Trump sparks 'slush fund' fears after claiming he wants state-owned investment bank

Former President Donald Trump was hit by backlash Thursday after complaining that the USA doesn't have a "sovereign wealth fund" — and promising that he'll build one, bankrolled by the money he claims he'll get from import tariffs.

During a speech and short question and answer session Thursday, Trump complained that the United States is one of a few countries that doesn't have such a fund — which is state-owned and invests public money into assets.

"Why don't we have a wealth fund?" he said.

"Other countries have wealth funds. We have nothing. We are going to have a sovereign wealth fund. We will put tremendous amounts of money through all this money we'll be taking in through tariffs."

Read Also: Hush money isn't a crime. Slush money is

The word sovereign in this case means supreme power — which in modern democracies is considered to be the will of the people.

But some commentators sounded an alarm that they were concerned that Trump would see such a fund as a "slush fund."

Former Trump biographer Tim O'Brien wrote that the former president's comments likely translate to "I’d like to create a slush fund I can control from the Oval Office.”

Lawyer Bradley Moss agreed. "He wants a slush fund," he wrote.

Others voiced worries that the move would increase government control, while others said it showed a lack of understanding of how trade tariffs work.

Joe Banner, the 20-year president of the NFL, commented: "Absolutely insane. Fifty years of GOP fighting for small government and government not picking winners and losers and here is their presidential nominee proposing the least republican big government idea I have heard anyone in politics ever propose."

Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) remarked, "There aren't enough hours in the day to flag every time he says something dumb. But to be clear here: the implication is we tax imported goods, raise prices to US consumers and DO NOT spur a domestic industry... since that's the only scenario where this BS fund gets funded."

Others like Kim Shepherd, Ph.D., a microbiologist, agreed with O'Brien, complaining that "Trump still doesn't understand tariffs."

According to Trump's plan, he will take the imposed taxes on imports and will put them in "a central slush fund/bank which HE controls and can spend on himself," Shepherd also said.

Legal analyst and podcast platform founder Allison Gill wrote, "He wants a state-run bank that he controls. Next, he'll seize the means of production."