Here is an extract from Jim Acosta reporting how Donald Trump robs taxpayers, on Substack, 14 May 2026:

The Trump IRS “Bank Heist”

For years, Trump hid his tax information from the public. Now he could be paid billions by the Internal Revenue Service or have his IRS audits dropped altogether. Does anybody care?

Jim Acosta

May 14READ IN APP

It sounds like the plot from a George Clooney-Brad Pitt summer blockbuster. A group of wise guys get together and come up with a scheme to steal $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Call it “Ocean’s 47.” Except this taxpayer-supported “bank heist” is unfolding right before our eyes, according to former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer.

“This is like a bank heist if, you know, the teller, the bank teller’s in on it, the security guard at the door is also in on it. Everybody is conspiring to steal the money from the bank,” Oyer told me on my podcast Wednesday.

Of course, the star of “Ocean’s 47” is none other than Donald Trump (who’s no Clooney, granted). The New York Times is reporting that Trump and two of his sons could be paid at least $10 billion in a massive settlement with the IRS or have his audits dropped by the tax agency altogether. That’s because the Department of Justice is considering settling a lawsuit filed by Trump against the IRS over a leak of his tax information to news outlets, including the Times back in 2020. Trump is still steamed over the release of that information as it demonstrated how he had been paying little to no taxes for years. Trump to Fleece IRS Next?

“His Justice Department is willingly making themselves complicit in what is really just a straight flat out theft of taxpayer money, of your money, my money, our money. He is just dipping into taxpayer money and taking it for himself,” Oyer told me.

Trump has been dogged by tax questions since 2016 campaign. Photo by Jim Acosta

During the 2016 campaign, I was out on the trail with Trump when he repeatedly insisted he could not release his tax information to the public, something presidential candidates had done since Richard Nixon, because he was being audited by the IRS. At that time, Trump claimed he had nothing to hide.

“And when the audit is complete, I will release my returns. I don’t know when that is going to be. But when the audit is complete, I will release my returns. I have no problem with it. It doesn’t matter,” Trump said a decade ago.

Little did the public know at the time that Trump had just made up that excuse on the fly, according to Times journalist Maggie Haberman, who wrote about it in her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”

“Well, you know my taxes are under audit. I always get audited,” Trump said at the time, as Haberman reported in her book.

“So what I mean is… well I could just say, ‘I’ll release them when I’m no longer under audit. ‘Cause I’ll never not be under audit,’” he added, according to Haberman. Trump audit excuse

Even if Trump and the DOJ settle without any kind of award going to the first family, he could still take the taxpayers for a ride. Were the IRS to suddenly drop its years of Trump audits, the president could avoid paying some $100 million in taxes owed to Uncle Sam. Back in 2024, during Trump’s third campaign for the White House, the Times and Pro Publica reported that the disgraced ex-president “used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry uncovered by The New York Times and ProPublica. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million.” Trump Could Owe $100 Million in Taxes

Headline from NYT/Pro Publica investigation into Trump taxes in 2024