WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump moved Monday to voluntarily dismiss his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, a decision legal observers attribute to the sudden realization that he now commands the very agency he was suing.

“The president reviewed the filing and determined it would be unseemly to litigate against himself,” said White House deputy counsel Martin Gessler, adding that Trump briefly considered pursuing the case anyway before aides explained that any settlement would involve transferring money from one pocket of the federal government to another pocket he already controls. “He asked if he could sue and win and then pardon himself from having to pay. We told him that’s not how civil procedure works, and he seemed genuinely disappointed.”

The lawsuit, originally seeking damages after an IRS contractor leaked years of Trump’s tax returns to the press, had been a centerpiece of his post-presidency litigation. Sources close to the administration say the dismissal motion was drafted the moment someone pointed to the IRS commissioner’s empty chair and noted Trump gets to fill it now.

The filing asks the Miami federal court to dismiss the case with prejudice, effectively barring Trump from refiling unless he loses the next election, at which point a senior advisor confirmed “the lawsuit will be back in this courthouse faster than you can say ‘audit.’”