Transcription
People across the country rallied today to express their frustrations with what they see as a rigged economy, one that puts the interest of billionaires over everyone else. Of course, Trump isn't concerned about an economy that's rigged against working people because he is one of the chief people doing the rigging.
Today, economic analyst Steve Ratner released a new analysis of how Donald Trump has profited since taking office a second time. And Ratner notes that since the start of Trump's second administration, the president's net worth has tripled. You can see it right on the chart on your screen. But it's not because Trump's hotel and property businesses are booing. Ratner shows how the bulk of Trump's wealth since retaking office has come from his recent cryptocurrency ventures, which have netted Trump 10 times as much money as his hospitality businesses.
And things get really interesting when you start looking at how those crypto businesses operate. Ratner dug into that one as well. He dug into one Trump crypto venture in particular, the Trump meme coins, and he found that when those coins were released, a couple dozen insiders made a killing off of them. Well, the two million regular people who probably love Trump, probably are a hardcore MAGA, invested in the coins. Well, they lost a collective $4 billion. So it sure looks like Trump and his friends got rich while everybody else lost money, which makes sense because that's basically the same way Trump approaches the presidency.
Today, Bloomberg reports that the big luxury jet Trump got as a gift from the Qataris is on track to be delivered this summer. There we go. It's coming. That big luxury jet. And the Wall Street Journal also reports today that Trump will be keeping the plane's luxury royal interior intact. Now, that jet is valued at around $400 million. And while it is supposed to be a gift from the Qataris, the Wall Street Journal also notes that the cost for the military to prepare the plane for Trump's use is $400 million. So Trump's $400 million gift from Qataris is going to cost the American taxpayer $400 million. For a plane that Trump plans to keep after he leaves office. Not a surprise, but still.
And that's just one of the countless ways that U.S. taxpayer money appears to be flowing into the Trump family coffers. Today, The Financial Times also reports that Trump's adult sons, Don and Eric Trump, have taken a stake in a mining company that won a $1.6 billion U.S. government contract to mine tungsten in Kazakhstan. Now, Eric Trump did not respond to a request for comment from the Financial Times about the story, but apparently the guy's very much online, very much on X or Twitter, whatever we call it these days. And he did respond to the political commentator Politics Girl who does great work on there, by the way, on Twitter, who had simply posted the story with the caption, "Come on, man." Yeah, we're all feeling that. She's kind of spoke for all of us. Apparently that was enough to warrant this reply from Trump's middle child who wrote back, quote, "I had no capital N.O. there involvement in this transaction and has and has always been a passive investor with no management role in this vehicle. Any suggestion to the contrary would be both inaccurate and defamatory." Okay, if that's the case, Eric, maybe you should have just said that to the Financial Times when they asked you for comment. You know, instead of just shouting it at people online.
Now the news of that billion-dollar mining investment comes as Bloomberg reports that a drone company with ties to Eric and Don Jr. has just inked a deal to sell an undisclosed number of drones to the U.S. military. Of course, Trump's adult children have repeatedly, of course they have, insisted that they're just private businessmen, totally above board, nothing to see here. But it seems that every day we learn more and more about all the new ways members of Trump's family could be profiting off of his administration and also off this war.
Let's not forget that one of Trump's lead negotiators in his war with Iran is his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has multiple financial ties to countries in the Middle East and who has still refused to submit a legally required financial disclosure report outlining those ties. The White House has repeatedly insisted that there are no conflicts of interest in this administration, but that's a little hard to take seriously when they're also out there saying things like this. "What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world." Is that what you call it, Jared?
Americans are extremely outraged by this war and what it has already cost them. Just imagine how they're going to feel once they realize who is getting rich, which is why we're going to keep talking about it. Joining me now is Ben Rhodes. He served as Deputy National Security Advisor. We worked for many years together, and he's also now the co-host of Pod Save the World and has written many incredible books, including about corruption and dictatorships. Okay, Ben, all day I have been wondering, really all week, because we've been talking about this a lot, I know you've been talking about it a lot, what you think about that split screen I just laid out? I mean, it is gas prices at record highs, Americans in the streets protesting, all as the Trump family continues to rake in money, hand over a fist. What do you make of where we are right now?
Yeah, it's pretty grim, Jen, in the sense that it feels like they're kind of looting what's left of American, kind of looting what's left of American power on the way out the door. I mean, let's kind of just go through some of the bill of particulars, right? The Emirates, the UAE made a $2 billion investment in the Trump family crypto business, and lo and behold, they got a license to develop AI data centers that had been restricted under the previous administration. The Qataris gifted that jet. Islamabad, Pakistan has been the host of these talks. That's kind of a head-scratcher for people. Pakistan's not usually a mediator in wars between the United States and Iran. Well, they've been involved in World Liberty Financial as well, the crypto business that Eric Trump is in with Steve Whitcoff's son, right? This is not subtle. There's no effort to conceal what is happening in terms of the combination of extraordinary wealth being transferred to the Trump family because, and this is what's so important, because of clearly the sense, or at least look, I'm offering an opinion, but I mean, the viewers can make their own judgments. Because the United States has something that those people want. They want AI, or they want protection, or they don't want tariffs, right? And I think what is so dangerous now is we've launched this war in Iran, this unnecessary illegal war. And who are being called in to negotiate the end of this war that might be able to lower those gas prices and reopen the Strait of Hormuz? The very same people, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who are tied up in all these deals. Who are they representing at the negotiating table? Are they representing the American people who are suffering from high prices and don't understand why we're at war? Or are they representing their private interests, or are they representing the interests of countries that have invested in them? We just don't, at this point I've lost track. I think it's very hard to argue that we can have confidence that they're representing the interests of the American people. Especially when Jared Kushner says out loud what people consider conflicts of interest are experience and relationships. It's like, okay.
Okay, I have to ask you about one of these headlines I just mentioned. And this is the headline, just to remind you: "Trump family-backed drone firm signs weapons deal with U.S." There are so many examples of this, but this to me is one that seems to be picking up as of late, I guess we could say. I'm sure you have some things to get off your chest about that specifically, but give us what do you think about all that?
I mean, it's pretty dark considering that you start a war that is going to require that the Pentagon ramp up its acquisition of drone technologies at the precise time. I mean, the idea, let's, I don't try not to do this that much, Jen, but like, what if Malia Obama started a drone business and started to get contracts from the Pentagon? I mean, it's so laughable and extraordinary that we couldn't even consider it. But I think what you mentioned that I have written about the corruption and dictatorships, I think what's scary is this scale that the United States power affords the Trump family, right? So the Orban family in Hungary was corrupt. Or Tayyip Erdogan's family in Turkey is corrupt. They don't control the world's largest military. When you hear that the Pentagon budget is going to be $1.5 trillion, that's money for more drones, more weapons, not health care, not schools, not hospitals. You wonder, well, how much of that $1.5 trillion dollars is going to go potentially to a drone business started by the Trump family, or just some cronies and political donors to the Trumps, or Elon Musk and his various defense technologies, right? There's a kind of cast of characters here who are using the awesome power and wealth of the United States to enrich themselves. And then meanwhile, they've started a war that we have no idea why we're fighting, have no idea why it's going to end. And the people paying the price for that war are not the defense contractors. Those people are going to do well. It's consumers, it's Americans and people around the world who are dealing with shortages, too, which is not surprising at all either.