Trump, The IRS, Power, and You: How “Weaponization” Really Works...and How You Protect Yourself

What’s myth, what’s real...and the checklist that protects your money and rights.

Trump, The IRS, Power, and You: How “Weaponization” Really Works…and How You Protect Yourself

What’s myth, what’s real...and the checklist that protects your money and rights.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #487: Wednesday, August 13th, 2025. 12:30 PM CST

Not that long ago…if I’d told you a president would toss an IRS commissioner after a matter of weeks and float him off to an ambassadorship…right after a behind-the-scenes clash about using taxpayer data for non-tax purposes…you’d have said I’d lost the plot.

Today it’s headline-level normal. And that’s the point:

What used to be unthinkable is now being tested…in public and in the shadows. (We’ll get to the receipts in a minute.)

This isn’t a panic letter. It’s a field manual. I’m going to show you:

• What “weaponizing the IRS” would actually look like (not the myths…the mechanics).

• The historical playbook and a current case study.

• The guardrails that (still) exist and how to use them.

• The precise personal and organizational steps you take now…so you’re calm… ready…and hard to bully.

I’m not here to scare you. I’m here to make you ungovernable by fear. That…has long been my specialty.

1) First…the plain-English definition

“Weaponization,” stripped of the drama…means this: Using tax administration tools (audits, delays…threats…disclosures…PR smears) to punish or chill political opponents or reward allies…instead of enforcing tax law neutrally.

It’s not always a smoking-gun memo. It’s often pressure on process: who gets audited… who gets stalled…who gets leaked…who gets loud warnings while nothing official moves. It’s the fog…not the fire…that does the early damage.

Key idea:

If the tax system no longer feels neutral…voluntary compliance collapses. And the entire machine runs on voluntary compliance.

2) How we got here: receipts…not rumors

Authoritarians don’t invent new tricks; they replay old ones and count on your amnesia.

Here’s the short history lesson that matters:

Nixon’s “enemies list.”

A literal list. The intent was clear: use audits and federal tools to “screw” opponents. It helped sink his presidency and triggered reforms that made return confidentiality a felony to breach. Wikipedia

2010–2013 501(c)(4) fiasco.

A crush of tax-exempt applications…sloppy screening criteria…and keyword targeting that snagged conservative groups (and some progressive ones). TIGTA…the IRS watchdog…torched the criteria and the delays. Lesson: process can be bent or bungle politics into it; strong oversight matters. TIGTA

2025 case study you’re living through.

In August, President Trump removed IRS Commissioner Billy Long less than two months after confirmation; reporting across multiple outlets says the ouster came after the IRS resisted pressure to use confidential taxpayer data to help locate undocumented immigrants.

Hours later, Long’s “soft landing” was an ambassadorship to Iceland. Believe what you want about the motives…the sequence is the sequence. The Washington PostThe GuardianPoliticoCBS News

Let’s be grown-ups: pressure happens.

The question is whether the system…and you…know how to push back inside the law.