The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”
—Trump in his inaugural address
Kenneth Kies warned that political officials risked breaching a law that limits who can influence tax enforcement
WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department’s top tax policy official was forced out of his job after he warned that the White House was at risk of violating a federal law prohibiting senior officials’ involvement in IRS audits, according to people familiar with the matter.
Kenneth Kies, an assistant Treasury secretary and acting chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, is leaving those posts in the coming weeks.
Kies at times clashed behind the scenes with White House officials, the people said. That included a recent meeting in which he contended that a potential White House request would violate Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code, one of the people said. That law prohibits the president, vice president, White House staff and certain agency heads from directly or indirectly requesting that the IRS conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of any particular taxpayer.
Violations are punishable with up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines, and IRS officials have long seen the prohibition as an important shield against the kind of political interference that President Richard Nixon tried to impose on the tax agency.
IRS employees who receive requests they consider improper must report them to the agency’s inspector general or risk the same punishments. The 1998 law is untested in court, and enforcement in the near term would require action by the Trump administration.
It couldn’t be determined what White House requests Kies objected to and whether the administration plans to follow through with them after Kies departs. The taxpayers at issue could include individuals, corporations or nonprofit groups. Kies represented President Trump in private practice before joining the administration last year and has been recused from matters involving the president.
The president and some of his aides had become increasingly frustrated with Kies, some of the people said. Kies was at odds with White House officials over several issues during his tenure, including taxation of income from fantasy sports. He cited IRS rules about audits when asked questions about policies, even when officials weren’t asking about particular companies or audits, one of the people said.
Kies declined to comment. After The Wall Street Journal sought comment from the White House and the Treasury Department, several administration officials and Trump allies reached out to privately criticize Kies, arguing he was difficult to work with and didn’t do enough to advance the president’s agenda.
Longtime Trump adviser Stephen Moore said in an interview that Treasury Department officials were irritated with Kies over how he handled reversing rules around taxing partnerships. Under Kies, the Treasury Department reversed many Biden-era rules that were part of a crackdown on tax-avoiding transactions, but not all of them.
Kies has been at the center of Republican tax-policy circles in Washington for nearly a half-century.
He was a senior staff member for House Republicans during the writing of the landmark 1986 tax law and served as chief of staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation in the mid-1990s.
For more than 20 years before joining the Trump administration, Kies ran his own tax lobbying firm, where his clients included Microsoft, cruise lines and insurance companies. He was a frequent campaign donor to Republican candidates, particularly members of the tax-writing committees.
Trump nominated him as assistant secretary for tax policy, and the Senate confirmed him on a party-line vote in June 2025, just before Congress enacted the major tax law that extended expiring tax cuts and included some of Trump’s priorities. Kies has been leading the agency’s implementation of that law, writing regulations that defined who was eligible to get new tax breaks for tipped workers and overtime pay.
In his Treasury job, Kies described himself as being pro-taxpayer, and he pushed for lighter regulations in many cases.
Kies also spent the past year as acting chief counsel of the IRS, and the dual jobs gave him unusual authority in shaping and enforcing tax rules.
As chief counsel, he oversaw the government’s litigation in the U.S. Tax Court and legal advice to auditors. It has been an eventful 18 months for the government’s tax lawyers, featuring a controversial agreementto provide some tax data to immigration authorities and the Justice Department’s decision to cease pending audits of Trump, his family and his businesses.
During recent speeches, Kies focused on conservation easements, the tax-advantaged land deals that officials say have been abused by promoters and syndicators. Kies, noting frequent government victories in litigation, pushed a settlement initiative that offered reduced penalties, and he warned that people who don’t take the government deal will keep losing in court and paying more.
“When people come in and bull— me, I actually know they’re bull—ing,” he said during a recent speech, calling out conservation easements as an example.
Laura Loomer, the right-wing influencer whose criticisms contributed to other officials’ departures, has been among those who have criticized the administration’s approach to easements. Moore, the Trump adviser, also criticized Treasury’s handling of easements.
Kies will become the latest senior Senate-confirmed Treasury official to leave the department after a relatively short tenure.
Billy Long lasted less than two months as IRS commissioner, part of a carousel in the top tax-administration post.
Michael Faulkender was deputy secretary for less than five months. Jonathan McKernan, an undersecretary, is leaving after less than a year. Brian Morrissey, the agency’s general counsel, left less than eight months after being confirmed.
The president and his allies have built a network of groups financed by wealthy donors and businesses that is advancing his priorities with little public disclosure
By
Marianne LeVine
and
Maggie Severns
| Design by
Kara Dapena
July 15, 2026
Presidents have always raised money from private donors—to run for office, throw inaugural balls and build presidential libraries.
But Donald Trump has turned his second term into an unprecedented fundraising blitz, raising well over half a billion dollars from wealthy donors and stashing it in a sprawling network of nonprofits, cultural institutions and committees that he and his allies control.
Companies seeking lucrative contracts or favorable policies from the administration have poured millions of dollars into these funds, which have become a key tool for Trump to pursue his political and personal priorities. He has used them to oust his political opponents, change the cultural face of the nation’s capital and boost his postpresidency legacy.
In many cases, details about where the cash is coming from or how it is being spent are shrouded in secrecy, leaving big gaps in the public’s understanding of a significant dynamic at the center of Trump’s presidency.
“President Trump is the most dominant force in American politics—from fundraising to endorsements to delivering on his commonsense America First agenda,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.
Some Trump-linked funds remake Washington, others repurpose institutions and others have supercharged fundraising for Trump’s political agenda...
