Newsom 100% – California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged to pursue a 100% tax on any money residents receive from President Donald Trump’s newly created “anti-weaponization” fund, a deal tied to dropping a lawsuit against the IRS. The governor called the pool of money a “slush fu
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s warning came with a number as stark as it was blunt: any Californian who receives money from President Donald Trump’s so-called “anti-weaponization” fund should be taxed on those proceeds at a rate of 100%.
He made the pledge Wednesday. speaking as his state prepares to challenge what he called a “slush fund.” In a social media post that included his remarks. Newsom said. “Anyone from California that receives any of those funds. we wanna tax 100% of those proceeds. ” adding. “And that’s an action the state of California can take. It’s an action we look forward to taking.”.
The push arrives after the U.S. Department of Justice this month created the fund in exchange for Trump dropping his lawsuit against the IRS. Trump also has his own legal fight simmering in the background: In January. the president sued his own administration for $10 billion in damages. alleging a leak of his tax returns during his first term. His sons—Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who run the Trump Organization—joined the litigation.
Those stakes are heightened by what was reported in 2020. Based on the leaks, The Times reported that Trump paid $750 in income tax in 2016 and 2017.
The fund at the center of Newsom’s challenge is large and unusual. It totals $1.776 billion, and it is designed to make payouts to people who can demonstrate to a DOJ commission that they were victims of weaponization.
Critics have pointed to a painful political irony: they say that almost any number of people who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could qualify. Newsom’s remarks land in a moment when Trump has been actively reshaping the consequences of that day. After taking office a second time in January 2025, Trump pardoned virtually every Jan. 6 defendant.
Democratic lawmakers in other states are moving in parallel. In New York and New Jersey, lawmakers have already started drafting legislation that would tax payouts from the fund at 100%.
Taken together. the sequence reads like a direct collision between a federal settlement framed as compensation and a state-level counterattack framed as extraction. The DOJ’s commission and payout structure is meant to direct money to claimants; Newsom’s plan is meant to ensure California residents pay that money back to the public at a punitive rate—especially as scrutiny grows over how broadly the definition of “victim of weaponization” could be stretched.
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