← The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
Lawrence: Gov. Newsom is showing Americans how to fight Donald Trump
00:42:19
Tonight on The Last Word: California Gov. Gavin Newsom fights back against the Texas redistricting scheme. Also, AARP finds 96 percent of voters say social security is “important.” Plus, Donald Trump breaks his “day one” vow to lower costs as prices rise since his election win. Trump deflects again from his failed campaign promise to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. And ethics questions are raised over Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s assets. Rep. Eric Swalwell, Sen. Ed Markey, Jared Bernstein, David Rothkopf, and Alan Rappeport join Lawrence O’Donnell.
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
If you could hear love, what would it sound like? Son, can we talk about your drinking? Yeah, Dad, I think we should. Helping those closest to you think about their excessive drinking. Maybe that's what love sounds like. More@rethinkthedrink.com An OHA initiative in the fight against Alzheimer's now matters more than ever, because now we have treatments, treatments that could change everything. But now is no time to stop. Now we've got momentum, so now we use it. Now we seize the moment. Now we turn the tide. Now we make a difference and make some noise. Now is the time to get up, get out, and join the movement at the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's, held in over 600 communities nationwide. And we need you with us because now is the time for hope. Join the fight@alz.org Walk the Last Word with Lawrence O' Donnell starts right now. Hey, Lawrence. Hey, Jed. Gavin Newsom really had a day today, finally showing just how much power he and California has in our politics. He certainly did. And two things struck me. One, he delivered on what he said he was going to do in the letter to Trump just a few days ago. And the second is he's still doing it in a democratic way. The people of California are voting on it in November. So it is not like the backroom, weird deal going on in Texas. Both of those things stuck out. Yeah. And, Jen, you know, I have to say, as a longtime California voter, you get over time, you get to feel somewhat irrelevant to presidential elections because the outcome is always known and California's not gonna be a swing state. And so much smaller states have outsized power in the Electoral College and California just has has to suffer that. But this was the day where it feels like Gavin Newsom was able to frame and describe California's power in our politics and what it can be in a way that I've never heard before, a hugely optimistic presentation for Democrats out there, especially hoping for control of the House of Representatives so that they can break Donald Trump's full grip on the entire federal government. That's exactly right. And you will not be that irrelevant California voters if he runs for president, which who knows. But what's interesting here is he was very forceful and there are other blue state governors this may be putting some pressure on. So we'll see what happens there, too, because this is unfortunately a bit of a gerrymandering race. Well, we're going to let Governor Newsom be heard in the statement that he made today during this hour. That sounds good. Look Forward to listening. Thanks. Thanks, Jen. Thank you. Well, tomorrow, Donald Trump will fly to Alaska to meet with a war criminal who he has called a genius in order to avoid questions about a pedophile who raped children while Donald Trump was calling him a terrific guy. It won't work if Donald Trump does manage to avoid questions about Jeffrey Epstein tomorrow in Alaska. Those questions will be waiting for him when he returns to Washington. Every member of Congress now is getting questions about Jeffrey Epstein. The difference between Democrats and Republicans who get questions about Jeffrey Epstein is that Democrats actually answer those questions. Here is Maryland's Democratic Senator, Chris Van Hollen in a town hall tonight. Why won't they release the Epstein files? Couldn't let you leave without. So they should release the Epstein files right now. And they obviously have the power to do it. I mean, this is something. If you rewind the tape, Pam Bondi and so many others said that everyone should have access to the Epstein files. And I agree. I think this is a. There's enough of a public interest here and that the victims of these terrible crimes deserve to have transparency and accountability. These are. I mean, I think people recognize just how horrible what happened to these young women and girls was. And the perpetrators should be known and they should be held accountable. And you can release the files in a way that protects the victims, but doesn't protect the perpetrators. Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 38%. But that is not the worst polling number Donald Trump faces tonight because 71% of Americans think Donald Trump knew some or a lot about the sex crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein against children before the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein even began. And a majority of Republicans think the same thing. 56% of Republicans think Donald Trump knew some or a lot about the sex crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein. 56% of Republicans. It is at this low point in Donald Trump's public support that he has chosen to try to rig congressional districts in Texas to give Republicans five more Republican seats in the House of Representatives so that Donald Trump can guarantee that. That Republicans will control the House of Representatives and he won't be impeached by the House of Representatives during this term of his presidency. There is only one state bigger than Texas, and that state has the power to crush Donald Trump's Texas plan for controlling the House of Representatives. And the governor of that state stepped up today to accept the challenge from Donald Trump and Texas Republicans. Here's the good thing about California, folks. We're the size of 21 state populations combined. We're the fourth largest economy in the world. We're not a small, isolated state. I know they say, don't mess with Texas. Well, don't mess with the great Golden State. And so we're here with our state of mind, with the clarity of our purpose and conviction to recognize that we need to reconcile the world we're living in. We do have agency. We're not bystanders in this world. We can shape the future, and that's what we intend to do today. Here he is once again trying to rig the system. He doesn't play by a different set of rules. He doesn't believe in the rules. And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves. The way things have been done, it's not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire, and we've got to be held to a higher level of accountability. So that's what this is about. It's not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a President of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, find me from five seats. We're doing it in reaction to that act. We're doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angels. We're doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior, as we've been doing for 15 years in the state of California with our independent redistricting commission. But we cannot unilaterally disarm. We can't stand back and watch this bocracy disappear. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district, all across this country. Not just in Texas, but in Missouri, where J.D. vance went just a week ago. In Indiana, in places like Ohio, in places like Florida. We need to stand up. Not just California. Other blue states need to stand up. We need to be firm in our resolve. And so the fight against Donald Trump and Trumpism is now engaged in a way it has never been engaged before by California and its governor. Governor Newsom reminded the country that this all started with a desperate phone call from Donald Trump to the Republican governor of Texas, asking the governor to find him five more House seats in Texas. They want to rig these elections, and they want the power that gerrymandering provides because they know what Donald Trump knows he's going to lose the midterms. He knows, de facto, his Presidency ends in 17 months when Speaker Jeffries is back in office. He knows it. Why else why else would you try to rig the system? Why else would you make the phone call? He's a failed president. Donald Trump sent his masked ICE agents to loiter outside the building where Governor Newsom was speaking today as yet another demonstration of how Donald Trump wastes the deployment of federal agents and federal troops for his own amusement and his own purely political stunts. Who else sends ice? Same time having a conversation like this, Someone who's weak, someone is broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength. The most unpopular president in modern history, an economy that's collapsing all around him. You saw the new wholesale prices going up almost a full percentage point today. Inflation is going up. Job creation is going down. He's trying to rewrite history. Smithsonian censoring historical facts. And in the spirit of what Adam Schiff said, he's trying to put America in reverse on voting rights, civil rights, LGBT rights, on women's rights. He wants to bring us back to a pre 1960s world. That's what this is all about. It's about power. And I want to end on this. And we are about to give power back to the people. Governor Newsom explained that there's a big difference in the way California will redistrict congressional maps of that state. This is the difference between what's happening in Texas and what's happening here in California. We didn't receive a phone call from the President of the United States to then quietly go in the back room and start drawing maps and legislatively try to jam them through against the consent of the people. We're doing precisely the opposite. We're working through a very transparent, temporary and public process. We're putting the maps on the ballot, and we're giving the power to the people. This will be the first redistricting that's ever done that. That's the difference. We tried to raise the standards, and these guys are not playing by any set of rules. So this time requires us to act anew, not just thinking new. And so this is what fighting Donald Trump looks like. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats have found a way to fight Donald Trump's attacks on democracy by using democracy against Donald Trump. And so the biggest state in the union, the richest state in the union, has finally been provoked to show Donald Trump just how much power that state has. Gavin Newsom is now leading California to the rescue of the United States of America, to the rescue of democracy in America. And today, Gavin Newsom showed millions of people who have been feeling powerless, millions of Californians who voted for the California candidate for president in the last election, that they still have power. The voters of California can feel left out in presidential elections. The candidates never bothered to campaign in California because everyone knows how California is going to vote in a presidential election. California doesn't have the power to turn the election one way or another the way much smaller states like neighboring Arizona do. Voting in California in a presidential election can be an exercise in dutiful civic frustration, carrying out your civic duty, knowing it won't make a difference when you're watching the election returns that night. Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom changed all that today. Gavin Newsom told California voters they hold in their hands the power to break Donald Trump's grip on every branch of the federal government, a power the tonight no other state has. You have the power to stand up to Trump. You have the power to declare that you support a system that is not rigged. You have the power on November 4th to stand up for people that are being bullied. You have the power to stand up for people that are being intimidated. You have the power to stand up to the rule of law. We're giving the people of this state the power to save democracy, not just in California, but all across the United States of America. I hope we are waking up to this reality. Wake up, America. Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to his assault. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to is a war on science and public health, his war against the American people. This is a guy who lays claim to want to get a Nobel Prize, sitting there and bending his knee to Mr. Putin. You have the power to straighten this out. Leading off our discussion on California Night is Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California. He's a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. Congressman Swalwell, thank you very much for joining us tonight. My pleasure. This plan by California is unlike anything we have ever seen. And what has it been like in the California delegation, putting this together and finding your power? It's what offense looks like. Lawrence and I have been in the California delegation for 13 years. I came in actually because of independent redistricting. I'll talk to you about that in a second. I supported that when it was on the ballot in 2010, and it got me to Congress. But I've never seen more unity among my colleagues. And it's because we understand that the 2 million Californians who lost their health care because of the big, brutal bill and the friends and neighbors who are being deported who contribute to our economy, that the only way you can protect them and the only way you can right those wrongs is to make sure that we get as many seats back in California that are taken in Texas. So you have to make Donald Trump react or you're going to be reacting and the most vulnerable in our communities are going to be reacting to Donald Trump. So the history of this is that California did what all fair minded students of government have wanted all states to do, which was depoliticize the drawing of congressional maps in the state every 10 years. And they handed it over to an independent commission that has done a very reasonable job of drawing those maps, taken it out of the hands of politicians. But other states did not follow California's lead, especially Republican states. And so California that has more House seats than any other state in the union has not been empowered to politically respond to the way Republican states have been doing this. That's right, Lawrence. In fact, I think it's only a handful of other states like Washington, Iowa, maybe one or two more. And so what we've been doing as Democrats is we've been fighting these battles with one hand tied behind our back, and often it's the upper hand. And we are now in this fight with both hands on behalf of the most vulnerable in our community. And it was not easy for me to support this because I do believe in good government. But the last thing that I want to see happen is the day after the midterm election that democracy is in ashes because of the redistricting in Texas. And I look at my colleagues and say, well, at least we protected the independent redistricting commission in California. That is going to be, you know, cold comfort for anybody who's going to suffer the remaining consequences of the last two years of the Trump administration if we're not in the majority. California Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you very much for leading off our discussion. And coming up, 90 years ago today, another Democratic politician gave an inspiring speech when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed America forever by signing the Social Security Act. Nothing Donald Trump does will even come close to being remembered 90 years from now. That's next. Hey, this is Jeff Lewis from Radio Andy live and uncensored. Catch me talking with my friends about my latest obsessions, relationship issues and bodily ailments. With that kind of drama that seems to follow me, you never know what's going to happen. You can listen to Jeff Lewis live at home or anywhere you are. Download the SiriusXM app for over 4, 425 channels of ad free music, sports, entertainment and more. Subscribe now and get 3 months free offer details apply. Did you know 39% of teen drivers admit to texting while driving. Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed and run red lights. Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway. As a parent, you can't always be in the car, but you can stay connected to their safety with Greenlight Infinity's driving reports. Monitor their driving habits, see if they're using their phone, speeding and more. These reports provide real data for meaningful conversations about safety. Plus, with weekly updates, you can track their progress over time. Help keep your teens safe. Sign up for Greenlight Infinity@Greenlight.com podcast Riley Herbst from 2311 Racing checking in. Got a break in between team meetings? Sounds like the perfect time for some fast paced fun at Chumba Casino. No waiting, just instant action to keep you going. So next time you need a pick me up, fire it up and take a spin. Play now@chumbacasino.com let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group voidwear prohibited by law. CTNC's 21/sponsored by Chumba Casino on this day, August 14th 90 years ago in 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security act into law and changed life in America forever. Nothing Donald Trump does will be remembered 90 years from now. Americans will thank Donald Trump for nothing. Ninety years from now, Americans are still virtually unanimously grateful to President Roosevelt for creating Social Security. A new poll shows that 96% of voters say Social Security is important, with 95% of Republican voters saying Social Security is important. A Democratic House and a Democratic Senate passed the Social Security act over Republican objections that it was socialism. A Democratic President signed it into law. The Republican Party has never attempted anything like it and never will. Social Security was the idea of the first woman member of a presidential Cabinet, President Roosevelt's Labor Secretary Francis Perkins, who changed our lives more than most presidents. And it was Frances Perkins who gave us the 40 hour workweek, unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, a ban on child labor, a host of child of worker safety precautions, and much, much more. She's standing right there in that photograph from the Cabinet Room right behind the President. Medicare and Medicaid were enacted in the 1960s by a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, a Democratic President simply as amendments to the Social Security Act. Democrats continued to build on the legal structure designed by Francis Perkins and Franklin Roosevelt long after they were gone. Here's some of what President Roosevelt said 90 years ago today in the Cabinet Room you can listen to FDR with the full confidence that 90 years from now, no one will be commemorating anything Donald Trump said or did. Today, a hope of many years standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insurance. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last. This Social Security measure gives at least some protection to 30 millions of our citizens who will rebuild direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old age pensions, and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health. We can never insure 100% of the population against 100% of the hazards and vicissitudes of life. But we have to tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty stricken old age. It seems to me that if the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more than pass this security bill, Social Security act, the session would be regarded as historic for all time. Joining us now is Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. He's a member of the Senate Health, Education, labor and Pensions Committee and also the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator, thank you very much for joining us on this Social Security anniversary night, which brings to mind as sharply as anything could the difference between Democrats and Republicans then and Democrats and Republicans now, without question. And you could have added in the Affordable Care act that the Republicans opposed as well. So they have had an ancient animosity towards Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act. And when they had a chance last month to vote to Cut Medicaid by 900 billion, they did it. Medicare by 500 billion, they did it. The Affordable Care act by 300 billion, they did it. And President Trump has now named AJ Antoni to be the new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because the President was very unhappy with the honest numbers that he was getting about unemployment and about inflation. Now, AJ Antoni at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, if he is confirmed, and I'm going to be working hard to defeat him, he determines the cost of living adjustment for Social Security recipients. So while AJ Antoni calls it a Ponzi scheme, while Elon Musk called it a Ponzi scheme, while Scott Besant, the Secretary of treasury, says that they now have a backdoor way of privatizing Social Security, it's not a Ponzi scheme. It's actually now going to be the plot of the Republicans to steal the Social Security cost of living adjustment away from 70 million people in our country. So the plot is there. They're now saying the truth out loud. And we now have to have this major battle in our country to preserve the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which still today stands again as the greatest anti poverty program in the history of our country. I just want to double underline your point about Social Security cost of living increase to make sure everybody understands this. Every year, Social Security payments to beneficiaries to retirees are increased based on whatever the inflation rate is. And Donald Trump wants that inflation rate to be called zero by the person he wants to put into that job. And that would mean that Social Security checks do not increase from year to year with the actual increased costs that seniors and recipients would face. That is right. Because of Donald Trump's policies, his tariffs, his taxes on goods are going to lead to higher prices for consumers, for seniors buying clothing, buying food. Electricity rates are going up already three times the cost of living. It is because of his cuts in wind and solar as a source of electricity. Health care costs are going to skyrocket as his Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable act cuts go through the system because the premiums for everyone else are going to skyrocket. That's all going to be on the kitchen table for grandma and grandpa to try to figure out how with the Social Security check to pay the increased cost of living. And what Trump is doing is hiring AJ And Tony to make sure that they lie about that increase in the cost. And ultimately it's going to not be a cost of living, but a cost of dying, actually for seniors because they won't be able to pay their bills as well as they should be able to. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, thank you very much for joining us on Social Security's 90th birthday. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. Happy birthday, Social Security. Thank you. Coming up, California Governor Gavin Newsom referred to the bad inflation numbers that came out today, which Donald Trump decided to simply lie about. That's next. Hey, everybody, it's Rob Lowe here. If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's called Literally with Rob Lowe. And basically it's conversations I've had that really make you feel like you're pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire, like Aaron Sorkin or Tiffany Haddish, Demi Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J. Fox. There are new episodes out every Thursday, so subscribe please and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Did you know 39% of teen drivers admit to texting while driving? Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed and run red lights. Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway. As a parent, you can't always be in the car, but you can stay connected to their safety with Greenlight Infinity's driving reports. Monitor their driving habits, see if they're using their phone, speeding and more. These reports provide real data for meaningful conversations about safety. Plus, with weekly updates, you can track their progress over time. Help keep your teen safe. Sign up for Greenlight Infinity@Greenlight.com podcast Riley Herbst from 2311 Racing checking in got a break in between team meetings? Sounds like the perfect time for some fast paced fun at Chumba Casino. No waiting, just instant action to keep you going. So next time you need a pick me up, fire it up and take a spin play now@chumbacasino.com let's chumba no purchase necessary. VGW Group Voidware prohibited by law CTNC's 21/ sponsored by Chumba Casino A year ago, Donald Trump said something absurdly impossible, and enough voters fell for it in key Electoral College states to give Donald Trump the presidency in which he is now failing to deliver on that promise of one year ago. When I win, I will immediately bring prices down starting on day one. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where Donald Trump fired the commissioner for telling the truth, released a report showing that producers in the United States raised prices by nearly 1% last month, the biggest monthly increase in over three years. And Donald Trump's response to that was, of course, to simply lie. Now our inflation is down to a perfect number, a beautiful number, hardly any at all. In an article titled Now We Know who's Paying the Tariffs, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board writes, quote, president Trump knows the public is skeptical about his tariffs, which is why administration officials are anxious to convince voters that someone somewhere else in the world will pay for them instead of American households. Inflation data released Thursday tell a different story. Americans will pay a big chunk of the tariff bill either directly via higher consumer prices or indirectly via less business investment in productivity growth to increase wages. Joining our discussion now is Jared Bernstein, the former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden administration. Jared, thank you very much for joining us tonight. So there's Donald Trump wishing inflation away and simply lying, saying it's not happening. Well, as all of our viewers know, well, this is A pattern with this White House when it comes to economic data, including, of course, firing the messenger when they didn't like the jobs report. We now have a rate of job growth that's 35,000 jobs per month over the past three months. That's close to stall speed. And now we're seeing inflation reports that very clearly show tariffs are passing through to consumers. You didn't see so much of that at first. And in part, companies were, quote, eating some of those tariffs. They were taking it out of their profit margins, which had been somewhat inflated around the pandemic. But that can only go on for so long. They tried to front run the tariffs by building up inventories. That can only go on for so long. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, which isn't a natural critic of Republic Republican administration, is exactly right. At some point this was going to redound to consumers. We're seeing it on prices, we're seeing it in investment, we're seeing it in the job market. The Trump economy is showing real cracks. There's also surges in certain places in electricity pricing and there's no indication that that's going to get any better. This is really important. We've seen real increases in utility bills, particularly electric bill. One reason is that we know electricity demand is rising. Of course, there's the data center story, there's vehicle electrification. And at the same time, we're seeing increased demand for electricity. You saw the Trump administration cut off supply. The extra capacity that was coming online to meet this growth has largely come from renewables, from batteries, from transmission upgrades, from solar and wind. Of course, they came in and they really took a whack at that supply. In both of these cases, whether we're talking about prices, investment, jobs, electricity, you have an administration that is pushing in exactly the opposite direction of affordability. I was struck by the comments that you just played From President Roosevelt 90 years ago where you saw an administration doing everything they could to increase the economic security of insecure citizens. Here you have the Trump administration going exactly the other way. What are people most concerned about this these days? Affordability. And yet we see prices going up because of Trump policies and the supply of electricity going down because of their antipathy towards renewables. Jared Bernstein, thank you very much for joining us tonight. My pleasure. And coming up in the campaign for President Donald Trump said he could end Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine in 2014 hours. Donald Trump is 260 days late on that promise. That's next. 206 days on that. Donald Trump has failed to end Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine 206 times. Here's how we arrived at that calculation. This is a very easy negotiation to take place. I will have it solved within one day. I'll have that done. I'll have that done in 24 hours. I'll have it done. Donald Trump did not solve this war in his first 24 hours in the presidency this year. And he has now had 20624 hour periods in which to, as he put it, solve this war. Donald Trump will not solve this war tomorrow. And he remains incapable of solving it since he doesn't even know who to blame for starting this war. I think that what we have is a situation that should never have started. Should never have started. It didn't start under me, and for four years it wasn't even discussed. And I could see it was going to happen after I left. I could see what was happening. Everything that we did was wrong. Everything that was done was wrong. Everybody's to blame. Putin's to blame. They're all to blame. Donald Trump was not asked who is to blame for Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland, which started World War II. But if he thinks everybody is to blame for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, then according to Trumpian logic, everybody's to blame for everything Adolf Hitler did, too. What Donald Trump will succeed at tomorrow is distracting most media attention from Donald Trump's involvement with his old friend Jeffrey Epstein, the raper of children, who said, I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years. Vladimir Putin knows Donald Trump needs this meeting tomorrow to help Donald Trump distract attention from his involvement in the Epstein files. Which means that Vladimir Putin knows, once again, Donald Trump needs a meeting with Vladimir Putin more than Vladimir Putin needs a meeting with Donald Trump. And so Donald Trump is flying all the way to Alaska to avoid questions about Jeffrey Epstein and to take reporters questions about the war that Donald Trump not only did not solve in 24 hours, but has no idea how to solve. Joining us now is David Rothkoff, foreign affairs analyst and columnist for the Daily Beast. He is the CEO and host of the Deep State Radio podcast. David, thank you very much for joining us tonight. When you hear Donald Trump today saying everybody's to blame, it's very clear he's flying into something he does not comprehend tomorrow. Yeah. And it also shows that Donald Trump's position on this war has never changed. He took Putin's position. He tried to share the blame with Ukrainians. He has said that the Russians are entitled to the lands they've claimed that people of Crimea want to be part of Russia. He has steadily backed Putin and pulled away the aid that we'd been giving to Ukraine. And I don't see any reason to expect that tomorrow's meeting is going to produce a sea change in Donald Trump. I think you're going to get more kind of cozying up to Putin and none of the kind of toughness that he said he was going to unleash if Putin didn't agree with him. What is Vladimir Putin seeking to accomplish? Well, I think Vladimir Putin, first of all has already gotten something big. Right. He's been isolated by the west ever since the escalation of the war in Ukraine and has only been seen, I think, by two Western leaders, Slovakia and Hungary. And now he's being invited to the United States, hosted in the United States. That's a big win for him. You've also got Trump and Wyckoff and other people in the Trump administration talking about things other than Ukraine, about how there could be economic cooperation, how we can normalize with the Russians, how we can have arms control agreements with the Russians. So Trump is helping Putin change the subject. Putin's winning and he's winning. And I'll say one other thing. The biggest wins Putin's going to get tomorrow, we probably won't know what they are because there's going to be a private meeting. There are going to be no note takers. We're not going to know what happens in that room. And that's the room where a lot of Europeans and where Volodymyr Zelenskyy believe Trump is effectively gonna sell Ukraine down the river. David Rothkoff, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Coming up, Donald Trump's treasury secretary has refused to respond to questions about Jeffrey Epstein's bank transactions, thousands of which were tracked by the Treasury. Treasury has records of those. And now Donald Trump's treasury secretary appears to have a personal conflict of interest. That's next. 4,725 wire transfers adding up to nearly $1.1 billion flowing in and out of just 1 of Mr. Epstein's bank account. That's the leader of the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, demanding that Donald Trump's Secretary of the treasury provide information that the treasury possesses about those bank transactions by Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump's treasury secretary has not responded. The New York Times reports on potential conflicts of interest of Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, whose net worth is roughly $500 million. The US government's ethics watchdog Agency said this week that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has failed to fully comply with an agreement that required him to divest his financial assets, posing potential conflicts of interest as he leads the Trump administration's economic policy agenda. The biggest potential conflict of interest for Mr. Besant is his ownership of as much as $25 million of soybean and corn farmland in North Dakota. It is not clear how Mr. Besant, who has at times referred to himself as a farmer, is disentangling his holdings from trade negotiations with China. At his confirmation hearing in January, he said that one of his first acts as treasury secretary would be to push China to honor the commitments to buy American farm products that it made during Mr. Trump's first term. Soybean purchases have continued to be a central part of the trade negotiations with China. In a post on Truth social this week, Mr. Trump urged China to quadruple its purchase of American soybeans. Joining us now is the reporter on that article, Alan Rapoport, economic policy reporter for the New York Times. And so, Alan, it appears the treasury secretary is pushing China to buy more of the soybeans that he personally would be selling to China. Potentially. That's correct, yeah. North Dakota, in particular exports about 70% of their soybeans to China in a normal year. Year. This year, they've exported at about none because China has been buying a lot of its soybeans, pretty much all of them from Brazil and other countries. So this is a big issue that's at the center of the trade negotiations which Treasury Secretary Bessen is leading. And, you know, soybeans and corn and agricultural products are going to be a big issue. And he obviously still owns these farms. And the government ethics agency is trying to figure out what's going on with that. And this would be the single biggest scandal in any previous presidential administration, the idea that a Treasury secretary is negotiating, possibly for himself in trade negotiations like this, but in Trump world. And thank you for doing this reporting, this is just one of so many that people have to pay attention to. What else do we need to know about this particular story? Well, it's definitely going to be a close one to watch. We're waiting now to see what happens with Secretary Bess in farmland in North Dakota. He received two letters this week from the Office of Government Ethics, you know, raising questions about this, suggesting that he needs to take additional measures to make sure that there's no conflicts of interest. The first letter, they basically said he's failed to comply. Then there was a second letter. I guess Secretary Besant followed up saying he promised that he would make these divestments by December 15th, by the end of the year. He has suggested that the farmland has been difficult to sell and it's an illiquid asset. It's kind of interesting because in North Dakota, farmland values have actually been going up double digits over 10% the last few years. So you would think potentially it wouldn't be that hard to sell. We talked to some brokers in North Dakota. There haven't been signs that he's been marketing those farms for auctions yet. But it's possible that he's looking to do a private sale. And given the scope of the negotiations with other countries that this administration is involved in, this is what could be the tip of an iceberg of all sorts of interests that people have working in the Trump administration when they're actually in the middle of these kinds of negotiations. Definitely, particularly for Secretary Besson. I mean, he's maintains that he's already divested about 96% of the things that he's required to divest in terms of assets. But he already, earlier this year suggested that he wasn't going to be able to sell his stake in a private equity fund, Water Spark Clean Water company and a drug manufacturer that he's been involved with. So he touches every part of the economy in terms of taxes, trade, financial regulation. So there's definitely some extra sensitivity to the potential optics of conflicts of interests. And to be the Treasury Secretary makes it just all the more striking, for sure, just because he's really sort of steering President Trump's economic agenda and overseeing sort of all the facets of the whole economic apparatus. He maintains that he's not doing this for the money. He's got plenty of money and sort of an honor to serve. So we'll be definitely watching closely to see sort of what happens with these investments, whether or not he's able to sell them. Looking back historically, Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm operation in a blind trust. So it's potentially Secretary Bessant may try something like that at some point. Alan Rapoport, thank you for your reporting and thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, everybody, Conan o' Brien here with an ad about my podcast. Conan o' Brien needs a friend. I've had so many fantastic conversations with people I truly admire, people like Michelle Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Maya Rudolph, Tom Hanks. New episodes are out every Monday and we have a really good time. So subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.