Transcription
Um, you might want to watch this. They're the only father and son pair to receive our nation's highest military award for courage above and beyond the call of duty. Now, as I see my two beautiful sons sitting there, I think I'm going to give one to myself, one to them, and we'll have a threesome. Okay, I'll pick out one of the two. I'll give them the Congressional Medal of Honor for something for their genius at hunting. And I'll get one for taking on Russia, Russia, Russia or something.
That was Donald Trump at the opening of Teddy Roosevelt's presidential library looking at his two adult sons and saying, quote, "I think I'm going to give one Medal of Honor to myself, one to them, and we'll have a threesome." How's that for some imagery? As if Trump for the eenth time trying to award himself and his family the Medal of Honor wasn't bad enough, now for some bizarre reason unbeknownst to any normal functioning human, he's also declared that he maybe wants to his sons. No words. I mean, honestly, he cannot shake this quote unquote joke that he needs this medal.
You're a very special man. There are very few people that have them. You know, I want to give one to myself, but they tell me I'm not allowed to. My son over here, my both of them. I said, "Fellas, I'd love to give one of them to me. What have I done that when I deserve it?" And they couldn't think of anything. So, I'm not happy with them today. No, there's no higher award. That's the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award we have. You have the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's more of the civilian nature. But those two, but in particular that because what you have to go through is very rough.
I guess the concept of actually doing something to earn the medal has completely escaped him. Just a quick note here to say that if you appreciate my work, which is and always will be 100% free. A small ask is if you could please pre-order my new book, The Day After, which explores how Democrats must finally wield power if they're fortunate enough to get it back. I'll also be on tour in DC, New York, and LA mid July. You can grab tickets to the tour, and you can pre-order the book at the same link, which I'll put on the screen and in the post description of this video. You can also find them at brianttylercoen.com/book. Again, I'll never pay wall a single piece of content, but this is the one time that I'll ask for some support for a book that I really think meets this moment. Thanks so much.
Although, the great irony is that when Donald Trump is faced with actual Medal of Honor recipients, this is what he does. Thank you, everybody. And we have a lot of great service members here with us, too. And this beautiful building, isn't it beautiful? We're adding on to the building a little bit. We're improving the building. See that nice drape? When that comes down right now, you see a very, very deep hole. But in about a year and a half from now, you're going to see a very, very beautiful building. And there's your entrance to it right there. In fact, it looks so nice, I don't think I'll even I think I'll save money on the doors because it can't get more beautiful than that. I picked those drapes in my first term. I always like gold. But I think we can save a lot of money. I just saved I just saved curtains. But uh and it will be it'll be spectacular. Be the most beautiful ballroom. I believe it's because I built many a ballroom. I believe it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world. And when you hear all that hammering out there, you know why the first lady is not thrilled? Exactly. She said, "Will the pile drivers ever stop? You know, they go from 6:00 in the morning till 11:30 in the evening. Can you imagine here? You know what? To me, that's a beautiful sound. She doesn't like it. I love it. You know what? To me, other than here, because we're donating it, not a penny to the taxpayer. It'll be under budget, ahead of schedule, it'll be 400 million or less. Most people say 400 million or more. No, it'll be less. But uh when I hear that sound, that beautiful sound behind me, it means money. So I like it. But my wife isn't thrilled. She said, "This is getting crazy. It'll I said, "Don't worry about it. We'll be all finished up in a few months. But now for the reason that we're gathered this morning to recognize the unsurpassed courage of three really incredible American heroes, one living and two no longer with us."
Keep in mind that was a Medal of Honor ceremony. And before he got to the Medal of Honor recipients, he spent his time talking about his ballroom. Put another way, the Medal of Honor recipients had to wait while Trump was done talking about the drapes before they could be honored for their sacrifices because something something patriotism USA. Although perhaps the reason that the Trump family has zero reverence for Medal of Honor recipients is because these are people who have never worn a uniform, never deployed, never done a single day of public service that wasn't a grift dressed up as a business trip. Don Jr. hunts endangered animals for Instagram content. Eric runs golf courses. That's the resume. And Trump's response is, "Let's workshop which one of my sons gets the country's highest honor, and I'll just take one for myself while I'm at it for standing up to Russia, a country whose president, Donald Trump, has spent the better part of a decade refusing to say a single bad word about." This isn't a joke that reveals nothing. It is a joke that reveals exactly how Trump sees these medals, not as recognition of sacrifice, but as merchandise that he hands out to people that he likes, including, especially his own family.
But this is really the throughine of the entire Trump project. This isn't a government that exists to serve the country. It is a government that exists to serve Trump and by extension his family. It was never what can I do for you? It was always what can you do for me? And if you want proof that it's not just a punchline about medals, look at what's actually happened to the family's finances since Trump took office. Just this week, his own financial disclosures, uh, a 927page document, showed that he personally banked over a billion dollars last year from his family's crypto venture alone, including more than half a billion dollars from World's Liberty Financial, which is the crypto platform that he built with Don Jr. and Eric, and $35 million from Trump branded memecoins. That's just what's disclosed. Independent tracking from Forbes puts Trump's own net worth at roughly $6.3 billion as of this year, nearly three times what it was before he retook office. Zoom out to the whole family and estimates run as high as $10 billion. Bloomberg's reporting found that crypto alone added about $1.4 billion to the family's fortune in a single year, making up roughly a fifth of everything they own. Congressional Democrats tracking what they call the family's digital grift put the number of realized profits tied directly to paid for play schemes and foreign payments at over $2 billion, which is a figure that balloons past $9.5 billion once you factor in the value of everything that they're still sitting on. And some of that money isn't even coming from Americans. Buried in that reporting is a $500 million investment into World Liberty Financial from an Abu Dhabi investment vehicle tied to the UAE's National Security Adviser, a deal signed off on by Eric Trump that sent roughly $200 million straight to entities that the Trump family controls. Shortly after that money moved, the administration approved exporting advanced AI chips to the UAE over the objections of people worried about national security. So, uh, you're free to decide for yourself whether that's just a mere coincidence or not.
And if you think that Donald Trump is bothered by any of this, well, you just listen to him talk about it and tell me if he sounds like he's in any way perturbed. Hey, Mr. President, uh, your financial a very lucrative year last year. What message people have said to the average Americans? Well, I you know financially I don't get involved in my personal We have funds that run my money. But you are benefiting. We're talking Well, I've made a lot of money before I became president and they invest my money and I don't talk to them. I never I don't even speak to them. So I have many people I don't know what they call closed accounts or something. You put your money in and that's it. I don't talk to them. They're big institutions and they run it. But yeah, I've had a great career in business. I've had a great career about conflict of interest. I don't know if I've had a better career in politics or business, but I had a great career in business and uh you know, you saw the cash and you report the different things and what they do is we gave it I think it's called the blind account, but they basically they take it and I purposely I never speak to any of the people that run the money, but they're at big institutions and uh they invest in whatever they invest in.
Right? See, who among us hasn't tripled their net worth and rad in over four billion dollars in the last 18 months? Am I right? So, no, this isn't just Trump making a very, very bizarre joke about his kids at a library opening. It is a window into how this entire administration operates. The presidency isn't a job to Trump. It is an asset. His sons aren't public servants. They are business partners. And the country isn't something that he works for. It's something that he extracts from. One crypto token, one foreign investment, one imaginary medal at a time. The threesome line might be the usual Trump lunacy that you'll remember from all of this, but the billiond dollar disclosure is the part that should actually make you furious.
Before you go, I'm very excited to announce that I've written a new book titled The Day After: How to Wield Power in a PostTrump World. The book explores what is, in my opinion, the single most important theme that we're dealing with in politics today and moving forward. Power. Specifically, how Republicans abuse it and how Democrats refuse to wield it. This book explains how we got here and more importantly, how we should finally wield power if we're fortunate enough to get it back. It is the blueprint for progressives who want to do far more than just restore the status quo. Please pre-order today by visiting the link in the episode description or go to brianylcohen.com/book. You can grab yours from any of the major retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or find an independent bookstore closest to you that's also listed on that website. Thanks so much for supporting Independent Media.