Throughout his presidency so far, Donald Trump has, in keeping with long-term Republican goals, sought to defund and defang the Internal Revenue Service.
In the DOGE era earlier this year, the IRS let go of thousands of employees, including at least 170 tax attorneys, according to one report, with the agency losing more than a quarter of its employees. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act served to claw back new funding for the IRS, meant to step up enforcement, while also adding tax changes that, per the Brookings Institution, create ‘serious tax enforcement challenges for even a well-funded, fully staffed IRS.”
“The problem is not just enforcement, however,” the Brookings report said. “It might seem obvious, but the IRS must allocate substantial resources just to implement tax law changes by interpreting laws, providing public guidance, updating forms, reprogramming computer systems, training staff, and informing taxpayers.”
But now, the Trump White House has found a new, possibly nefarious use for the IRS: To go after the president’s enemies.
BREAKING via WSJ
The Trump administration is planning sweeping changes in criminal division at the IRS.
Full Story: https://t.co/9d2PjQP9fn pic.twitter.com/33k0im5uNd
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 16, 2025
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Per a new Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday, the president is “preparing sweeping changes” at the IRS, which would “allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily.”
One senior official, the Journal said, has “drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors.” Leading the effort is Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. If Shapley name sounds familiar, it is likely because he was the “whistleblower” during the Biden Administration, in relation to the ill-fated non-prosecution agreement of Hunter Biden on tax charges.
The Journal also reported that “a separate effort to strip tax-exempt status from certain nonprofits” hadn’t yielded results.
Per the Tax Law Center, it is illegal for “many political officials—including the President, Vice President, any employee of the Executive Office of the President, and the Treasury Secretary—to directly or indirectly request an audit or investigation of a particular taxpayer, or to interfere with an ongoing audit or investigation.”
There was something during the Obama Administration often called the “IRS scandal,” during which some conservative groups claimed they were singled out by the Obama-era IRS for extra scrutiny. CNN reported in 2014 that an Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration had issued a report finding that ” the targeting involved delaying the processing of applications by certain conservative groups and requesting information from them that was later deemed unnecessary.” However, no criminal inquiries were ever pursued, and later reporting indicated liberal groups were given extra scrutiny as well.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
