

Deleted social media posts may spell trouble for Graham Platner, the progressive Maine oysterman running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). “I got older and became a communist,” he wrote on Reddit four years ago. He also once described cops as bastards and rural white Americans as racist and stupid. “That was very much me fucking around the internet,” Platner told CNN. “I don’t think any of that is indicative of who I am today, really.”

Grab your popcorn! Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, certified creep Andrew Cuomo, and cat-loving, red-beret-wearing Curtis Sliwa face off in the first New York City mayoral debate tonight at 7 p.m. This should be spicyyyyyy!

Light at the End of the Email…

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) gave an impassioned response to CNN’s Kaitlin Collins when asked if she plans to run against Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “I don’t think this is about ... anything,” AOC responded in frustration. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also jumped in, saying that “nobody cares” about a political horserace when the country is “falling apart.” I imagine this is the energy Democratic voters are asking for!

Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) made $1.4 million playing blackjack in Las Vegas last year, according to his tax returns. “I went on vacation with my wife, with some friends. I was incredibly lucky. You have to be, to end up ahead, frankly, going to a casino anywhere — it was in Las Vegas — and I like to play cards,” Pritzker, a billionaire, told reporters today. Gambling isn’t good… but should this guy go professional? He has some serious skills. I mean, wow. (His campaign said the governor also likes to play poker.) Not betting against this guy anytime soon, I’m just sayin’.

Chicago Priest Gary Graf is walking from the childhood home of Pope Leo to the Statue of Liberty in New York to “bring light to the truth of what is happening to immigrant families in America.” He’s still keeping the journey going even after falling from a horse, and you can follow along on Instagram.

The Church of Norway apologized to LGBTQ people for any harm that it has inflicted: “The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” presiding Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit said today. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologize today.”

Swifties descended en masse on a German museum this week, because it houses a painting that’s strikingly similar to the opening scene of Taylor Swift’s new “The Fate of Ophelia” music video.