MONEY FOR NOTHING

MAGA Billionaire Candidate Hit By Bombshell Tax Probe

An IRS court filing threatens to undermine Rick Jackson’s bid for Georgia’s next governorship.

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Donald Trump’s own federal government has accused a MAGA billionaire candidate of manipulating his company taxes, undercutting his campaign to be Georgia’s next governor.

With five days until the election, a bombshell Internal Revenue Service court filing has accused Trump ally Rick Jackson of playing a “shell game” with loans as he sought to write off bad debt.

Jackson has built his political brand on his business acumen and a carefully cultivated image as a Christian philanthropist who gives away his fortune because he believes it belongs to God.

“This is God’s money,” he recently said of the fortune he had amassed from his health empire. “I’m using that money to make a difference in other people’s lives.”

But in a July court filing, the IRS alleged that the Jackson Investment Group, the parent company of his various ventures, had attempted to write off the same bad debt on tax deductions for loans that had already been claimed in previous years.

“Petitioner is playing a shell game with the alleged Family Christian debt,” the IRS wrote, accusing Jackson’s company of blurring the lines between different entities and loans to make the tax paperwork fit its claim.

The case involves about $1.4 million in debt, but it is not the only controversy hanging over Jackson as his race against Democratic rival Keisha Lance Bottoms tightens.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that the IRS is challenging nearly $54 million in business deductions related to losses Jackson’s companies invested in, and has assessed $16 million in penalties.

Jackson is fighting the claims and is due in court in March 2027—three months into the next Georgia governor’s term.

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The Daily Beast also previously revealed how one of Jackson’s other companies spent years trying to take a couple’s home in a brutal legal battle and reported how his other subsidiaries paid $5 million to settle claims that they exploited workers and breached labor laws.

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Jackson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest revelations.

The revelations come after Jackson joined Trump at a rally in Georgia on Saturday night, alongside Senate candidate Mike Collins, who is trailing Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.

“I need you to vote—I need you to vote to make sure that Keisha Lance Bottoms doesn’t destroy Georgia just like she did Atlanta,” he said of the former Atlanta mayor. “Bad mayors make bad governors.”

Former president Barack Obama also brought his own star power to Georgia on Wednesday night, telling voters the November 3 election offered them a chance to check Trump’s authority.

“This election is our last best chance at at least reining him in,” the former president said.

“Reining in some of the foolishness of this administration. It’s the circuit breaker in the system, and we need to flip it.”

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Jackson has an estimated net worth of about $3 billion, but despite being a Trump ally, he has been forced to balance his ties to the president amid voter frustrations with affordability and the war in Iran.

In July, for example, he said he hoped to be Trump’s “favorite governor” and vowed to be like the president “but with a southern tone.”

But when Trump returned to Georgia on Oct. 16, he did not mention Trump at all in his own speech, and when the president announced that he would be back in Georgia last Saturday, Jackson’s campaign initially planned its own event in metro Atlanta before tweaking it so he could once again be with the president.

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Farrah TomazinPolitical Correspondent

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