What A Day - Bloomberg’s Billions

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

A judge orders President Trump to pay $2 million for using donations to his charitable foundation (good) for personal and political purposes (so bad!). So far, two billionaires have lined up to challenge Donald Trump in 2020 and Michael Bloomberg could be the newest addition to the pack. We test your knowledge in a game called "Not My Rich President." And in headlines: Bernie releases an immigration plan, it’s almost “time” for the MET Gala, and Donald Trump Jr. faces off with Meghan McCain in a battle of the sweet kids.

it's friday november 8th i'm akilah hughes i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day sometimes we like to begin the show with some conversation cards we bought online uh let's see what we got for today. All right. Which fad do you wish would come back? Ooh, which fad do I wish would come back? You know, I really like skinny jeans. I feel like everyone's wearing like weird, short, high-waisted pants now that are like really wide at the bottom. And I'm not long nor thin enough for that to look like it's doing something.

I just look like I'm wearing the skinny jeans, but they're higher up now. So if we could just go back to regular flattering pants, I'd be down. Well, on today's show, Trump pays up, Michael Bloomberg maybe gets into the 2020 presidential race, and then some headlines. A judge ordered President Trump to pay $2 million in damages on Thursday for using money from his charitable foundation for personal and political purpose. It's sort of like when your student loan money hits and instead of buying books, like you said you would, you order pizza. Only if the books you were supposed to buy were for children and you didn't give them any books or pizza. The judge went a little easy on the president, though, and didn't follow through on something New York's AG wanted,

which was to ban Trump and his children from being on the board of any nonprofits in the state in perpetuity. There will be some restrictions on them going forward. For a man so committed to fighting corruption, Trump seems to be getting into a lot of it. He paid $25 million to settle his suit over that fake university, Trump University. That was 2018. He had to pay that. And this lawsuit has also been a long time coming. Right. And Trump and his team had to own up to a bunch of stuff in the settlement as well. The main part being that Trump's foundation held a fundraising event for veterans in 2016 in Iowa. But the problem was that it was functionally a campaign event that was held days before the Iowa caucuses and influenced his presidential run.

And the campaign was also given complete control over giving out the money that was raised, which is a big no-no. Federal law explicitly prohibits charities' money from being used to help political campaigns. Yeah. And when Trump started the foundation in the 80s, he said the money was going towards fighting AIDS and multiple sclerosis and other sort of causes like that. But it actually turns out that the money was spent on purchasing portraits of Trump and also other things that are not for charity. Yeah. Every single item that was reported that the Trump Foundation had acquired were just sort of random, elaborate things that you would put up in your house. I mean, like the two most prominent examples, there was a $10,000 portrait of Trump. Jeez, who painted it?

Why would it be worth that much? One was like an instant paint guy who like was doing it on the fly at an event. Got it. It was like one of those like cool, like experiential, like Instagram pop-ups where they're like, we'll draw a little caricature. But it was a ten thousand dollar portrait. Yeah, it was a Banksy. And the other was a twenty thousand dollar portrait.

And one of them was six feet tall, which is actually Trump height. So if you want to get a sense of it, he was accused over of so many things over the years with the foundation that we really can't even keep an exhaustive list. But there are a couple that come to mind. In 2007, Trump allegedly used money in the foundation to pay off $100,000 in fines from Palm Beach, basically getting into a dispute with him over the height of a flagpole. Got it. There was the issue with how high it it was and it was probably some like sea line coastline thing okay in 2012 uh trump allegedly used twelve thousand dollars of the foundation's money to buy a football helmet signed by tim tebow yeah who had like a very short run

in the nfl right like that wasn't worth it then depreciated in value since yeah i mean that is like a yard sale item that's like if he bought a football helmet that i signed yeah right um i would buy that uh there's there's this other really funny story where there was an event that was taking place at a trump golf course and there was an offer on the table for a one million dollar prize if you hit a hole in one and this guy martin greenberg got the hole in one but afterwards marty didn't get his money yeah and there was this whole exchange about like the rules having to have the the like hole in one length be 150 yards and according to court docs trump's course had made the hole too short so like yeah like it wasn't even a legally binding like agreement for like, wow, no one could have won the million dollars. It was just a lie. I think that I what I'm

understanding about it is like you were set up to fail essentially. He's like rigging carnival games. Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. Like the cornhole distance was not, you know, the appropriate length of like an arm's throw. So Greenberg sued. And on the day that the Trump Foundation said that they settled the case, Trump's foundation made its first and only contribution to Greenberg's foundation. So he's spending his charity money on other charities that are his friends to make up for rigging a golf game. Yes. OK, so that is wild. What was Trump's reaction to, you know, the situation, the settlement that happened yesterday? It was like basically a why I'm leaving New York essay that he just typed out and tweeted.

He said in part that he was angry that New York's Attorney General Letitia James refused to investigate the Clinton Foundation and was only going after his. Because I guess, you know, you got to, for everything that happens to Trump, it's got to happen to Hillary Clinton as well. Those are the rules of the game. Wild. All right. Well, besides the two million in damages, were there any other consequences for Trump's family? Indeed, there were. The three children who were on the board, who were board members, Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric, all have to take what was described as an in-person interactive training class on how to be a better board member. It was like Mavis Beacon for avoiding self-dealing,

I guess. That's the worst game I've ever heard of. Yeah, it would be awful. I mean, what do we, like, if we were to go to this class, if we were to enroll, what does it look like? How, like? Oh, yeah. I mean, my hope is that it's like if you get a traffic ticket and you have to go to, like, traffic school and there's just, like, an unenthused person trying to explain to you that the risk is not worth the reward. But also maybe it's just like like you said, if it's an interactive training, maybe it's like Oregon Trail and they have to ford the river and all of the like obstacles instead of being rocks are just like giving yourself money, not actually helping people you said you would help. Sucking. Well, you know, if the course is available, we can we can try to take it ourselves and see if we become better board members. Right. Well, now that the situation has been resolved, it's time to quietly use Cricket's money to purchase a self-portrait of me to hang in the studio.

Seems only fair. Okay, Bloomberg. On the same day that presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released her calculator for billionaires to see how much they would pay according to her wealth tax, reports came out that billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is thinking about getting into the 2020 Democratic primary. Now, we've heard a lot of talk in this campaign about needing a leader who understands business. I couldn't agree more. I built a business and I didn't start it with a million dollar check from my father.

Incredibly inspiring. Yeah, cool billionaire on billionaire own. We all relate to this. So anyway, that was Bloomberg back at the 2016 Democratic Convention where he spoke in support of Hillary Clinton. Yeah. Bloomberg is a perennial, maybe going to run for president guy. The only difference now is that there is reporting that's indicating that he plans to file to run in Alabama today. Alabama is the first deadline for actually needing to get on the ballot so early. So we make an indication if he's actually going to do this, if they follow through on that and file there and file elsewhere soon. But, you know, Mike, I will believe it when I see it.

Well, if Bloomberg gets into the race, it would make him the third billionaire who has campaigned or threatened to campaign this cycle. Guys, you don't need to do this. Just go relax on your own small private countries, okay? These billionaire candidates blend together sometimes, and since they could buy our legs out from under us, it's important that we know who they are.

So today, Gideon, I'm going to see if you can tell real billionaires apart from some famous fictional ones in a game called Not My Rich President. Here's how the game works. I'm going to read a fact about a billionaire, and you can tell me if it's about a real billionaire or a fictional one. Intriguing. All right. So our first category is going to be Tom Steyer. My name's Tom Steyer.

I'm running for president. Versus Christian Grey. Love me like you do. Oh, Ellie. Why do you have to do Ellie like that? I know. Well, she's the head of the, yeah, that song's from the soundtrack. All right.

So which one of these two people got a $100,000 loan to start his first company? Was it Tom Steyer or Christian Grey? Oh, wow. It's a speed round. Grey. Okay, you're right. Yeah, it was from his mom's friend, Alina, who seduced him and introduced him to BDSM. That is right. I knew it. The BDSM was the thing that just triggered it for me. All right. Tom Steyer, Christian Gray. Which one of them got sent a bomb in the mail? Steyer.

That's true. In 2018, Steyer was targeted by a guy from Florida who sent over 15 pipe bombs to different presidents, officials, and activists. All right. Tom Steyer versus Christian Grey. Which one had a religious awakening in adulthood? Grey. No, that was Tom Steyer. What religion is he? Let's see. So in his late 30s, Steyer became involved in the Episcopal Church, which he says galvanized his political advocacy.

All right. And finally, between the two, Steyer and Grey. Which one said business is all about people and I'm good at judging people? It's Gray. Yeah, that's right. I feel like I know too much about the Fifty Shades trilogy. It's weird that you're such a fan of Fifty Shades. It's bizarre.

I wouldn't call it a fan. You have a book club. We read them every single month. There you go. Me and my close friends. All right. Next category. We've got Michael Bloomberg. There you go. Me and my close friends. All right. Next category. We've got Michael Bloomberg.

Wiener. Versus Scrooge McDuck. All right. That was pleasant. Yeah. All right. Which of the two between Bloomberg and McDuck,

which one's first job was shining shoes? Bloomberg. No, Scrooge McDuck. Oh, damn it. He shined shoes and he got paid one American dime.

All right. Good deal. Which one has $44 billion according to Forbes? Bloomberg. Scrooge McDuck. Wow.

Forbes rated McDuck. Yes. He also owns a zoo. It's called the McDuck Zoo and it's on the outskirts of Duckburg. Wow. All right.

Between Michael Bloomberg and Scrooge McDuck, which one has a vacation home called Ballyshear? It's got to be Bloomberg. That's Bloomberg. His home is in the Hamptons. It's called that when you know people are rich when they start naming their house. Yeah, or when it sounds like it's in Northern Ireland also. Yeah, right. All right.

And the final between Bloomberg and Scrooge McDuck. Which one's 77 years old? Bloomberg. Maybe McDuck also, for all I know. Yes. Well, I believe that McDuck is ageless, but Bloomberg is 77. All right. And our final round. Are you ready for this? I don't think so. We're going to go with Howard Schultz. You're going to criticize me? Versus Tony Stark.

I am Iron Man. Tight. All right. Which one was the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company? Tony Stark. That's right. He became the CEO of Stark Industries when his parents died in a car crash when he was 21. All right.

Between the two, which one built a driveway to his house that passes through a public park? Schultz. That's correct when he lived in seattle he put his driveway through nearby veretta park and got sued all right between the two schultz versus stark which one is adopted oh schultz no i'm sorry it's tony stark i thought he i thought he has a dad in the Avengers movies. Yeah, an adopted dad. Really? It was revealed in Marvel Comics Iron Man number 17 that Tony was actually adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.

And they had a son before Tony named Arno who's been in hiding since their death. I'm sure he comes back as a... Arno Stark? Yeah. I don't believe this. I mean, this is real. All right. Which one loves green

juice uh uh schultz oh it's tony stark he drinks green juice at avengers age of ultron schultz only has coffee of course that's true all right and between the two which one owned two basketball teams schultz that's correct uh he has has owned the Seattle Sonics and the Seattle Storm. All right. He needs to bring one back is what I'm saying to old Howie over there. Yeah. Well, you did okay. I think that what we're learning is that billionaires are bizarre creatures.

They are. Fictional or not. It's true. So, you know, now you know these facts. I don't know if you won the game. I was not keeping score. I think I won the game. To sum up, we had fun here. Also, again, Mr. Bloomberg, with all due respect, who asked you to run?

Why can't you just donate to some of the candidates we actually know? Or take your own advice that you gave Howard Schultz. We heard from Mike Bloomberg who says, Howard, I respect you, but I've been there. You can't win as an independent. Yeah. Take some advice. Rough stuff. And that was Not my rich president and now for some ads at what a day we really just don't like to procrastinate we like

to be very on top of things yeah i'm a proactive human i yeah and know, that goes for preparing for news. It goes for tying my shoelaces. Yeah. Maybe even holiday shopping. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, Nordstrom Rack is having an event called Clear the Rack. It's back. You can save an additional 25% on clearance items for a total savings of up to 75% off, but it's this weekend. This weekend. So if you need holiday gifts, now's the time. Don't procrastinate. Yeah, you want to get your grandma that sweater that you can make sure she has for the cold winter ahead. Yep. Okay. Well, it's online and in store. You can enter code CROOKED at checkout to take 10%

off your order of $50 or more. One time use per customer. Online purchases only. Clear the rack at Nordstrom Rack. It's where it's at. And now, back to the show. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The View brought on Trump's second wettest son, Donald Jr., for their 5,000th episode, and it went exactly how you'd expect. CBS, though. You worked with CBS.

I'm going to ask one question. I'm going to ask one question. This is not CBS. No, but you worked with them. Can we stick? That was intelligible. Trump the Younger came on to promote his book about triggering people, which is also known as being annoying.

And he delivered on that promise. When Meghan McCain confronted Trump Jr. about his father's widely denounced attacks on a gold star family, Trump Jr. responded by saying, quote, I don't think any of that makes me feel good, but I do think we got into this because we wanted to do what is right for America. And I have to say, I agree with DJ TJ. I don't think

any of this makes me feel good. Yeah, no way. All right. The U.S. and China have agreed to undo some of the current tariffs on each other's goods. This is the first time that the U.S. has promised to remove any of the tariffs it has placed on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, though it's not set in stone just yet. The agreement signals that the two countries just might be moving closer to ending the 19-month trade war that has cost American consumers and businesses $38 billion. Love it when my dad stopped fighting. Democratic presidential hopeful and local Zadie Bernie Sanders dropped his new plan for immigration on Thursday. It aims to reverse almost all of the Trump administration's policies on immigration, make a clearer path to legal permanent citizenship, and to break up the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency,

or ICE. Sanders is the first candidate in the race to call to break up the agency formally in his plan. I guess when Bernie drinks water, he doesn't take his ice cubed. He likes his ice crushed. Okay, I like that weird growl. All right. The Met Gala will be celebrating its 150th birthday next year. And this time the theme is time. So mark your calendars for pictures of celebs with couture kitchen timer headpieces and Billy Porter doing the full clock stretching routine from the big comfy couch. Personally, I think it's messed up that Meryl Streep, Emma Stone and Lin-Manuel Miranda were chosen to head up the planning committee instead of the original king of time, Flava Flav. And those are the headlines.

That's all for today. We are new, so if you like the show, make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, leave a review, buy my book, obviously stories from my timeline, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just Akilah's book like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash newsletters. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's why I'm running for president. What a day is a product of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard andashaka.