Can Trump Just Take Your Money?

Nathan Tankus paints a terrifying picture of how the Trump administration may be weaponizing the Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment system. The ACH is one of the fundamental building blocks for all payments, along with an area of law called "payment finality" governing how a financial transaction is concluded.

On February 11, 2025, FEMA debited $80.5 million from New York City's central treasury account at Citibank, which had to be covered by a line of credit and left the account with a negative $79.5 million. Tankus notes this event followed a post by Elon Musk on X stating that this FEMA money would be clawed back for "gross insubordination to the President's executive order."

This event undermines the very notion of payment finality in the ACH system.

It also begs the question as to what constrains the Trump administration from debiting anyone's account for any reason? It's deeply unsettling that Tankus finds few restraints in payments law or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service where DOGE's Tom Krause is Fiscal Assistant Secretary.

Tankus's reporting on this and other issues surrounding what he calls the "Trump-Musk Payments Crisis" is exhaustive and a must-read.

Can the Trump Administration Arbitrarily Take Money from Anyone’s Bank Account? Federal Government’s Mugging of New York City for FEMA Funds Suggests Yes

Notes on the Crises pivoted on February 1st into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025. Today is Day Forty Two. A version of this article is simultaneously appearing in Rolling Stone. Subscribe Read Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part

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"One of the reasons this story has been so difficult to report and has taken as long as it has is that it has been extremely difficult to find sources willing to be quoted, or really even vaguely characterized. To understand why, think of this topic from the point of view of a financial or payment expert (whether among lawyers or in other fields). Imagine you were such a person and you believed that the Trump administration was in the process of successfully claiming for itself the power to arbitrarily reverse any government payment or even, in the worst case scenarios, arbitrarily confiscate the funds in any person’s bank account without due process of law. Would you be willing to risk being targeted for giving a quote saying so publicly? Even anonymously?"

Source tags: Nathan Tankus, Notes On The Crises