As legal experts question whether President Donald Trump should collect hundreds of millions from the Department of Justice, even his most strident cable news supporter is urging him to pump the brakes.
Trump is demanding that the Department of Justice pay him about $230 million in damages over the criminal cases it brought against him between his first and second terms.
The first claim was filed in late 2023 over various purported violations, including investigations into his 2016 campaign over connections to the Russian government. The second claim, filed in 2024, centered on the FBI’s raid on his Mar-a-Lago property and charges over retaining classified documents, according to the New York Times. The claims were filed through an internal administrative process, the precursor to a lawsuit.
Trump claimed to reporters on Tuesday that he was “damaged very greatly” and would give any payments to charity. “I’m the one that makes the decision and that decision would have to go across my desk and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” he said.
But CNN’s conservative pundit Scott Jennings told “NewsNight” host Abby Phillip that Trump should perhaps wait until after his term has ended before attempting to seek any restitution, agreeing that the situation is “unprecedented.”
“My personal advice, if he asked me, would be you having to table this until you leave office,” he said. “The process started before you came to office, you then won an election and you — look, I think he maybe was damaged and he’s entitled to the process. If it were me and I were advising him, I would just say you could table it and put it off until you leave office.”
The White House did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Jennings has developed a reputation for backing Trump and the Republican Party wholeheartedly, even if his opinions inflame the panelists he sits alongside. Even on Monday, his defense of Trump posting an AI-generated video of him deploying excrement on “No Kings” protestors was “kind of funny.” (His Democratic co-panelist, Karen Finney, said it was “absolutely disgusting.”)
In unrelated news, Trump’s White House ballroom, which he tore down part of the East Wing to build, reportedly costs an estimated $250 million.
