The Prophet Micah on Trump's $1.8 Billion Fund for His Allies

Micah 6:8 is one of the most well known and most quoted scriptures of the Old Testament prophets. “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” These words are eternally relevant, but sometimes they ring more urgently than others. 

This week, the Trump administration announced a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate his allies who he believes have been unfairly investigated and prosecuted by the Department of Justice. As others, including legal experts, have noted, this amounts to Trump looting the nation to pay off his friends and supporters. In terms of scale, it may well be the most corrupt act in U.S. political history.

In the face of this, I am reminded of Micah’s prophetic condemnation: “Its rulers give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us’” (3:11).

Micah, writing to Judah in roughly 700 B.C.E., is unsparing in his denouncement of corrupt leaders who exploit their positions for personal gain while claiming divine favor. Micah details all the ways Israel and Judah’s religious and political leaders have abused power and conspired to do evil; including through seizing people’s property (2:2), stealing and plundering (2:8), showing contempt for justice and distorting truth (3:9), misusing their own positions for profit (3:11), and accepting bribes (7:3). Does any of this sound familiar?

Ultimately, Judah failed to heed Micah’s warnings and was conquered by the Babylonian empire a few generations later.

You’d think we’d be used to Trump’s corruption by now, and yet, he continues to find new ways to shock, with the corruption in his administration reaching unprecedented levels. The lawfare fund itself is part of a breathtakingly brazen settlement, in which, according to the New York Times, Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion settlement against the IRS in exchange for a slush fund for his allies. According to an addendum written by acting attorney general Todd Blanche—formerly Trump’s personal lawyer—the U.S. government is “forever barred and precluded” from leveling charges against Trump related to “lawfare and/or weaponization” or his tax returns. In other words, it grants Trump sweeping legal immunity and prevents him from facing expensive audits on alleged tax fraud.

The people who will likely benefit from this slush fund are those who were investigated or prosecuted for their role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, or both. This means that already-pardoned insurrectionists who attacked Capitol Police officers could be financially rewarded for their crimes.

This fund is only the most recent example of Trump’s corruption during his second term as president. A New Yorker analysis conservatively estimates that the president and his family have leveraged his office to the tune of nearly $4 billion. The nonpartisan legal organization Campaign Legal Center tracks Trump’s corrupt transactions including insider trading,  exchanging political contributions for pardons, arranging new U.S. business deals for Qatar in exchange for a new Air Force One plane, and much more. But given the almost complete dereliction of oversight by the Republican-controlled Congress, we don’t know the full extent and breadth of the administration’s corruption. It’s particularly galling to see corruption at the highest level of power taking place with such impunity in a time when so many Americans are suffering and struggling due to rising inflation, draconian cuts to food stamps and health care, and skyrocketing gas prices. Trump and his allies have transformed the United States into an increasingly lawless playground for them to make money while the rest of us sit helplessly by and pay them for the privilege.

As we’ve seen with other authoritarian-style leaders, including the recent and decisive defeat of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary, exposing the Trump administration’s rampant corruption is one of the most potent ways we can weaken his hold. In Hungary, Orbán was defeated after 16 years in power because the people had finally had enough of his administration’s rampant corruption and failed economy. Orbán’s opponent Peter Magyar made denouncing that corruption the centerpiece of his campaign, relating it directly to Hungary’s poor economic performance in recent years. As we’re told in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The impunity, lawlessness, and deep corruption that we see from the administration cannot stand. Corruption is a breach of public trust and undermines the rule of law by abusing public resources. It’s an egregious form of public greed that places the love of money over and against a love for the common good. Micah warns us that for corrupt rulers, sooner or later, the bill comes due in full. Micah and the other Old Testament prophets pave the way for Jesus, who aligns himself with the prophets in his inaugural sermon. Jesus challenges the hypocrisy and corruption of authorities and religious leaders in his own time, most pointedly in his seven woes directed at religious leaders’ brazen hypocrisy in Matthew 23: “Woe to you,” says Jesus, “For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (23:23).

The good news is that Micah does not start and end with despair or fatalism. Instead, he declares that after judgment, God will forgive and restore God’s people, bringing them out of exile in Babylon. Now is the time to expose and call for repentance for the sin of public greed and corruption. In the process of rooting out corruption, we can help to restore public trust and reverse our nation’s slide into greater authoritarianism.