Paying The Mob
Paying the Mob: The $1.8 Billion Insult to Democracy
Let’s be clear about what just happened. The Trump administration has announced a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund — and the people lining up to collect are the same ones who beat police officers, smashed windows, and tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021.
This isn’t justice. This is a reward program for insurrection.
They already got the pardons. Blanket clemency wiped the records of nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack — including members of the Proud Boys, a federally designated extremist organization. Hundreds walked out of prison early. Pending prosecutions were dropped. We were told to move on.
Now they want the money, too.
Convicted rioters, fake electors, and prominent election deniers are all eagerly eyeing the fund, framing themselves as victims of “weaponization and lawfare.” Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader who received the longest sentence of any January 6 defendant, has signaled his intent to apply.
The audacity is breathtaking. These are not whistleblowers. They are not political prisoners. They are people who were caught on camera, charged by a jury of their peers, and convicted under laws that apply to everyone. The only “weaponization” that happened was the Constitution being used exactly as intended — to hold people accountable for attacking it.
But here’s what makes this even harder to stomach: the people cheering for this fund spent years wrapping themselves in the flag and the thin blue line. “Back the Blue” was their rallying cry — right up until the blue stood between them and the Capitol. On January 6th, officers were beaten with flagpoles that had “Back the Blue flags” attached to them, sprayed with chemical irritants, and crushed in doorframes. Over 140 police officers were injured that day. The MAGA movement didn’t back the blue that afternoon. They assaulted it. And now they want to be compensated for the inconvenience of being held responsible.
The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. These are the same people who have loudly championed Second Amendment rights for decades — until a liberal walks into a room legally carrying a firearm. Then suddenly it’s threatening. Suddenly context matters. Suddenly not everyone deserves the same rights. The principle was never really about freedom. It was about who gets to have power, and who doesn’t.
And the swamp? Remember draining it? The promise was to clear out the corrupt, self-serving political class and replace it with people who actually cared about the country. What we got instead was a cabinet of loyalists, billionaires buying influence at Mar-a-Lago, and an administration that punished the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who did their jobs while cutting checks to the people who attacked them. A senior DOJ official reportedly supports compensating violent insurrectionists, while the Proud Boys leadership alone is suing for $100 million. The swamp wasn’t drained. It was restocked — with creatures that have no pretense of public service, no ethical guardrails, and no accountability to anyone but the man at the top, King Trump, that is what they call him. Hence, the whole no kings movement (but that is a whole other post).
Senators Wyden and Merkley have introduced legislation that would prohibit the use of federal funds to compensate prosecuted January 6 rioters, calling the fund exactly what it is: deeply corrupt and unlawful. They’re right. But they’re outnumbered, and the people who should be outraged are being told this is all perfectly normal.
It isn’t. None of this is normal!
Supporting law enforcement is not a bumper sticker you get to peel off when the cops arrest your guys. Gun rights are not a selective privilege based on your politics. And draining the swamp means something; or it meant nothing at all, and was always just a slogan to get people angry enough to look away from what was really being built.
We should be furious. We should say so loudly, clearly, and on the record. Because if we normalize rewarding an insurrection, we are not just failing to learn from history — we are paying for history to repeat itself.
