US President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that the federal government owed him “a lot of money” for previous investigations into his actions. The POTUS has sought $230 million in compensation — adding that he would have ultimate say because any decision will “have to go across my desk”. The settlement could ultimately face approval by former Trump lawyer and current Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The US President has pursued a series of legal cases against media firms and other organisations — winning nearly $100 million over the past year.

“All I know is that, they would owe me a lot of money. It’s interesting…’cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right? That decision would have to go across my desk. And it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself. But I was damaged very greatly,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Trump also said he could donate the taxpayer money or use it to help pay for a ballroom he is building at the White House. He had first signalled interest in compensation during a White House appearance last week — contending that he had “won a great lawsuit”. FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her Deputy Todd Blanche were also in attendance. Trump later claimed that he did not know the dollar figures involved and suggested he had not spoken to officials about it.

Is this legal?

The unprecedented demand was first reported by The New York Times and pertained to two complaints he had submitted against Justice Department probes. They were filed through “an administrative claims process” before his reeletion and seek roughly $230 million in damages. The complaints related to the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents and a separate investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign.

“I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said, ‘I’m suing myself. I don’t know. How do you settle the lawsuit? I’ll say, give me X dollars, and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit. It’s a great lawsuit and now I won, it looks bad. I’m suing myself, so I don’t know,” he had said last week.

The status of the claims and any negotiations over them within the Justice Department was not immediately clear. One of Trump’s lead defense lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, Todd Blanche, is now the deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. The current associate attorney general, Stanley Woodward, represented Trump’s valet and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in the same case.

“In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials,” a Justice Department spokesperson told AP.