The $17 Trillion Lie

How Trump’s phantom fortune, shutdown chaos, and Epstein cover-up expose his weakest hand yet

Donald Trump wants you to believe he’s sitting on a $17 trillion treasure chest of tariff money. He repeats the claim so often you can almost see him rubbing his fingers together like a cartoon miser. But here’s the reality: Treasury has no such funds, the budget committees have no such funds, and no one in Washington can find this mythical mountain of cash. If it were real, America would be swimming in universal health care, platinum-plated infrastructure, and champagne-brunch social security. Instead, we’re in a government shutdown.

And yet, amid the shutdown, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget is busy playing petty tyrant, canceling nearly $8 billion in clean energy programs and withholding $18 billion from New York’s Second Avenue subway and Gateway tunnel. Notice the pattern: every state targeted went blue in 2024. Florida? Texas? Not a dime cut. This is retribution, public money wielded like a mobster’s cudgel.