What did Donald Trump do today?

He promised to pay cash rewards for people who reported crime of the type he was criminally convicted of.

Trump announced a $25 million fund today that will supposedly reward people who give tips leading to the recovery of fraudulently awarded public funds. He also presented a right-wing YouTuber, Nick Shirley, with a check for $10,000. Shirley recorded himself going to daycare centers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area popular with Somali-Americans, an ethnic group Trump has an especially strong history of bigotry towards.

Shirley succeeded in getting video of terrified Minneapolis daycare owners shutting their doors in his face, alarmed at a strange man asking questions about the children in their care and demanding to enter and record video of them. What he didn't do, however, is uncover any evidence of fraud. None of the fourteen daycare centers he visited were ever connected in any way to any fraud.

There was a daycare fraud ring uncovered by Minnesota state investigators. Its ringleader was Aimee Bock, who was sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison for her role. She is not Somali-American.

 

There is already a legal mechanism in place, known as the False Claims Act, for whistleblowers to receive a portion of money recovered from fraud schemes. The Trump administration claimed today, without evidence, that "99%" of what Trump's scheme would cover isn't dealt with by the False Claims Act.

One obvious difference is that Trump declared himself the "arbitrator" of claims submitted to him.

TRUMP: I was just thinking, when you do these things, sometimes there’s a dispute as to who turned ’em in and who didn’t turn ’em in, who’s supposed to get what and when, you know. So I am going to do something, which I think people will like, I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions. In other words, I’ll determine whether or not the person is deserving. 

Trump's own description of the scheme caps awards at $30,000. Nevertheless, he claimed that tipsters could make "millions" by filing reports.

Trump himself has been convicted of 34 felony counts for fraudulent business practices, specifically the crime of falsifying business records for illegal gain, in New York state court. His business, the Trump Organization, was found guilty in a civil trial of massive fraud. He also benefited from tax fraud that he and his family members committed to receive most of his massive $400 million inheritance without paying taxes. Trump has been extremely generous in issuing pardons to political allies who committed Medicare fraud and other forms of benefit fraud that ran into the billions of dollars.

Why does this matter?

• A president who cared about prosecuting fraud would stop pardoning wealthy political supporters who commit it. 

• Nobody thinks this is about fraud.