Letters from an American - The White House is Not a Business Opportunity

Starting point is 00:00:06 July 1st, 26. Today, President Donald J. Trump took his first flight on the new Air Force One, a gift from Qatar. The Constitution prohibits presidents from accepting gifts from foreign governments without the consent of Congress, so Trump's announcement he would accept the $400 million plane from a foreign country raised a bipartisan outcry. The Pentagon then stepped in to say it would accept the plane. So, officially, Cutter gave the plane to the Pentagon, but a source told Eileen Graef of CNN, they expect the plane, newly painted in red, white and blue, like Trump's private jet, to leave the service of the United States when Trump leaves the White House, going to Trump's presidential library. Trump told reporters he was excited about the first flight. Nobody's ever

Starting point is 00:00:58 seen anything like it. They just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president. That means the security and all the different bells and whistles they put on, very complex stuff, but it's really quite something. Frankly, he said, we couldn't build a plane like this because we wouldn't be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollars. As Marina Dunbar of the Guardian noted, the plane is a retrofitted Boeing 747-8 built in the United States. Yesterday, Sarah Blaskey and Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post reported that last summer, White House officials awarded a no-bid contract for the $500 million for the construction of a ballroom where the east wing of the White House used to be. In turn, the company that got the contract, Clark Construction, told the White House it would award no-bid contracts to at least 11 subcontractors for services including demolition, fencing, excavations. and so on. To avoid requirements for competitive bidding, the White House said the ballroom was

Starting point is 00:02:05 covered by the office of the executive residence, which is responsible for routine repairs, buying furniture, and paying entertainment expenses. A federal judge has rejected this same justification for the demolition of the East Wing in the first place, saying the president's authority to make changes to the White House does not include knocking down one of its wings and building a ballroom in its place. At one point, Trump said officials from Clark Construction had offered to build his ballroom for free, but for months after he first knocked down the East Wing, he insisted that private donations would pay for the ballroom. On March 31st, Trump told reporters, this is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents. But on June 16th,

Starting point is 00:02:54 Blaskey and O'Connell reported that more than three weeks before Trump, Trump made that announcement, Clark had provided the White House with an estimate of $600 million for the project, with more than half of it coming from taxpayers. On June 28, Paul Sond and Eric Lipton of the New York Times reported on a deal from September 2025 in which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik and Trump secured from the President of Kazakhstan access to one of the largest untapped reserves of tungsten in the world. An obscure U.S. company, Kaz Resources, won access to resources of a medal the U.S. needs for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips.

Starting point is 00:03:40 Before the deal went through, officials from the Trump administration advanced applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal funding for the company. Then an investment firm, partly owned by Trump's sons, Don Jr. and Eric took a 20% stake in a corporate entity related to the project, and the investment firm run by Lutnik's sons Brandon and Kyle, Cantor Fitzgerald, helped to raise $210 million for a related entity, likely pocketing millions in fees. The deal was signed on November 6th. Son and Lipton use the Kazakhstan deal to illustrate the self-dealing of the Trumps and Lutniks, identifying at least 14 companies with ties to the Trumps and Lutniks that are working with the federal government on mining deals for materials on which the U.S. depends. The administration has either provided or is considering providing more than $8.9 billion in taxpayer money to those companies. White House spokesperson Cush Desai denied any impropriety in the deal-making, saying in a statement,

Starting point is 00:04:54 The only special interest guiding the Trump administration's decision-making is the best interest of the American people. Securing and reshoring America's critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump, and Secretary Lutnik, along with the rest of the administration, continue to take historic action to safeguard America's national and economic security. The Trumps have also done well over the past 18 months in the cryptocurrency business. Yesterday, a federal filing showed that Trump took in about $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency ventures last year. Bernard Condon of the Associated Press reports that Trump made more than $500 million

Starting point is 00:05:41 from the World Liberty Financial Venture with his sons and Zach Whitkoff, who is the Ventures Chief Executive Officer and the son of Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Whitkoff. Much of that money came when an investment fund associated with the leadership of the United Arab Emirates bought almost half of World Liberty Financial. Trump also made more than $600 million from meme coins stamped with his face. In office, Trump has pushed policies that helped the cryptocurrency industry, and avoid regulations. In her newsletter, called citation needed,

Starting point is 00:06:22 financial journalist Molly White noted that even the jaw-dropping $1.4 billion figure is only a partial view into Trump's opaque crypto empire. She points out that the phrase, value not readily ascertainable, shows up more than 100 times in yesterday's filing. Donald Shaw, of some of some, sludge, an outlet dedicated to examining special interest spending in politics, reported today

Starting point is 00:06:52 that the day before Trump paused his tariffs for 90 days. His investment accounts took advantage of the market lows caused by the tariffs to buy as much as $12.8 million worth of stocks. His announcement of the pause caused a huge spike in stock values, with the S&P jumping nearly 10%, one of the biggest gains in the history of that index. Trump neglected to report the transactions for almost a year past the required deadline, but the penalty for a late filing, Shaw notes, is only $200. Journalist White notes that Trump is essentially day trading, including in companies operating in sectors where the Trump administration is actively focused on setting policy. She notes that Trump owns between $12.5 million and $58 million in Invidia,

Starting point is 00:07:50 and between $9.5 million and $46.5 million in Amazon, both companies whose fortunes rise and fall based on decisions made in the White House. Yesterday's filings also showed that Trump took out a loan for more than $50 million last year. But as Zach Everson of Public Citizen noted, we don't know why he needed the money, how he used it, what assets he used as collateral, how much he borrowed, or when it's due. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said,

Starting point is 00:08:26 neither the president nor his family has ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest. All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American. American people. Using information from Reuters, economic analyst Steve Ratner graphed the gains and losses of the Trump family and investors in crypto ventures. The numbers show the Trump's taking in about $2.3 billion in income since the beginning of Trump's second presidency. The numbers show investors in those ventures losing about the same amount. Eric Lipton, Andrea Fuller, and David Yoffey Bellany of the New York Times broke some of the cryptocurrency numbers down. Noting that the Trump family structured its crypto ventures, so Trump made money on the front end, taking hundreds of millions of dollars in transaction fees, for example.

Starting point is 00:09:25 Then, when his coins plummeted in value, the investors who were left holding the bag suffered vast losses. Cryptocurrency expert Lee Rayner, who used to examine federal reserve banks, told the reporters, it's hard to wrap your head around that the president of the United States would engage in this level of self-enrichment at the expense of so many of his supporters. This is a president of the United States who has made more money off crypto since he took office than he made in any prior year in his entire business career. On June 23rd, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, outlined the unprecedented corruption of the Trump White House in the first 500 days of the president's second term. This is a national crisis, Murphy said, and we should start

Starting point is 00:10:20 acting like it. The pay-to-play schemes, the pardons for donors, the contracts for friends, the favors for Trump's children, the use of inside information to make money. This is not a disconnected series of scandals. This is a system. Government is supposed to serve us. It's supposed to lower costs, supposed to protect our families, strengthen our schools, make life better for people. But Donald Trump believes that government exists to serve him, to make him richer, to protect his friends, to reward his donors. That's why he doesn't have time for you. He doesn't have time to solve real problems because he's making money for himself and his friends. And he's betting that the corruption will be so constant that

Starting point is 00:11:11 we stop hearing it, that the outrage will just turn into exhaustion and the exhaustion will just turn into acceptance. We can't let that happen, because once corruption becomes normal, it becomes permanent. The White House is not a business opportunity. The presidency is not a license to steal from the American people. The government of the United States doesn't exist to make Donald Trump rich. It belongs to the American people. And after 500 days of corruption, Democrats and Republicans in this body, along with the American people, should start acting like it. was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

Starting point is 00:12:08 It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead of Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.

Letters from an American - The White House is Not a Business Opportunity

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