The Perfect Judge Will Rule on Trump’s Shady $1.8 Billion Slush Fund

The lawsuit filed against President Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund has been assigned to a judge already on the president’s bad side. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon will be overseeing the case against Trump’s slush fund too. Leon has previously drawn Trump’s ire not only by delaying the construction of the White House ballroom, but also by striking down the president’s executive order to target law firm WilmerHale. On March 31, Leon issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking construction on the ballroom, saying in his ruling, “Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!” Just over two weeks later, Leon ruled that Trump could work on the underground, national security–related parts of the project but not on the aboveground ballroom. “National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” Leon said in his ruling, criticizing Trump for trying to go around his earlier injunction by claiming the ballroom’s bulletproof glass, bomb shelters, and other security measures were for national security reasons. This infuriated Trump, who called Leon a “Trump Hating” judge who was “highly political” and accused him of having “gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built.” Now Leon will be in charge of examining whether a slush fund to pay Trump’s political supporters who run afoul of law enforcement is constitutional. Considering how much criticism is already being raised against the fund, even from Republicans, Trump may soon be writing another angry screed on Truth Social.