Lawrence: 'Worldwide humiliation' for Trump as court rules his tariff 'madness' is unconstitutional

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Episode: *Lawrence: 'Worldwide humiliation' for Trump as court rules his tariff 'madness' is unconstitutional
Release Date: May 29, 2025
Host: Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC

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1. Landmark Ruling Against Trump's Tariffs

In a groundbreaking development, the United States Court of International Trade unanimously struck down all of former President Donald Trump's tariffs, declaring them both illegal and unconstitutional. Lawrence O'Donnell delves into the details of this significant legal decision, highlighting its immediate and far-reaching implications for American businesses and international trade.

Lawrence O'Donnell [00:55]: "The Court of International Trade is really just a stunning 49 pages where Donald Trump loses in every single sentence for every single Trump tariff."

The court's decision nullifies Trump's tariffs at all U.S. ports of entry, mandating refunds for every dollar collected illegally. This ruling marks a definitive end to the tariff policies that O'Donnell had long criticized as unconstitutional.

2. Legal Analysis and Constitutional Implications

O'Donnell provides an in-depth analysis of why Trump's tariffs were deemed unconstitutional, emphasizing the separation of powers as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

Lawrence O'Donnell [03:05]: "Congress has complete authority over tariffs. The Court of International Trade said in its opinion that even if Congress wanted to give Donald Trump power over tariffs, it would be unconstitutional to do so."

The ruling reinforces that tariff authority exclusively belongs to Congress, not the executive branch. The court rejected Trump's reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, stating that it does not grant the President unbounded authority to impose tariffs.

3. Immediate Market and Political Reactions

The decision has sparked a positive response in financial markets, with futures trading soaring in anticipation of a favorable stock market reaction.

Lawrence O'Donnell [03:45]: "Futures trading is now soaring tonight in the expectation of an explosively positive reaction by the stock market tomorrow when the world will reset itself around the restoration of law and order in international trade."

Politically, the ruling is hailed as a triumph for the rule of law over what O'Donnell describes as "crazy Trump tariff tyranny."

4. Guest Insights: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar joins the discussion to shed light on the broader implications of the ruling for businesses and international relations, particularly with Canada.

Senator Amy Klobuchar [22:52]: "The Constitution says in Article 1, Section 8, that Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises. So that's what this is about."

Klobuchar emphasizes the relief this ruling brings to small businesses adversely affected by the unpredictable tariff changes. She also addresses ongoing tariff issues under different legal provisions, indicating that while Trump's unconstitutional tariffs are nullified, certain tariffs on steel and aluminum remain under review.

5. Expanding Corruption Concerns: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discusses the corruption that stemmed from Trump's tariff policies and their enforcement mechanisms, highlighting the potential for systemic abuse of power.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse [37:31]: "The Supreme Court has spent years whittling away at the ability to prosecute anyone for bribery and corruption... and particularly in the Oval Office, is astonishing."

Whitehouse points out that the ability to impose tariffs unilaterally opened avenues for corruption, including the potential for the President to negotiate waivers and benefits for favored corporations, thereby undermining fair trade practices and the integrity of governmental institutions.

6. Trump's Reaction and Public Perception

The episode scrutinizes Donald Trump's public response to the ruling and the emerging "Taco Trump" narrative, which criticizes him for reneging on his tariff promises.

Lawrence O'Donnell [15:31]: "Donald Trump's illegal tariffs are gone, thanks to a ruling of the United States Court of International Trade... the crushing of the Trump tariffs and resultant personal worldwide humiliation of Donald Trump."

O'Donnell mocks Trump's defense by highlighting his admission of the absurdity of his own tariff numbers and the subsequent retreat from those positions, which has been captured in Wall Street's shorthand "Taco Trump Always Chickens Out."

7. Abuse of Pardon Power and Ongoing Corruption

The discussion extends to Trump's utilization of presidential pardon power to absolve individuals convicted of financial crimes, further exemplifying his administration's approach to governance.

Lawrence O'Donnell [29:39]: "The New York Times reports that Donald Trump has done, quote, more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House... all in the past few months alone."

Trump's pardoning of a nursing home executive for tax-related offenses, who used stolen Social Security funds to purchase a yacht, is highlighted as a case study of systemic abuse and favoritism within his administration.

Ken Vogel [32:58]: "The pardon totally wipes out... he won't have to repay that $4.4 million, nor will he have to serve even the first day of his 18-month jail sentence."

8. Future Implications and Path Forward

O'Donnell and his guests discuss the potential long-term effects of the court's ruling and the ongoing battle against corruption and abuse of power in Washington.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse [41:13]: "It's a tool that allows money laundering. It's a tool that supports bribery... and it's immensely consequential that we win that battle."

The episode concludes by emphasizing the importance of upholding the rule of law and the need for continued vigilance against corruption to preserve the integrity of American governance.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Lawrence O'Donnell [00:55]: "Donald Trump loses in every single sentence for every single Trump tariff."

• Senator Amy Klobuchar [22:52]: "The Constitution says in Article 1, Section 8, that Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises."

• Senator Sheldon Whitehouse [37:31]: "Trump would announce tariffs and then the shop would open out the back for people to come into the White House and plead for waivers."

• Lawrence O'Donnell [15:31]: "The crushing of the Trump tariffs and resultant personal worldwide humiliation of Donald Trump."

• Ken Vogel [32:58]: "The pardon totally wipes out... he won't have to repay that $4.4 million."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell provides a comprehensive examination of the U.S. Court of International Trade's decisive ruling against Donald Trump's tariff policies. Through incisive analysis and expert guest commentary, O'Donnell underscores the restoration of constitutional order in trade policy and highlights ongoing concerns regarding presidential abuse of power and corruption. The episode serves as a crucial overview for listeners seeking to understand the intersection of law, politics, and economic policy in the current American landscape.

Transcript

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[Lawrence O'Donnell]

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[Jen Psaki]

Word with Lawrence O' Donnell starts right now. Hey Lawrence.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Hey Jen, It's I told you so night here at the Last Word with the Court of International Trade completely striking all of Donald Trump's illegal, unconstitutional tariffs, which I have been calling illegal and unconstitutional from the start. In fact, whenever he talked about them, even during the campaign. And this opinion right here from the Court of International Trade is really just a stunning 49 pages where Donald Trump loses in every single sentence for every single Trump tariff.

[Jen Psaki]

This is a Lawrence o' Donnell maybe there were other times, but I know on May 12, cuz we looked it up as I texted you, you called that the courts were going to rule against this and it was a court of three unanimous, one of them being a Trump appointee. So you knew.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I mean all you had to do to know was to at some point in your life, maybe in high school or at some point read any of the United States Constitution if you just read anything about it, you knew that this was inevitable. I could how a judge could find any merit in anything. The Trump lawyers were arguing and they didn't, they didn't find not a single sentence, not one point that Donald Trump has been arguing about these tariffs did this court validate. And Jen, it's one of those opinions that is clearly written for the United States Supreme Court knowing that Donald Trump will want to take it all the way up there. But this tonight, this is, as far as we can tell, the end of the Trump tariffs. It is now illegal at ports of entry in this country to try to impose those tariffs. Tariffs. Not only that, every company in America that has had to pay a tariff at the ports of entry for the goods they have been importing during the tariff period. Every one of them can now obtain a refund of those tariffs from the United States Treasury. That is the import of this opinion, because this opinion says every dollar collected that way has been illegal from the first day.

[Jen Psaki]

Very significant ruling. Big sigh of relief for the moment, even as you said that it will likely go to the Supreme Court. But very clear, Trump can't just make up places he wants to do retaliatory tariffs. It's not aligned with the law.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

It's just a huge, huge win for the rule of law over the rule of crazy Trump tariff tyranny. This is a complete crushing of Donald Trump on tariffs. Really, really important news, no question.

[Jen Psaki]

And I can't wait to hear you talk about it. You have all the policy and the legal chops to combine.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Yeah, I have a few things on my mind about it. Let's see if we have the time. Thanks, Jen. Thank you.

[Jen Psaki]

Bye, Lawrence.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Thank you. Well, as I say, the breaking news of the night is that Donald Trump's illegal tariffs are gone, thanks to a ruling of the United States Court of International Trade. Futures trading is now soaring tonight in the expectation of an explosively positive reaction by the stock market tomorrow when the world will reset itself around the restoration of law and order in international trade and the crushing of the Trump tariffs and resultant personal worldwide humiliation of Donald Trump. The Trump tariffs were always illegal and unconstitutional. And you heard that on this program every time we covered Donald Trump's comments about tariffs, including very much during the presidential campaign when the campaign press corps never, ever reported to voters that the Trump proposed tariffs during the campaign were completely illegal and unconstitutional. The campaign press corps never reported to voters that those proposals were constitutionally insane. And the person pronouncing those proposals at those Trump rall was constitutionally out of his mind just based on what he was saying about tariffs alone. The campaign press corps completely failed the American voter on this issue. With American voters just discovering tonight from the International Court of Trade just how illegal and unconstitutional the Trump tariffs always have been. The United States Court of International Trade, which has exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving tariff disputes, has ruled unanimously that when it comes to tariffs, Donald Trump does not have, quote, unbounded authority. And the court sets aside the challenged tariffs. The court gave the plaintiffs suing the Trump administration even more than they expected. The plaintiffs include 12 states with Democratic governors who sued, arguing that the Trump tariffs are unconstitutional and illegal, and asked the court for at least a temporary injunction temporarily blocking the tariffs. But the court went all the way and delivered a full and final ruling in the case granting what the court calls a summary judgment against Donald Trump and all of his tariffs. So as of this hour tonight, it is no longer legal at any port of entry in the United States for a United States Customs Service to collect a single dollar of Trump tariffs. Civil lawsuits like this seldom have such total and complete and final victories. Just two weeks after the court heard arguments in the case. Victories in this case for plaintiffs at this stage of this kind of litigation are very unusual. But here we are. And as I've been reporting to you literally for years now, there are few things more clear in law than Congress complete authority over tariffs. The Court of International Trade said in its opinion that even if Congress wanted to give Donald Trump power over tariffs, it would be unconstitutional to do so. Quote, an unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government. Donald Trump's illegal tariffs were based on the International Emergency Economic Powers act of 1977. And today, finally, the Court of International Trade said what I've been saying since the day Donald Trump invoked that law to support his tariffs. Any interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers act that delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional. The court rejected Donald Trump's claim of a national emergency to justify his tariffs, saying the mere incantation of national emergency cannot, of course, sound the death knell of the Constitution. And that's what Donald Trump is trying to do. He's trying to kill the Constitution of the United States in a different way every day. He tried and failed, thanks to the Court of International Trade, to sound the death knell of the Constitution by stealing Congress's exclusive power over tariffs. And in a 49 page ruling co authored by three judges of the Court of International Trade in New York City, Donald Trump's attempts to kill the Constitution this time have failed. Judge Gary Katzman was appointed by President Obama. Judge Jane Rustani was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan. Judge Timothy Reef was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump. And those three judges unanimously agreed to every word in tonight's breaking news opinion that there is nothing in American law that can make Donald Trump's tariffs legal. Two sets of plaintiffs brought cases to the Court of International Trade and in their unanimous opinion tonight, the court said the question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic powers Act of 1977 delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world. The court does not read the International Emergency Economic Powers act to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder for Donald Trump's benefit, though he of course could never actually read a single page of a court opinion. But mostly for the benefit of the United States Supreme Court, the trade experts on the Court of International Trade wrote a brief history of international trade right in their opinion and a brief history of international trade law for Donald Trump's Supreme Court justices to study because they know very little about international trade law. When Donald Trump no doubt appeals this case all the way up to the judges on the Supreme Court, who he believes owe him their permanent loyalty, the Trade Court identified three different kinds of of tariffs Donald Trump was illegally imposing and ruled against each of them, calling each of them illegal and unconstitutional. The court referred to tariffs imposed on countries to indirectly force them to somehow stop the flow of fentanyl around the world and other illicit drugs that are illegal. Because tariffs cannot legally be used to leverage the behavior of other governments on issues other than regulated international trade, the court wrote, A tax deals with a budget deficit by raising revenue. A dam deals with flooding by holding back a river. But there is no such association between the act of imposing a tariff and the unusual and extraordinary threats that the trafficking orders purport to combat. The trafficking orders do not deal with their stated objectives. Rather, as the government acknowledges, the orders aim to create leverage to deal with those objectives. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because section 1701 does not allow it. The court laid out the legal specifics, striking down all of what Donald Trump calls his reciprocal tariffs. And throughout the opinion, the court was very clear that Congress would have the authority to impose any of these tariffs. But the president simply does not have that legal authority in the same sense that the president does have the power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes, which Donald Trump is doing in the most corrupt manner in history. But Congress does not have the power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes. These distinctions in presidential and congressional power have always been easy and simple for people to understand, and no one has ever disputed them, just as no one has ever imagined prior to Donald Trump that a president has the authority to raise or lower tariffs. The court went through a painful recitation of all the tariffs Donald Trump has threatened to impose and then reduced and then postponed, saying every one of those decisions was made illegally. The court explained that a summary judgment is the only possible way in this case that this case can be resolved and needs to be resolved now. And this court explained the standards for a summary judgment, saying, the court shall grant summary judgment if the movement shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movement is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. That is a very high bar. But Donald Trump's constitutional illiteracy easily delivered a summary judgment to the states and other plaintiffs to end all of the Trump tariffs and not allow them to be collected at any port of entry anywhere in the United States. The court, of course, cited James Madison, writing in the Federalist Papers on the importance of separation of powers and said an unlimited delegation of tariff authority would be unconstitutional. The court said, quote, the president's assertion of authority here has no meaningful limiting standards, essentially enabling him to to impose any tariff rate he wants on any country at any time for virtually any reason. The court stopped that madness tonight. It's over. The Trump tariff madness ends now. The court said Donald Trump's attempt to use our international trade balance of payments with countries around the world as a reason for a president to impose tariffs was illegal and unconstitutional. Donald Trump has lost in court many times before, most notably in the 34 guilty verdicts returned against him by a jury of his peers in a criminal case in Manhattan last year. And the judgment against Donald Trump by the Court of International Trade will now take its place among those legal cases in which Donald Trump has lost and lost decisively. On every single point that Donald Trump raised in the court, there is not a single word that was said by Donald Trump's lawyers justifying his tariffs that was accepted by a single judge on the Court of International Trade, including the Trump appointed judge who joined this unanimous opinion. And so tomorrow, when Donald Trump stands before a microphone and lies to the American people about his tariffs, it will be another worldwide humiliation day for Donald Trump. The humiliation was already building today when in the White House, CNBC's Megan Casella asked Donald Trump about the new phrase that was going around Wall street about him. Trump always chickens out. Donald Trump claimed he never heard that before.

[Donald Trump]

Mr. President, Wall street analysts have coined a new term called the taco trade. They're saying Trump always chickens out on your tariff threats and that's why markets are higher this week. What's your response to that? I kick out. Chicken out. Oh, isn't that chicken out? I've never heard that.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

I suppose it could be technically true that he's never heard it because no one in the White House would dare have said it to him out loud yesterday. But we do know that Donald Trump has been hate watching this show for 15 years and has been publicly predicting this program's imminent cancellation for 14 years now. And last night, Trump Always Chickens out was right there on the screen for 16 minutes with the acronym that everyone on Wall street is using, taco Trump Always Chickens Out. Now, it's possible that Donald Trump had me muted when he checked which of his many stupidities of the day I was talking about last night. So maybe he didn't actually hear the words, but he couldn't miss them on that TV screen before he jumped back over to wallow in the praise of sycophants on some other network or cheer on a paid, lying supporter arguing against sanity on yet another network. As I reported last night, the term Taco Trump always chickens out first emerged in the normally conservative Financial Times. And now the world can always rely on Trump chickening out because after the stock market crashes he has caused and he has continuously delayed implementing his threatened tariffs and illegally utterly insane tariffs, Donald Trump was going to chicken out. But now there won't be any more chickening out by Donald Trump because there are no more tariffs. He described the chickening out process today in response to CNBC's excellent question claiming chickening out. Donald Trump claimed that the chickening out now was actually his version of the art of the deal.

[Donald Trump]

It's called negotiation. You set a number and if you go down, you know, if I set a number at a ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit, they want me to hold that number, 145% tariff. Even I said, man, that really got up.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

So there's the worst negotiator in the world earlier today calling his own tariff number ridiculous. Court of International Trade agrees that it was ridiculous. Ridiculous is an accurate description of his own tariff numbers, which is why no one believed it would happen and why Donald Trump chickened out of that ridiculous number and cut down that ridiculous number. And of course, Donald Trump wrapped up his ridiculous defense of his ridiculous tariffs that he himself now has called ridiculous in his own defense by attacking Megan Casella for asking him about what everyone on Wall street was saying about him today. Trump always chickens out.

[Donald Trump]

Don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. Go ahead. To me, that's the nastiest question.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

The nastiest and most cowardly president in history sounded deeply wounded today, somewhere deep in his chicken heart by what felt through his very thin skin like the nastiest question. Wall street was very slow to figure out that Trump always chickens out. I was telling Wall street on this program where they were not listening to me, that there was never a reason to believe that Donald Trump was going stick with the biggest tariffs that he was threatening to impose, including yesterday's absurdity of a 50% tariff on everything we import from Europe. I've been telling Wall street on this program that Donald Trump's illegal and unconstitutional tariffs were being challenged in court. And all they had to do was wait for the Court of International Trade to restore the President of the United States to his constitutionally irrelevant position in relation to the tariff law of the United States, which belongs exclusively to Congress and always has. And so Donald Trump tonight is appealing the Court of International Trade's opinion to these circuit Court of appeals in New York. Donald Trump is appealing his crushing and total and complete tariff loss tonight to a federal appeals court that has already ruled against Donald Trump before and whose history of loyalty could not be more clear. Loyalty to the United States Constitution, the document that from the first day of the existence of this country gave exclusive jurisdiction over tariffs to the United States Congress and not to the president. And so, no, the tariff madman in the White House will not be imposing 25% tariffs on iPhones, as he was suggesting the other day. And no, Donald Trump will not be dramatically increasing the price of Barbies this Christmas, even though he wanted to, because once again, and surely not for the last time, the rule of law by judges loyal to the Constitution has crushed the constitutional criminality and madness of Donald Trump. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who met with Canada's prime Minister last week to discuss the trade crisis created entirely by Donald Trump that has now disappear tonight, will join us next. The breaking news of the night is that the United States Court of International Trade has ended Donald Trump's illegal and unconstitutional tariffs. Earlier today, Donald Trump was very upset that the word on Wall street about Donald Trump and his tariffs was Taco Trump always chickens out.

[Donald Trump]

Tariffs have been tremendous. Well, I can promise you, and I have great respect for the people at the European Union, they wouldn't be over here today negotiating if I didn't put a 50% tariff on. The sad thing is now when I make a deal with them, it's something much more reasonable. They'll say, oh, he was chicken. He was chicken. That's so unbelievable.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Joining our discussion now, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She serves on the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Amy, I know this is a big, big night for Minnesota with Canada as your biggest trading partner next door you were up in Canada last week. You have a whole new discussion now to be had with Canada. None of Donald Trump's tariffs apply anymore.

[Jen Psaki]

We do.

[Senator Amy Klobuchar]

And I will say, number one, you and I have been nerding out on this over and over again, explaining how this is unconstitutional. And now you have these three judges and how rich it is that two of them are Republican appointees, one by Donald Trump and one by Ronald Reagan. Yes, they still exist. And they have unanimously, as you noted, struck this down. And basically they've said the President isn't king. Congress has authority over tariffs. Even though Congress has delegated some of this. The President has been using a law that doesn't even mention tariffs. And I think when you think about us, our country, we fought a war of independence, Lawrence, to get out of having a king set tariffs against us, like Boston Tea Party World. Right. And so here he has come in thinking he could do this when the Constitution says in Article 1, Section 8, that Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises. So that's what this is about. It's a major change. I will say some tariffs remain with Canada because he upped the amount on steel and aluminum. That's under a different section, section 232. So there's still work that has to be done there.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

The United States Court of International Trade is part of the federal court system. Very few people know it exists. Actually, it's housed in New York City, and normally its work is done very quietly. People don't notice these rulings that it's making because individual corporations sometimes go in there and claim unfair trade practices, practices against them. But this is their first, I think, really major entry on our national life because no president has ever presented the Court of International Trade with anything as crazy as this.

[Senator Amy Klobuchar]

Yeah, we have never seen this kind of across the board, every single country foe ally, you name it. And all of the threats and the numbers and. And as you and I have discussed, the roadkill here is small businesses, like the businesses that I've been visiting around my state this last week in rural Minnesota, or the farmers that aren't going to have a market anymore to sell their soybeans, or the little businesses that were just relying, they created incredible entrepreneurship moments and they were starting to employ people. And all of a sudden, he comes in there and the bigger ones, it's bad for them, no doubt about it. But I'm not surprised that the plaintiffs in this case were, yes, those attorney Generals, including my state, but also some of These small businesses and by the way, represented by the Liberty Justice Center. I loved one of the articles, had a quote from a professor from the Scalia Law center saying we won. So you just see across the board a concern about the legality of this, as you pointed out. But Mostly it's a $3,000 tax for every single in America. It's the stroller tax for people with young kids. It's hitting people right where they are. And that's why you have seen this widespread opposition to these tariffs.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

And Donald Trump in the Oval Office today calling his own tariffs ridiculous publicly now, today, before they were all just ruled illegal by the trade court, the mythology he was creating that there was some kind of negotiation going on and the European Union was somehow afraid of him, he was changing his tariffs daily based on getting absolutely nothing in negotiations from any country in the world. And now every country in the world knows there is no negotiation to have.

[Senator Amy Klobuchar]

So, Lawrence, one of the things that I want to see coming out of this, because I would agree he's changed his posture and all of that, I actually would like to see this result because right now, one of the other roadkills from all of this, beside the small businesses, besides the fact that we have retaliatory tariffs, even with this decision, those have to go off. But the other thing is people from Canada especially just aren't coming to America. We've seen a 30% decline in border to border crossings. We've had events where we'll have half the number of people there from Canada. These are people that are going to small hotels, eating at restaurants in my state. And you see it all across the country, but especially in the northern border. So what I'm afraid of here, unless we come to some resolution here, and this case obviously helps a lot. But when we were in Canada meeting with the prime minister, with our bipartisan group of senators, he signaled that he did want to talk to Donald Trump. He did want to get to a better place because the damage from these tariffs have gone way beyond just the individual tariffs themselves.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you very much for starting off our discussions tonight.

[Senator Amy Klobuchar]

Well, and I'm glad you're having a good I told you so evening, Lawrence. You deserve it.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

I'm done with I told you so. It's unseemly. I really, I can't indulge it anymore.

[Ken Vogel]

Really.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Thank you, Senator.

[Senator Amy Klobuchar]

Really. See ya.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Thank you, Senator. And coming up, new reporting in the New York Times is revealing the extent Donald Trump is using his powers of the pardon, power Just to reward financial contributors. That's next.

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[Lawrence O'Donnell]

The numbers look good. Brad, you're on mute.

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[Lawrence O'Donnell]

The New York Times reports that Donald Trump has done, quote, more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. Scale and scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the executive branch, charging $500,000 a piece to join, all in the past few months alone. And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for two hundred and twenty investors in the Trump cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in, not to a campaign account, but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally. And there is the $400 million 747 from the dictator of Qatar, which will ultimately be given to Donald Trump's presidential Libra, meaning for Donald Trump's personal use once he is no longer president.

[Donald Trump]

By the way, got a beautiful, big, magnificent free airplane for the United States Air Force. Okay, very proud of that too. They tried to say, oh, it's Trump's airplane. Oh yeah, sure. It's too big. It's frankly, turn that around. It's too big. Much too big.

[Ken Vogel]

When can we expect that to be.

[Donald Trump]

The Air Force One well, it's here already. Yeah, it's in the country. It's being refitted for military standard.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

How much will it cost to refit it?

[Donald Trump]

Oh, I don't know. Whatever it is, a hell of a lot less than building a new one.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Boeing is already nearing completion on two new Air Force One 747s ordered in Donald Trump's first term as president. Ken Vogel of the New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump granted a pardon to a nursing home executive convicted of tax crimes after his mother attended a million dollar dinner center at Mar A Lago. The tax crime that he was convicted of was failure to pay the United States treasury the Social Security taxes that he withheld from his employees paychecks. The man stole money from the Social Security Administration, used $2 million of that to buy a yacht. Something you might expect Elon Musk's study of the Social Security Administration to have found in their search for so called fraud, where they found none. Joining us now is Ken Vogel, reporter for the New York Times, covering this story. Ken, I read with just astonishment the detail you were able to assemble, especially on this case. And I think the actual, the money that he actually stole was Social Security money. That's what he bought a $2 million yacht with. And this kind of withholding completely ruining for all practical purposes, the Social Security accounts of his own employees who then have to repair all that damage. It takes years for Social Security to sort that out. And this is the kind of person Donald Trump is pardoning.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, and he actually, he ended up paying back a lot of the Social Security, a lot of the withholding taxes that he had taken and sort of repurposed for his own use. That said, there was still $4.4 million left left for him to repay. And that was he agreed upon repaying it as part of the restitution, as part of his guilty plea. Well, the pardon totally wipes that out. So he won't have to repay that $4.4 million, nor will he have to serve even the first day of his 18 month jail sentence. And that's one of the key differences when we talk about how Trump has changed the way that clemency works. There used to be this system that most presidents either abided by or at least look to for recommendations that was run through the Justice Department the, of the pardon attorney there that look for these key criteria to determine whether someone was sort of worthy of clemency, worthy of a second chance. And that included things like paying back, you know, paying back fines and restitution Making victims whole, serving your sentence, expressing remorse. Well, all those things are totally out the window with Trump. What he's primarily looking for in the clemency grants that he's given is loyalty to him, potentially donor money to his PACs, super PACs, et cetera, business partners. And a new twist that we've seen in the second term that we didn't really see in the first term is an expression of this sort of sentiment that the Justice Department has been weaponized against these clemency secrets, so that he is essentially looking for people who are echoing his grievances about the Justice Department. And it does them one better if they can say, I'm a supporter of yours, and that's why I was targeted for political prosecution. So that certainly fits the pattern that we see with this guy, Paul Walzack, who got the pardon after his mother attended this $1 million ahead dinner at Mar a Lago with the president.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

And the objective, obviously, was to keep him out of prison. And there's a way to do that. He could have issued a clemency order that just lifted. Lifted, you know, absolved him of the prison sentence and still required him to make those payments back to Social Security.

[Ken Vogel]

Yeah, that's right. And we haven't seen a whole lot of commutations from Trump. Commutations would be the way to do that. You can really tailor it so that someone could, you know, get out of prison or have their probation cut short, but still pay the restitution. And if you add up the totals of the restitution and the fine that have been waived by Trump pardons, we're well into the hundreds of millions of dollars now in just the second term alone.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Ken Vogel, thank you so much for this invaluable documenting of these kinds of cases. We would not be able to assemble this fact sheet without you. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[Ken Vogel]

Thanks, Lawrence.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Thank you. We have to fit in a short break. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will join us next.

[Conan O'Brien]

Next.

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MSNBC's Jen Psaki, host of the Briefing.

[Jen Psaki]

We've never experienced a moment like this in our country. And it leaves us all with a choice. Are we gonna speak out or are we gonna be pressured into silence? I've worked for presidents. I've faced the tough questions from the press and even threats from the Kremlin. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't cower to bullies. You don't need to be hopeless. We have our voices, and I want will continue using mine.

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[Lawrence O'Donnell]

The breaking news of the night is that the United States Court of International Trade has struck down Donald Trump's tariffs as illegal and unconstitutional. Joining us now is Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over tariffs, as the trade court pointed out today. Senator Whitehouse, I want to continue the theme of corruption that we just were discussing with Ken Vogel, the New York Times. But let's begin with tariffs and the opportunity that the Trump tariffs presented to Washington for a level of corruption we've never seen before with one person in charge of whether your company has to pay a tariff or not. What did that mean to the climate of corruption in Washington?

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse]

Well, this was actually what we saw in Trump 1, which was that Trump would announce tariffs and then the shop would open out the back for people to come into the White House and plead for waivers from the tariffs company by company. And obviously, if this is a White House that is, you know, rounding up crypto money in the billions for the Trump family, they'd have no hesitation in shaking down corporations that wanted a waiver. So very direct avenue for corruption. And you'd never even really know what took place until long after when the waiver ultimately came to light.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

What does it mean for Rhode island businesses tomorrow to wake up into a country where the president cannot change tariffs every day and change their economic environment every day with that kind of illegal and unconstitutional power?

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse]

Well, I would say huge sigh of relief for small businesses which had no way to cope or wheel or deal their way out of it. Just had to live in the tumult and turbulence of Trump's tariff mania. But I'd also say that, you know, we're going to be in a period when kids are going to be going back to school shopping. I know we got a whole summer ahead of us, but by the time families were going to go do their back to school shopping fall, the tariffs were going to have hit and they were going to dramatically raise prices. And so in some respects, this Court of International Trade has actually spared Trump from himself because he didn't really figure out that the fallout in voters families would be very real and very bad from his tariff stuff. So he should go over and give them a nice gilded plaque saying, thank you for saving my bacon.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Senator, you also at the Finance Committee have jurisdiction over Social Security. And to see Donald Trump pardoning a criminal who was convicted of stealing Social Security money out of the paychecks of his employees. Using at least 2 million of that to buy a yacht and using millions more of it for other purposes doesn't pay it all back. And Donald Trump gives him a complete pardon. What does that say to those American businessmen out there and women who might be tempted in running their business to steal their employees Social Security money?

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse]

Well, it says that there's a way out, even if you're caught. It also says that there's a 4 to 1 payoff if you can get your mom to go to a Donald Trump fundraiser with a million dollars in her purse and hand it over, because you make $4 million out of the deal. So, you know, it's kind of a big win for everybody. Except, of course, the Social Security system, which is what was cheated in the first place. Between this and the muskrats tearing around in Social Security and threatening to wreck it, we're lucky that Social Security is standing as well as it is right now.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

You have been guiding us on what we all learned to be the corruption of the Supreme Court, and you've guided us in a way that no one else has been able to map it out for us over years. Now, you are seeing in these first months of the Trump presidency an expansion of corruption in Washington beyond dimensions anyone had ever imagined before. What do you see when you look out at all of that now?

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse]

Well, the point that I would leave you with tonight, Lawrence, is that the crypto corruption that you referred to not only is a means to enrich the most flagrantly corrupt president America has ever seen in personal corruption, but it's also a tool. It's a tool in the contest globally between rule of law and kleptocracy. And it's a tool that allows money laundering. It's a tool that supports bribery. It's a tool that encourages political corruption. It's a tool that allows the concealment of criminal proceeds. As a tool like that, it benefits the kleptocracy side of the battle. And the United States until Trump was always on the rule of law side of that battle. And it's immensely consequential that we win that battle. And here is Trump over and over in his decisions, aiding the kleptocracy side of that battle, aiding our enemies, giving literal aid and comfort to our enemies. And enormous amounts of unregulated crypto floating around is a massively valuable tool to the forces of international criminality and kleptocracy.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Yeah. And on his crypto business and on this club that he's creating in Washington. It's literally, you literally put the money in Donald Trump's pocket. There's no money going to a campaign entity here. It goes in his pocket, what used to be called bribes. Yeah.

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse]

And unfortunately, the Supreme Court has spent years whittling away at the ability to prosecute anyone for bribery and corruption, except in the most obvious and obtuse direct quid pro quo, this dollar for this vote type of transaction, which is not the way anybody with any subtlety in political corruption proceeds. And you add to it that they made him, as president, totally immune. He can commit all the crimes he wants right now. And so the license that the Supreme Court has given to bribery and corruption in the executive and judicial branches, and particularly in the Oval Office, is astonishing.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse]

Thank you, Lawrence.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Thank you. We'll be right back. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gets tonight's last word.

[Conan O'Brien]

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.