'This is an administration priding itself on revenge': Ex-IRS head sounds alarm over Trump's weaponization of agency

Source: The Independent

Saturday 19 April 2025 19:16 BST


A former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service has warned that the Trump administration is weaponizing the agency and “priding itself on revenge.” John Koskinen, who held the role of IRS commissioner from 2013 to 2017, has sounded the alarm as the agency is considering revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status following the public fallout with President Donald Trump, and has agreed it will share undocumented immigrants’ taxpayer data with the Department of Homeland Security.

The IRS has also been gutted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the speed of which could render the next tax season “a disaster,” Koskinen, an Obama appointee who is now retired, told Mother Jones.

“This feels more like a total frontal attack,” Koskinen said. “And not only the budget—it’s the attempt to get access to protected data. And from the president suggesting that Harvard’s tax-exempt status ought to be reviewed, it’s just a small step to start ordering audits, even though that’s illegal, and we start moving back toward the Nixon ‘enemies list.’”

“This is an administration priding itself on revenge, and the FBI director and the Department of Justice people are out there saying, in effect, ‘We’re going to get our opponents,’” Koskinen added when asked whether he believes Trump officials will succeed in making the IRS a “tool of his retribution.” Thousands of IRS employees were let go as the agency was gearing up for the peak of the tax season.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-irs-tax-harvard-warning-b2736146.html