What A Day - Trump's Presidential Payday

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

About a month ago, the Antwerp World Diamond Center, which deals with a large percentage of the world’s diamonds, made Donald Trump a very special gift purportedly for America’s 250th birthday. Then, just last week, the Trump Administration coincidentally exempted natural diamonds from its new sweeping global tariffs. Not a great look. It’s no secret that the Trump Administration is steeped in deals aimed at getting the President, his family, and his political organizations paid. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Trump is routinely asking for cash from companies and donors so he can build his ballroom or future design projects. The funnel of money aimed at this White House can be almost overwhelming. So what can we do about it? We spoke to Amanda Carpenter, a writer and editor at Protect Democracy, who has some ideas.And in headlines, July is on track to become the hottest month on record for the entire United States, about 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s tiny Ceuta territory in just 24 hours, and oil companies are profiting from the Iran war and the rising cost of gas.Show Notes: Check out Amanda's piece – tinyurl.com/3uk54psp Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

The way that I want people to think of it is just that he has opened up the presidency is a personal vehicle for self-enrichment, whether that be to advance his personal coffers or his political goals. Everything's for sale. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show that says, if a company says you need to get a tattoo in order to get a job interview, maybe that company isn't for you. The AI startup Lemon Lime told attendees at a networking party that anyone who got a company tattoo would get a job interview. Not the job, to be clear, a job interview. The company has since apologized, but let me say it again as a helpful limerick.

If the company wants you to get a tattoo, and that is just for an interview, then maybe just maybe. Don't do it, baby, because that company is not for you. On today's show, we talked to editor Amanda Carpenter about how to stop president. Donald Trump from profiting off the American people. Before we dive into Trump's big money pit, here's what we're following today, Friday, July 31st. On the disarmament deal that you announced, do you have assurances from Israel that they are on board with this deal? And what comes first? Does Israel pull back and then Hamas disarms or does Hamaschi to disarm and then Israel? So we do have an understanding with Israel. Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us.

and they've been very good. They've been very good about it. Most people said that would be a deal that would be undoable. Now, will it go through its ups and down? It's a very complex situation over there. The people are very complex and difficult. Many cases wonderful and many cases not so wonderful. What?

The peace president is added again, and there might finally be a breakthrough in Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas, two and a half years into the conflict. Maybe. Hamas said today it has agreed to disarm if Israel would stop all attacks, withdraw from the territory, and increase the amount of aid allowed inside. Israeli officials, however, said that a full disarmament by Hamas would have to proceed any Israeli withdrawal. So there are still so many ways this deal could fall apart, but Donald Trump doesn't want to talk about that. Today he described the agreement as, quote, a big step for the Middle East and people are really impressed by it. I would like to meet these people.

Trump's war in Iran is incredibly unpopular with pretty much everyone. Even, increasingly, Republicans. But you know who is having an awesome time right now? Oil companies! ExxonMobil and Chevron reported massive profits on Friday. They've made nearly $30 billion in just the second quarter of this year, which began in April. That's a $9.6 billion increase for Chevron over the second quarter of last year, and more than double what ExxonMobil made

over the same time period. In fact, ExxonMobil made $160 million a day from April to the end of June of this year. And it's not just these two companies. Shell oil made nearly $10 billion over the same time period, its second highest ever quarterly profit. How are oil companies making so much money? From you? Well, more accurately, from the rising cost of gasoline stemming from the war on the resulting shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. In a totally unrelated note, Oil companies combined back in 2024 to give more than $70 million to Trump's presidential campaign and affiliated political action committees. Again, totally unrelated. About 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco and to Spain's Chinese Sayuta territory in the past 24 hours, according to Seyote's president.

Dozens of migrants have died on the journey. Many young Moroccans who crossed into Sayuta told the Associated Press that they had hoped to find better work opportunities in Spain, but were returning given the mayhem in the territory. According to the New York Times, the majority of migrants have already left. Sayuta is located on the northern African coast. To get there, migrants often swim about three miles. Authorities in Sayuta and Madrid have linked the border search to a recent decision by the Spanish Supreme Court, which ruled that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported, unlike those who arrived by land or climb the border fence.

Spain's prime minister said that migrant smugglers misinterpreted the ruling. Is it hot in here or is it just me? Well, according to the Washington Post, it's All of America. July is on track to become the hottest month on record for the entire United States, with temperatures 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average. July could also break the record for highest overnight temperatures and highest humidity. Of course, we'll have to check back in once a month is over and all the data is in, but by the way, my makeup starts running the minute I step outside,

I think the verdict is pretty clear. I really wish climate change was a hoax, but here we are, getting hotter and sweatier. And that's the news. Let's talk about Trump. Here's a story you may have missed. About a month ago, the Antwerp World Diamond Center, which deals with a large percentage of the world's diamonds, made Donald Trump a very special gift purportedly for America's 250th birthday. It's a gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds alongside sapphires and rubies.

There are two T's on the ring, along with a 45th, and 47 in recognition of Trump's two terms in office. Engraved on the inside of the ring of the words, quote, crafted in Antwerp for Donald John Trump. Then, just last week, the Trump administration, coincidentally exempted natural diamonds from its new sweeping global tariffs. Of course, we don't know that the ring was related to the exemption. Still, it doesn't look great, does it? But what we do know is that the Trump administration is neck-deep in deals aimed at getting the president, his family, and his political organizations paid. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, Trump is routinely asking for cash from companies and donors so he can build

his ballroom or future design projects. The funnel of money aimed at this White House can be almost overwhelming. So what can we do about it? Amanda Carpenter is a writer and editor at Protect Democracy, an anti-authoritarianism advocacy group, and she has some ideas. Amanda, welcome to Water Day. Hey, thanks for having me. Big fan. So before we dive into your piece, let's do a quick Trump lightning round. Because there are so many examples of Trump's, shall we say, quiddish, pro-ish-quish relationship with others, his relationship with FIFA. The very fancy diamond ring he got, and then a month later, it turns out the Trump administration isn't going to tariff natural diamonds.

the Qatar Air Force One, his cryptocurrency business, the Binance pardon, the Rolexes, the ambassadorships, more pardons, it's hard to keep up. What's your favorite example of Trumpian corruption? Oh, man. My favorite example, I mean, it's, I do think the plane is the most visible in that he's accepted this giant. It is the most visible. Giant foreign gift.

Yeah, it doesn't work. He can't actually use it for the job. We're going to spend billions of taxpayer money making it secure all. only so that he can take it home and use it as a private citizen or put it in his library. Like, he thinks we're going to pay to outfit this personal jet to make it to presidential level security so that he can use it after he's out of office. Like, I'm sorry, as a private citizen, you don't get to have a floating Air Force One. So that thing is the most visible.

But there are so many schemes and shakedowns and payoffs happening right now. It's hard to keep up. And so the way that I want people to think of it is just that he has opened up the presidency is a personal vehicle for self-enrichment, whether that be to advance his personal coffers or his political goals. Everything's for sale. And this giant story that came out in the Wall Street Journal in the last 24 hours, we've known a lot of this was happening. But it is stunning the level of open corruption that is happening in this administration. So I think there's a lot of potential for reform once we start shining the spotlight on both sides of this transaction.

Yeah, because the Wall Street Journal story is about how he basically has a person who goes to companies and is like, quite literally, the boss wants his money. So it will be for political donations. It'll be for donations to his own campaign. It'll be for donations to pretty much anything, to build the ballroom, to make an arch, to, I don't know, put more gold somewhere else. And to your point, Trump made $2.2 billion last year. And you write that much of that money in your piece, which was excellent, is tied to policy decisions he's made as president.

But why is this the first time in America we're seeing a president do this? Because for context, what he's doing is not technically illegal. It's just morally wrong. And no one has seemingly ever thought they would just go do this. Are there no guardrails at all? Well, there's a few things to disentangle from that. Like, on a base level, a president is allowed to solicit donations for personal things, whether it be a presidential library.

Now, typically, are you allowed to use your official office to do it? No. They would go out of office. It would be private fundraisers. But, like, this is all happening, most of it, a lot of it, through the White House with official employees. And, you know, we used to be worried about things like the Hatch Act, which was a law that applied to all federal employees that you couldn't use official time to advance political goals.

Like, maybe I was a fool because I took this seriously. When I worked in the Senate, if we had to do a campaign meeting or anything like that, even a phone call, I would say, hold on, I would walk off the grounds, I would go to a non-official office, do that call. We'd have to log our time. I worked with somebody who was a scheduler who got engaged to a lobbyist. And she was so careful about these laws, she logged her engagement ring. as a gift because technically it was a gift until they were married. So like these are the laws that used to apply. Those are all out the window now. And what is so different is that Donald Trump is not just, you know, getting donations for a personal library that'll come later off campus. He has

inserted himself into so many federal decisions where he himself is the dealmaker, right? Like you see Mark Zuckerberg, you see all these CEOs going to Trump personally, giving him gifts, because they know that he is the decision maker for this. They're regulatory decisions that are not being outsourced to, you know, the regular federal agencies through a process. He says, I'm the dealmaker. And now we have this considerable reporting that needs to be followed up on that essentially says, yeah, the boss wants the money too. And so that's where I think there's a lot of vectors for reform, for oversight. And Donald Trump has been promising or talking about giving pardons to everyone within 200 feet of the Oval Office. Because what they

are doing, I think they know it's wrong. I think they know the day is coming when there's going to be oversight, there's going to be investigations, and they think they have a get out of jail free card. And let me tell you what, they do not. There are ways that we can get this money back using it's called disgorgement laws. Essentially, that just means if you are getting profits through ill-gotten gains, fraud, bribery, extortion, there are ways to get that money back. And so Congress could start now. I think we need a full audit of the White House, everything that's going on in there. We need to be looking at what these companies are doing, the favors that they have received and start to track all that down.

There's state AGs who can investigate this on the private side, because again, corruption takes two parties. Trump can ask for the money, but all these companies are giving it. And we have a good example earlier in the administration when Trump was trying to shake down all these law firms. And there's a lot. They wanted to pay the money first. but as soon as people start talking about oversight on the law firm side and saying, you know,

maybe this looks like you are giving a bribe, a lot of them reoriented. And they realize, yeah, like we can't have a hand in this corruption too. And so I think companies like meta and everyone else like paying for this kind of access need to get the same signal. If you also love words like oversight and going after corruption as much as I do, stick around. In the meantime, make sure to subscribe. leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch it on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What Today is brought to you by Willie's Remedy.

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board in Florida. Hey, did you hear? Watermelon is back at booster juice all summer long. Nice! I love the watermelon explosion. And the watermelon wave. Yep. They even got a new watermelon assaye bowl this year.

The one in a melon bowl. And what does that sound like? Mmm. Like that. Booster juice. Canadian born. Blending since 1999. Let's get back to my conversation with Amanda Carpenter.

I was curious as your thoughts because I love personally imagining some sort of repo man situation which somebody goes into the White House and is like, yeah, we've got to take all this. But what money or assets are you saying could actually be recoverable? Well, I think the big pots of recovery that we can start to look at, look at the gifts that are made to Trump's nonprofits. Look at the funding for his presidential library. Look at all these lobbying firms that have cropped up for these pay for pardon schemes. I mean, it is flagrant. I think a lot of this is traceable.

we have a good groundswell of reporting that is happening now. And number one, like, we can get this money back. Like, if Congress starts to follow the money, state AGs start taking an interest in the business side of this. And then also, if you get a new administration, there's all kinds of investigative authorities that can be used through places like the SEC, the IRS. So there's a lot of vehicles to do this. And this is important to the pardon discussion because civil asset forfeiture is not touchable by the pardons. A pardon may keep you out of jail, but it is not going to allow you to keep ill-gotten gains. So what's the roadmap? What needs to happen to start clawing back this money? Number one, you just got to follow the money. We have to find the money, start to have investigations

about, like, I can tell you where these pots are. And again, I think the reporting gives a really good start. But I think there's going to be committee interest as soon as some Democrats start to get the gavel, but also they don't have to wait to get the gavel, right? Like, they have staff that can start to put this together. And so, you know, it's just going to be a matter of where do we focus? Because, again, the corruption is so rampant. It's so widespread. I mean, we didn't even talk about all the no-bid contracts that are happening now. Like for the reflecting pool. Yeah, like a good example. But also, part of this discussion has to be a lot of the discussion has to to be, why is this not just we're going to get the money back and get these guys and show them

where the law is? What they are doing is making life worse in America, right? Because corruption is bad, not just because the bad guys walk out with like a big pot of money. It leads to worse government services. It leads to less competition that make things better. And it's just not fair, right? Like, you should not have to pay your way to get a fair shot before the government, whether it comes to a contract or a job or whatever. And so I think as a part of this discussion as well, like we also need to do a good job demonstrating how everything ends up like a shit reflecting pool when you let this corruption go on. You point in your article to Hungary as an example of a country that's implementing an anti-corruption playbook post-Orban. What are they doing? And what would the American version look like?

Yeah, so essentially what they did, number one, they campaigned on this and saying that we're going to root out the corruption and throw these guys out because we're going to do something about it, right? Like, it's not just, oh, we got an office now and it's all over. They've set up an anti-corruption bureau that unites a lot of investigative power into essentially one agency. And I got to tell you, Chuck Schumer, he did introduce a bill this week that does something extremely similar. Now, you can kind of say like, oh, another government. agency, actually uniting all these things in one house can be very effective in bringing the right people together to track this money down because it is going to be complicated. It's going to require a lot of forensic analysis, subpoenas, probably hearings, talking to the right people at these

companies to find it in order to explain what happens. So just getting those resources ready is really important. But on the front end, what I think was just phenomenal that they did is that they followed up on the campaign promise, right? They didn't just get up in office. They said, we got to make sure that this never happens again. And I think we have a lot of lessons to learn. Amanda, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks. That was my conversation with Amanda Carpenter, writer and editor at Protect Democracy. We'll link to a piece in the show notes. Before we go, America can feel like it's spiraling out of control, but could a state like Wisconsin hold the blueprint for turning things around? Stacey Abrams podcast,

Assembly required, explore solutions for fighting back against fascism and corruption. In last week's episode, Stacey talked with author and former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wickler, about how Democrats can win back voters ahead of the midterms. New episodes drop every Tuesday on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, relish the one thing that can bring European countries together, hating one guy. and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading, and not just about how all 55 members of European Soccer's member association, UEFA, along with a bunch of other countries in soccer associations worldwide, say that they will boycott future World Cups if FIFA goes ahead with its scheme to sell stakes and competitions to private investors, like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and nothing brings a continent to me.

Together, like collectively despising one person. What a day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Four, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.