New York lawmaker proposes 100% tax on Trump anti-weaponization fund payouts

A Manhattan assemblymember is trying to turn New York’s tax code into a weapon against Donald Trump’s new anti-weaponization fund, proposing a 100% state income tax on any payout that reaches a New York resident. Alex Bores, who represents the 73rd Assembly District, said in a May 26 social-media post that if a New Yorker takes money from what he called Trump’s “illegal January 6th slush fund,” the state would tax all of it.

Bores’ proposal, called the Anti-Insurrectionist Act, is aimed squarely at the federal fund the Justice Department announced on May 18 as part of the settlement in Trump v. IRS. The department said the money is meant to create a systematic process to hear and redress claims of government “weaponization” and “lawfare.” The fund has been reported at $1.776 billion, or nearly $1.8 billion, with the figure described as a nod to 1776.

The draft memo behind the bill says the goal is to ensure that “no resident of this State is enriched by what is, in substance, a publicly-funded political payout negotiated between the President and his own Administration.” If enacted, the measure would not stop the federal government from sending payments, but it would target the New Yorkers who received them, leaving them with no net benefit from the award.

The political symbolism is obvious. Whether the plan would survive legal scrutiny is a separate question. Taxing a federal payout at 100% would invite immediate challenges over state authority, federal settlement structure, and whether New York can effectively neutralize a federal benefit through its own tax system. Even so, the proposal adds another layer to the broader backlash over a fund critics say could reach allies of Trump, including some Jan. 6 rioters.

That opposition is not limited to New York Democrats. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat, have drafted bipartisan legislation in Congress to block the fund altogether. Their effort underscores how far the controversy has spread beyond Albany and into Washington, where lawmakers from both parties are moving to stop a payout tied to the unauthorized leak of Trump’s tax returns.

Bores, who assumed office on Jan. 1, 2023, has made the issue part of a wider political profile. He represents neighborhoods including Murray Hill, Turtle Bay, Sutton Place, Midtown East and the Upper East Side, and he is also running for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District, where the Democratic primary is set for June 23. For now, the Anti-Insurrectionist Act stands as an attempt to use state power to blunt a federal settlement before a single check is cut.