{"id":749,"date":"2026-07-17T22:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=749"},"modified":"2026-07-17T22:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:35:20","slug":"did-trump-fire-someone-trying-to-stop-irs-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=749","title":{"rendered":"Did Trump fire someone trying to stop IRS abuses?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><em>This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=747\">Hegseth wants a more macho military. Testosterone shots won\u2019t help.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Welcome to The Logoff<\/strong>: President Donald Trump fired one of his own appointees who was reportedly trying to stop his team from illegally interfering with the IRS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>What happened?<\/strong> Ken Kies headed tax policy at the Treasury Department and was simultaneously serving as the IRS\u2019s top lawyer on an acting basis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>But, according to the Wall Street Journal, he\u2019s now been forced out. And his ouster comes after he\u2019d clashed with White House officials over certain requests they were making about IRS audits \u2014 requests that, Kies believed, were illegal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Federal law prohibits the president and White House staffers from requesting, \u201cdirectly or indirectly,\u201d that the IRS \u201cconduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>What was the White House trying to do? <\/strong>We don\u2019t know yet. Possibilities include that they were requesting that certain people or groups, perhaps political enemies, be audited \u2014 or that they were trying to make ongoing audits of Trump\u2019s allies go away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Do we know Kies was fired because of this?<\/strong> Not for sure. The Journal reports that administration officials and conservative activists had other complaints about Kies, including that he wasn\u2019t working fast enough to roll back Biden-era regulations, and that he was cracking down on wealthy investors\u2019 attempts to get huge tax breaks by not developing certain lands.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=745\">A \u201cGodzilla El Ni\u00f1o\u201d next year could be a glimpse into the future<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the takeaway?<\/strong> In 1971, President Richard Nixon privately told his aides that, atop the IRS, he wanted \u201ca ruthless son of a bitch\u201d that will \u201cgo after our enemies and not go after our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>When these and many other Nixon-era abuses came to light, new laws were passed, and new norms were established to prevent this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>But these norms have been fraying. Indeed, Vice President JD Vance recently argued that Nixon\u2019s scandals weren\u2019t actually so bad and shouldn\u2019t have taken down his presidency at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2><strong>And with that, it\u2019s time to log off&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina is this Sunday\u2026or is it? That will depend on whether the wildfire smoke-ridden air in northern New Jersey (and much of the East Coast and Midwest) improves enough by then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Fingers crossed that it will, but while we wait, read Caitlin Dewey on how US cities had some of the unhealthiest air in the world this week.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=743\">Trump\u2019s election fraud speech was a weirdly good sign for American democracy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><span>See More<!-- -->:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Donald Trump<\/li>\n<li>Politics<\/li>\n<li>The Logoff<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeffFederal law prohibits White House interference with the IRS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Did Trump fire someone trying to stop IRS abuses? 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