← The Tara Palmeri Show
Loading summary
Transcript56 lines
- [00:00]
Tara Palmieri
Take the exit, turn right into the drive thru.
- [00:03]
Isaac Saul
Nope, I'm making dinner tonight.
- [00:05]
Tara Palmieri
You don't have time. Josh has practice.
- [00:07]
Isaac Saul
Oh, that's right.
- [00:08]
Tara Palmieri
I'll just get a salad and fries.
- [00:10]
Isaac Saul
No, just the salad.
- [00:11]
Tara Palmieri
But salad cancels. Fries.
- [00:13]
Isaac Saul
Salad only.
- [00:14]
Tara Palmieri
Fries.
- [00:14]
Isaac Saul
Salad, fries.
- [00:15]
Tara Palmieri
Food noise isn't fair, but Mochi Health is the affordable GLP one source that puts you on the road to successful weight loss.
- [00:22]
Isaac Saul
Hey, can I get the fries? Salad? Sorry.
- [00:25]
Tara Palmieri
Learn more@joinmochi.com Mochi members have access to licensed physicians and nutritionists. Results may vary. We have Isaac Saul from Tangle on the line. And the reason that we have Isaac on is because he has a. A really hardening investigation born out of 15 months of reporting on how President Trump has profited from the presidency. Isaac, you must be able to add vast numbers because it's overwhelming. When I was reading your reporting, I was just like 6,000 words and it is, it's jaw dropping. So thank you for coming on the show and thank you for your hard work. We all appreciate this kind of accountability journalism. I think it's why so many people come to the Tangle and why they come to the red letter and the Tariff Mary Show.
- [01:16]
Isaac Saul
Yeah, thanks for having me. And to be clear, I mean, it's, it's the reporting of a lot of people. I mean, there's been so many stories out there from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times to Fox News to Bloomberg, people just trying to keep track and keep up with the insane amount of self dealing that we've been witnessing. And I think I was probably the first person to put it all in one place. But there's been a group effort, I would say, from people across the political spectrum and in many different newsrooms trying to make sense of what we've seen. The first year and a half, it's
- [01:51]
Tara Palmieri
kind of like the Panama Papers, but they keep getting bigger and bigger. And it's our president. I mean, it's insane. I commend you for putting this all together. I know it took a lot of work. I don't even know where to start. You know, you look at things like the fact that he has $23 million in licensing deals right now. Melania has a movie. She got paid $28 million by Bezos, who wants government contracts for SpaceX. No antitrust regulations. He doesn't want them to raise the cost of the postage, the $400 million Qatar plane. I mean, cryptocurrency alone, how much money they've made by launching their own cryptocurrency. The fact that Jared Kushner is jet setting around the world conducting foreign policy, unelected, not a public servant, and yet also raising $5 billion for his private equity firm. This is the man who's supposed to save us in the middle of the. About Iran war. I mean, there is so much corruption. And we're going to talk about this all. We're also going to talk about the Biden of it all, because this is not the beginning of families making money off of their presidency. But this seems to be so egregious and it's. Nothing is happening, nothing is being done about it. The same Congress that was trying to impeach Joe Biden over Hunter Biden, which totally fair what Hunter was doing, and Jim Biden, frankly, his brother too, you know, making money off this health care business, it's horrendous. But we'll get into all of that and more. I don't. Where would you start? Where do you, what do you think is the most corrupt thing President Trump has done? Where do you think he is making the most money right now? And maybe. Let's start there.
- [03:28]
Isaac Saul
Yeah, I mean, look, first of all, I think it's pretty hard to just pick one thing or the other. I mean, there are sentences in this 6,000 word piece that I think in an era, a bygone era of four years ago, we have dominated for an entire presidential term and there would have been months and months and months of news cycles about it. And in my story, it's one or two sentences. I mean, just the President's the best example to just draw the parallel between Hunter Biden and what we're witnessing now is the President's sons are invested in businesses that are landing Pentagon contracts with the federal government. You know, Hunter Biden, we were up in arms, I think rightfully about him making $50,000 a month from a Ukrainian energy firm to sit on their board and what was clearly some concocted seat for access to Vice President Joe Biden. This is the President's son having holdings and investments in companies that are taking multimillion dollar contracts with the federal government. So they're making money off of selling their dad contracts in businesses they're invested in and they're working for, you know, the Trump Organization, which is the business that President Donald Trump himself also profits from. I mean, it's, it's mind boggling for me personally. I mean, the cryptocurrency stuff is the thing that's just hardest to accept. I mean, just the reality of it, A, as somebody who has sort of followed the space and I think understands it maybe more than the average person. We're seeing the President do some of the most sort of cliche, scammy, rug pulley stuff, you know, starting a shitcoin, basically, that he inflates the value of by hyping up, getting a bunch of people, his supporters, to invest in it, watching the price of that Meme coin skyrocket, and then basically selling a bunch of it at a cool profit. And all the people who came in, you know, on the back half of the Meme coins existence just lose their shirts. The value of it has now fallen something like 97%. Yeah, there's like. So there's real people who probably love the President, who put in thousands of dollars, bought up this Meme coin thinking it was going to be this incredible investment, and then lost all of their money. The fact that the crypto, you know, the crypto stuff doesn't stop there. The President also has this huge crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, that the Trump family is running together, which has, has been used to solicit hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign countries, from foreign adversaries, in some case from people who clearly want to score favors with the President. And we don't have a good way to track or account for any of that money. You know, people I know, Trump supporters, who are my readers, who were upset that Barack Obama got rich, you know, in his post presidency life or towards the end of his presidency, it's like, well, we know how he made his money. He took book deals, he got a Netflix deal. There's, you know, there's taxes that he's filed that we can look at to see how his wealth went from one to $50 million or whatever. With the cryptocurrency stuff with Trump, it's very opaque. We just know that the money's coming in and then decisions and deals are being made with the same people who are injecting that cash into these cryptocurrency firms, which again, is just like an astonishing level of self dealing. And also, again, the opacity for us, the, the audience, the Americans, the citizens who are trying to make sense of what's going on and can't actually keep track of this stuff, the self dealing, I mean, it's pretty egregious.
- [07:10]
Tara Palmieri
Yeah. No, and this line that you wrote in the piece really resonated with me. You said, I'm disheartened and frustrated now to see that right wingers, Trump's voters and Republicans, politicians who cheered me on when I was investigating potential Biden corruption are now just ignoring the comparable gargantuan scandals of alleged corruption we're witnessing now. I think that you put a legit in brackets, by the way.
- [07:34]
Isaac Saul
Yeah,
- [07:36]
Tara Palmieri
I feel you, I mean when I was covering the Biden administration for Politico, I reported on the Biden hunter, Biden's gun scandal, which actually led to a real conviction. The fact that he, you know, bought a gun, lied on the forum, the Secret Service, my reporting told me, tried to get that form back. He threw the gun out near a school and just, you know, all of the entanglements with like Anita Dunn, this his senior advisor, who was a special governmental employee just like Corey Lewandowskini was, meaning that they could also have contracts outside of the White House and she didn't have to file public disclosures for her finances. And there were so many ways in which the people around Biden were, you know, former lobbyists, family members, lobbyists and people were making money, his brother, etc, but, and the Republicans were up in arms over it and they cheered people on who are truly independent journalists growing after it. But now it's so blatantly everywhere. Like you write in your title all at once and yet there is no accountability at all. And it's, it's, it's mind boggling to me and it just, it bothers me because it just shows you how tribal politics are and that truly a lot of people don't care corruption, they just care about whether their party is in power or not.
- [08:52]
Isaac Saul
Yeah, I mean there's a real, I think calculation being made by Republicans who are in Congress, which is they could cross the President. I mean any three or four senators or half dozen House Republicans could decide that their integrity in this moment matters more than their loyalty to the President or that their integrity in this moment matters more for the future of the party and the country than any potential future election outcome and take a risk and help Democrats actually launch some investigations and hold some of these people accountable. Which by the way, you know, I'm a big critic of Congress and a lot of Americans obviously really frustrated with Congress. One of the things Congress is good at and has power to do is subpoena people is make people testify publicly. That is a power that they've actually been pretty good at exercising over the last 10, 20, 30 years. And we don't have it right right now because Republicans are in power of both chambers, in control of both chambers and they're refusing to do anything about it. They're making the calculation that if they cross Trump, he's going to come for them, which is probably true. And he's going to try.
- [10:05]
Tara Palmieri
And he has $300 million in a super PAC, by the way, and he hasn't spent any money on it. And he relishes revenge. Like, if there's anything about this administration, you saw it in Indiana last week too, they relish revenge. You cross him, they enjoy killing you in a primary because that is where they know they have their power.
- [10:22]
Isaac Saul
Yeah. So you see, you know, you basically, you limit the pool of Republicans who might actually step up and do something to senators who have their next election after Trump is supposed to leave office in 2028, or House Republicans who don't actually care about getting reelected when they face reelection in November or again two years after that. And that pool of Republicans is pretty small. And none of them, so far as you know, as far as I can tell, and I said this in my piece, there have not been even strongly worded statements of concern about the self dealing and the potential corruption that we're seeing from the Trump administration. There's been nothing, I mean, total silence. Democrats seem overwhelmed. They don't really know which story to glob onto and try to make a national issue. And Republicans are refusing to help in any way to bring people forward and subpoena them, make them testify publicly, talk about how some of these deals went down. So for now, we're just left, left with the investigative journalism that we have, the people who are sleuthing online trying to put two and two together and the occasional leak or, you know, court case, like in the example of World Liberty Financial, this crypto firm, Justin sun, who is now suing the Trump family, alleging fraud after he invested in the crypto firm to get them to drop an SEC investigation against him. He's now saying that actually this whole thing's fraudulent. They're trying to force him to put a bunch of money into a stablecoin. Maybe a case like that produces some documentation that can give us more evidence. But these are the kinds of things that we're reaching for, hoping for or waiting for because we don't have a Congress that's willing to act as a check on the president right now.
- [12:05]
Tara Palmieri
And Justin, just to clarify, the Justin sun case, like this was a man who was being investigated by the SEC for legitimate fraud in the crypto space. He only had to pay a $10 million fine, which is way less than what he owed. Right. And that is only because the Trumps tried to bring him in into their Crypto scheme. And then they, they had a disagreement and they're pushing him out now. And so now he's willing to testify against Trump. It's, it's kind of insane. I mean, the way that they're willing to just deal with these fraudsters and grifters. The pardon system too, it is a pay for play pardon system. Is a shocking, is shocking.
- [12:45]
Isaac Saul
Yeah. I would add one more thing about the World Liberty Financial story too, which is the other crazy thing that happened, aside from the Trump administration taking this money from Justin sun and then magically his SEC investigation disappears and then Justin sun comes back and accuses and sues them for fraud, is that the Trump administration also found themselves in this very peculiar spot where, where they had sanctioned a bunch of people for this transnational criminal syndicate that was using cryptocurrency to scam millions of Americans. And then a month after they sanctioned all these people, World Liberty Financial inadvertently hired two of the people that the Trump administration had sanctioned. So the Trump administration announces criminal charges against the transnational criminal syndicate for stealing billions of dollars from Americans in online scams. A month later, two of the people that Trump sanctioned are now partnering with Trump and his family's cryptocurrency company. I mean, it's crazy. It's like you really do kind of run like gobsmacking, mind boggling insane. What? You just run out of words to describe this sort of stuff. And yes, the pardon scheme, the pardon economy, as it's being called now that the administration is swimming in, has only gotten worse. I mean, there is that insane statistic after the first term that Trump was president where he had pardoned. I think more than half of all the Republican congressmen who had ever been convicted of federal crimes in the 21st century, and he hasn't slowed down. Now. He is basically operating in this system where if somebody has a few million dollars and they're in jail or they have some, something on their record they want off their record, they, they can take that money, go to somebody in Trump's orbit, give them money for them to lobby the President for a pardon, and they will, and it's working. And Trump gets asked about some of these people who he's pardoning, and he says things like, I don't know who that is, I've never heard of them. Which itself is a pretty damning answer. If it's true, it means that he's pardoning people who he doesn't take the time to meet or understand. You know, he's just doing what he's being asked to do because somebody's been paid money to lobby him or, or if it's not true, he's lying to the American public about how he's making these decisions, which, you know, itself is also a damning admission as well. And the examples are so egregious. I mean, you know, the exact kind of scum and swamp that Trump said that he was going to drain in 2016 and again in 2020 and again in 2024. I mean, it's members of Congress stealing money from their donors. It's people stealing money from Medicare. It's investors creating fake videos of functioning trucks and taking a bun people's money to invest in their truck company. And then it turns out the videos are actually not real trucks. They're trucks rolling down hills. And then those people owe hundreds of millions of dollars to all these investors they scammed. And Trump pardons them and wipes the restitution out. I mean, it's these kinds of things that he's doing, and it's hard to get the public to care about. And I can't say exactly why.
- [15:55]
Tara Palmieri
Yeah, I mean, according to the Wall Street Journal, he told a group of people, I'll pardon everyone who has come within 200ft of the oval. If that isn't a pay for play, I don't know what else is. I mean, Pam Bondi's brother gets a pardon. You mentioned that there was this company that was frauding investors, saying that they had this truck that they were building, and the video that they showed was footage of the truck just rolling down a hill, not actually moving.
- [16:27]
Isaac Saul
Yeah. Trevor milton, who donated $1.8 million to Trump's reelection fund in 2024. He was found guilty of securities and wire fraud for lying to investors about basically every single thing about this company and its technology. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he, and the thing that he became famous for was that he literally showed investors a video of this truck that the company had built with its technology inside that he said was functional. And he raised money off this promo video of the truck. And then it turned out that the truck was actually just rolling down a hill in the video and it wasn't actually driving on its own. And after he got convicted, this case went to trial. He owed $676 million in restitution to the victims of his scheme. Trump, who pardoned him, wiped that restitution out. And, and this guy, Trevor Milton, his defense attorney was Pam Bonney, the former Attorney General's brother. Trump got asked about the pardon and he said he'd never heard of him until somebody recommended his pardon and added, they say the thing that he did wrong was that he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president. So in Trump's mind, he was just supporting some guy who supported him. And he doesn't care that, you know, people were owed $676 million in restitution. He doesn't care if this guy is a huge fraudster. He doesn't care that the only reason he's getting the pardon is because he has this connection to the attorney general. He just hears that the guy supported him, and so he gives him a pardon. And these are the kinds of people that Trump has let off the hook in his first term and now again in his second term. And it includes a lot of Republican members of Congress or former Republican members of Congress who have committed fraud. You know, most notoriously probably now is George Santos, who we all know lied about basically everything involving his personal story, defrauded donors, got kicked out of Congress by his own party because it was so grotesque, all the things he'd done and then went to jail. And Trump just pardoned him, you know, because Santos beat the drum of being a Trump supporter. And that seems to work on the president.
- [18:36]
Tara Palmieri
Yeah. And also Santos is now going on to allegedly onto hosting a reality show. He also helped the Chrisleys, who were the Kressley family, part of a reality show as well. I'm not a big reality TV fan, to be honest, so I don't know all of it, but I think a lot of it is that Trump sees himself as the ultimate victim. He thinks all the cases that were tried against him, he was innocent. Anyone else who faces any sort of, I don't know, prosecution by the Justice Department that doesn't have an R next to their name or Trump or MAGA supporting. They are, you know, they are. They are innocent like he is. It's. It's really quite an interesting way to perceive the Justice Department and the idea of justice for all, not for just Trump's friends.
- [19:24]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why customers have enjoyed progressives name your price tool for years. Now, with the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com find a rate that works for you with a Name your price tool. Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law.
- [19:54]
Tara Palmieri
Why is this criminal behavior being done openly and nobody is calling it out? Why is Trump and family allowed to commit financial crimes? That's a great question, right? I mean, I think it's because we are so overwhelmed with the deluge of corruption and news and war and, you know, the whiplash of tariffs and just the way that Trump operates. That's how he's able to get away with it all. Also, Democrats, I mean, I would say that they are not great at messaging. They don't have subpoena power right now. But if they win the election, which they probably will, the 2026 election, they'll have the ability to launch investigations. And what do you think they should focus on first? Like what would be a slam dunk and would and attract the attention of the American people enough so that they would see that this is egregious? Like it took a pedophile sex ring to get America riled up. Right? Like, can we get riled up about the idea of people committing vast financial crimes to enrich themselves at the highest level of power?
- [21:04]
Isaac Saul
Well, I think, I think a couple of things. One, I agree, you know, about sort of the, the kind of fatigue I think people have with the news. I mean, I, generally speaking, and I did a follow up to this piece after reading a lot of people's response. I think the most common threads I heard from people who were saying they didn't care, they had a hard time getting upset, was being upset doesn't seem to change anything. For the people who oppose the president, for the people who support him, their view is just this kind of nihilistic. The system was already corrupted. Look at what Biden did, look at what Obama did. Trump's just doing it better than the rest of them. And you're just upset about him sort of winning in the game that everybody plays. So you have to sort of come into it with this belief that, that Washington D.C. is totally corrupt and all these people are totally corrupt and self dealing, which by the way, is not true. I mean, it's not that it doesn't happen. Of course it happens. But Trump's not the first super wealthy politician. I mean, he has wealth an order of magnitude larger than any president we've ever had and of most other politicians we've ever seen. But there are a lot of politicians who come into office worth millions and millions of dollars who don't go on to profit from their time in office. And you know, I went through some of these examples in my response piece. Some of this feedback just to say, like, I'm as cynical about D.C. as anybody, but let's not let it get so absurd that you just sort of caricature everybody in Washington, D.C. as being, you know, guilty, fraudster, criminals, whatever. It's. That's not actually true. There are people who are good people trying to follow the law, do the right thing.
- [22:37]
DSW Announcer
You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it.
- [22:43]
Tara Palmieri
Yeah.
- [22:44]
DSW Announcer
So do we. Here at Designer Shoe Warehouse. We'll give you something to brag about, like the latest styles from brands you love or the trends everyone's obsessing over, or shoes that make you feel like, well, you. So go ahead, show off a little. Find shoes that get you at prices, that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or dsw.com today. DSW. Let us surprise you in terms of
- [23:07]
Isaac Saul
what Democrats should focus on. I mean, if you want to steal a playbook from how successful Republicans were, I think you start with the Suns. I mean, I think you start with Don Jr. And Eric Trump and all these companies that they're invested in that are approaching the federal government and getting these government contracts where they then inflate their wealth and the value of these companies and make money back on those deals. I think that is the most straightforward sort of quid pro quo corruption that's happening. I think it has really similar contours to what we saw with Hunter Biden and Burisma. And I think it puts Republicans in the most difficult position possible on the talking points, which is like, how could this be unacceptable? I mean, the, the reality of what Hunter Biden did, and the worst of what Hunter Biden did was that he was trying to set up post vice presidency deals for his dad to profit from. I mean, that was the core accusation. This is happening while Trump is in office. He's president, not vice president. And it's happening with American tax dollars. I mean, these are government contracts that we all pay into that are being awarded to the president's son's companies that they're invested in. And then, of course, that money makes its way into the Trump Organization. So to me, that's the most straightforward one, because the cryptocurrency stuff, as much as I loathe it personally, is kind of complicated. And if you're not somebody who is, you know, taking your foray into crypto or own some of it or understand how the blockchain works or whatever, you just end up doing a lot of explaining. It's a lot less complicated than, oh, the Trump sons are invested in this company, and Trump is awarding them government contracts that are worth tens of millions of dollars that they make money off of. So I would start there, and then I think the second thing that's probably most resonant for the Trump audience and the pro Trump supporters, it's the Jared Kushner stuff. It is that.
- [25:02]
Tara Palmieri
I was going to say that the. Jared. Yeah, I do think that the Iran war just feels so close and like. Like it has this kind of fissure in it that makes people very angry that we're involved in a war and that Jared Kushner has been the. The wheeler and dealer the entire time trying to make money while negotiating.
- [25:21]
Isaac Saul
It's crazy. I mean, the. The. The story is straightforward. I mean, we. We have stuff that we. Blanks we have to fill in. But Jared Kushner is the chief negotiator to end the Iran war. And around the negotiating table is a country like Saudi Arabia, Iran's chief nemesis in the region, who is also pouring billions of dollars into Jared Kushner's company. So what is he incentivized to do? He's incentivized to do what Saudi Arabia wants him to do, which is to keep the United States in the war. That's what Saudi Arabia wants. They want us to crush Iran, and that's exactly what we're doing. Whether we're doing that because the Saudi negotiators want it or not, of course, is an open question. But in terms of communicating this to the public, it's really straightforward. The chief negotiator is taking billions of dollars of money from one of the stakeholders at the table. And we also happen to be doing exactly what that stakeholder wants, which, by the way, is something many Trump supporters don't want. They don't want us to be in this war. It is of military adventurism that Trump ran against in 2016 and 2020 and 2024, and we're doing it. So, yeah, I mean, I imagine that story would be salient if you could be simple with the messaging and maybe haul some people before Congress. And I think Democrats will try and do that, but there's a lot we don't know, which makes it a little trickier.
- [26:46]
Tara Palmieri
Hey, guys. Lately, I've been more intentional about what I wear day to day. I lean into pieces that feel effortless and comfortable, but I still need to look put together. After all, I am running A media company. And that's why Quint has become my go to. It just makes getting dressed simpler because the fabrics are elevated, the fits are flattering and everything just works without having to overthink it. I have been wearing the 100% washable silk slip dress all the time. I have it in navy and I plan to buy it in champagne. It just looks elevated and you can wear it with a blazer or jean jacket however you want to wear it, flats or high heels. It's just sort of a staple in my wardrobe and I can't get enough of it really. It is such high quality silk and the best part is you don't have to drop it off at the dry cleaner afterwards. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com Tara for free shipping on your order and 365 days of returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Quince Q U I n c e.com/tara for free shipping and 365 days of returns quince.com/tara. And of course, when they ask you how you found out about us, please say you heard about it here also. Jared Kushner is like a prince, princeling little boogeyman kind of. I could see for Democrats his coziness with Israel. You know, there's a lot there. But you know, I was in the United Emirates, the United Arab Emirates, earlier in January, I spoke at a conference which was hosted essentially by the UAE government. Billions. I didn't, I wasn't paid to speak there, but Lara Trump was there and she spoke. And I'm almost certainly, I'm almost certain she, she was paid to speak. And then, you know, I watched as what she did for the rest of her tour. I mean, she and Eric stopped in the UAE at various properties that the Trump family has either license or form partnerships with in the country. They obviously have this huge crypto deal with the United Arab Emirates. Five million dollars in an 500 million dollar investment in World Liberty Financial from the UAE Royal Sheikh Tanoon bins. I'm not even going to try. But the point is that the government, the people, like everything is the government is everything in the UAE, right? Like there is no separation between the 12 families that rule that place and the government. And you know, I just couldn't help but see that she was taking Instagram photos. It was all on display, was all so obvious. And then they moved on to Saudi Arabia where they also have a number of developments. And I guess this has always been happening with The Trump real estate, like there's always been wheeling and dealing around the world while he was in office. I mean, he wants to get the post office back, which was a huge, I mean, the word behind all this is the emoluments clause. Right. And the idea of enriching yourself while you are president. And it was pretty easy to see it when he owned a, he owned a hotel when he was president the first term and foreign dignitaries could rent it out and he made money off of it.
- [30:04]
Isaac Saul
And yeah, no, I mean,
- [30:09]
Tara Palmieri
not even hiding it. The five hundred thousand dollar club membership to the executive club that the, that his son launched on Junior in Washington, I mean, that's egregious for Washington, that fee. And it's just a bunch of lobbyists
- [30:25]
Isaac Saul
who want members, who want access. And I do think there is, you know, the, the brazenness is part of the secret sauce, in my opinion. I mean, and this is a point I made to some of, again, I have a pretty diverse audience politically. So I heard from a lot of Trump supporters who were upset with the framing of the piece and how I wrote it and questioned the underlying facts to which I just said, Trump's not denying this. The President's been straightforward. Yeah. He said, I tried during the first term to separate the business and I tried to get the kids to separate the business. Which I questioned that premise. But that's his view of things, is he tried to do that during the first term and quote, we got no credit for it. So we found out nobody really cares. And so we're not even bothering this time around. I mean, in so many words. That's what he told the New York Times in an interview that was public, recorded, you can go read the transcript. And I think that basically says it all. You know, their view is we did our best first time around, nobody gave us credit for it, so now what do we care? We're just going to do whatever we want. And you know, the, the proofs in the pudding, I mean, they are making hand over fist billions of dollars. Their net worth is exploding. A lot of that has been on the back of the cryptocurrency stuff, which by the way, is now worth more than their entire real estate portfolio combined. I mean, it is mind boggling, gobsmacking, crazy, insane, whatever word you want to use. And there doesn't seem to be any imminent punishment for this. I mean, I think odds are they're going to leave office just way richer and having moved the Overton window on what's acceptable, which, you know, Again, to me, this isn't just about Trump. Of course I want to stop it with Trump in this administration, but it's about the precedent for the future presidency. It's like, you know, what happens if Mark Cuban runs on the Democratic ticket and becomes president? Are we just going to be cool with Mark Cuban using the presidency? Like, are Republicans going to be okay with Mark Cuban using the presidency to gallivant across the world, land a bunch of licensing deals, make billions upon billions dollars of more money? I don't think Mark Cuban would do that. But, like, that is the door we are opening if we're comfortable with this. And I think we have to close it soon or we're in big trouble.
- [32:41]
Tara Palmieri
The whole thing about it is that if you're unapologetic, it makes people wonder if they're doing anything wrong. And if you're doing it in the open, it's like, he's like, okay, who cares? What are you going to do about it? You know what I'm saying? Like, that. That is what is happening. So. And I do think the crypto space is a little challenging to understand. It's not the easiest space. And so sometimes I point to just more basic licensing deals like Trump Mobile that you point out. Yeah, the Bibles and the sneakers and the watches and, you know, it's a little bit easier to digest for people or even just hosting the G20 at Trump Doral. And I think, I know you're right, that they will become the richest from this crypto deal, and that is where they're getting most of their money. But for Democrats, if they do want to tell the story of the enrichment of the Trump family through the presidency, they're going to have to pick some, like, more tangible. They need to know how to tell a story. And I actually don't think they do a great job of telling stories right now.
- [33:44]
Isaac Saul
I agree. I mean, the Republican Party, one of the things that I give them credit for often, because, I mean, A, my politics are all over the place, and B, I like it when the federal government moves slow. Republican Party is incredibly talented as a minority party. They know how to obstruct, they know how to message even when they're not in power. They know how to slow things down or make big stories even when they don't have the subpoena power. And again, we saw it during the Biden administration when they're the minority party and they were able to make a lot of noise around a few big issues that helped them electorally and made the Biden administration, think twice. Democrats seem a little bit more dysfunctional and discombobulated in this moment, and they don't seem to have clear messaging around this. I mean, I saw there was press release and maybe some subpoenas around stuff related to the ballroom, which, like, I get it, it's egregious. And Trump said that he was going to do it with privately funded dollars, and now he's taking federal dollars to do it. And, like, all that sucks. But that's not the kind of thing that I think is going to animate and move the general population. It's just, oh, Trump's building an expensive ballroom at the White House. It's hard to get too animated about that. Also, it's like, maybe it's justified. There should be this place to host events at the White House and there should be the secure bunker and whatever the stuff where it's like the pardons, the sun's getting money off these government deals. You know, the, the, the general premise that the President is profiting from these international deals with foreign adversaries, sometimes foreign allies, whatever it is, but the money's coming in while he's doing business as President. That's the kind of straightforward one to one stuff that I think will resonate. And I wish the crypto stuff was easier to explain because I do think it's the most egregious. But, yeah, it's hard to communicate that in a few sentences in a simple way.
- [35:38]
Tara Palmieri
Yeah, I think a number would be really great if they could just blare a number and be like, yeah, $100 billion is how President Trump has made from the presidency so far. Like, remember, they used to do that with the debt and now they just stop the debt thing. The Republicans used to have that debt banner of how much money we're in debt, because obviously they put us under the Trump presidency. They've increased the debt so dramatically, like, doesn't really matter anymore. But how much do you think the Trump has made so far in his presidency?
- [36:09]
Isaac Saul
Well, the, the New York Times did some interesting reporting on this, and I think the number that they came out with was somewhere around $4 billion in terms of how their net worth is, has grown since he left office last time, and it's fluctuated. You know, I think he came into office with something like $3.7 billion was his net worth. And now there are all these estimates that are maybe in the double digits there, but it is. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's pretty stunning. Just, again, just the crypto stuff alone. I mean, the one Trump Meme coin story, the Financial Times estimated that Trump pocketed something like $350 million from that. And that was just what, you know, Melania had her own meme Coin. You know, that's not even touching this multibillion dollar crypto firm. It's just he launched a shitcoin, jacked the price up, sold a bunch and pocketed the profits. And that alone, you know, 350 some million dollars according to the Financial Times reporting. And again, we were talking about hunter Biden making $50,000 a month, a few million dollars a year from this Burisma stuff. And this is the Trump family doing that with one meme coin in the span of a few months. And now they're hosting dinners at the White House or Mar a Lago or wherever else with all the top holders of the coin continuing to pump it. I mean, yeah, it's, it's hard to understand how the Overton window moves so fast, but it has.
- [37:38]
Tara Palmieri
And then also, just like the random trading that happens before President Trump announces that they're going to war with Iran, people close to Trump suddenly making a ton of money really bothers me a lot. Baron Trump getting in the family business early. The youngins still in college, by the way. NYU launching a beverage company called Soyos or Solos. I don't know how if it's a double L, like this is the first
- [38:05]
Isaac Saul
I've even heard of that and I wrote this also. I don't even know what you're talking about.
- [38:09]
Tara Palmieri
About. Well, I'm going to tell you about it. Okay. Isaac Palm beach based startup focused on Yerba mate. For everyone who doesn't know what that is. It's a caffeinated herbal tea from Peru. Taking from. Perhaps he will be importing this from Latin America. Will that country have a better tariff status? Tbd. The company is set to launch its first product, a pineapple and coconut flavor. That sounds gross. Sorry, one second. In May 2026 targeting the clean and functional energy market. I'm not sure that I would trust that he is listed as director and executive officer of the company. I don't even want to drink. Yeah, but hearing about it a little,
- [38:59]
Isaac Saul
I mean, yeah, it's just, that's a good. That is actually a really great example a of a story that, you know, doesn't even make it mainstream in this moment because it's just like another. So you see one post about it on Twitter and you kind of scroll past like, oh God, Baron Trump's making money off this, whereas 10 years ago, if that was like one of the Obama kids, it would have been everywhere. But two is it's a perfect example of the sorts of conflicts of interest that come up. You. You hit the nail right on the head. I hear that. My immediate thought is tariffs. Okay, if he's importing all this stuff, how is he going to navigate that? And you have to literally think that Trump would say to his son, Baron, sorry, I'm not going to help you with your tariff problem to get your costs down on your yerba mate to your importing. Of course he's going to. I mean, like, we see it over and over and over again. He makes these exceptions for companies that he finds particular favor with for whatever reason. And I think his youngest son wanting a little help is probably a pretty easy layup case where you'd see the Trump administration act in some way. Yeah, there he is.
- [40:04]
Tara Palmieri
I just wanted to throw that picture up because it's ridiculous. And, oh, there was a great Lego. So I'm obsessed with the, like, the Iranian Legos. And I know I shouldn't be, but, like, they make really good AI content, those Iranians. It's funny.
- [40:20]
Isaac Saul
They know how to shitpost. They have. They have sent the message to the world. They know how to post with the best of them. It's true.
- [40:26]
Tara Palmieri
And the rapping is really good. The songs are catchy, you know, so they had one recently with the three brothers and how much money they're making off the presidency. And it was just hilarious. Like, and Baron's in there and he's like super tall Lego. And it's just. All of it is just so grimy, but they know how to do it. Although the catchiest of them all is Epstein Queen. That features Melania. It's like Epstein Queen, my producer, Abby, she is horrified that she's Gen Z, that I like these Legos so much.
- [41:04]
Isaac Saul
Yeah, I'm worried about your mental health too, but it's okay. I think we're all gonna get through this period at some point.
- [41:11]
Tara Palmieri
Isaac, this was great. I loved having you on. Next time you have a big investigation, you are always welcome to come on the Red Letter and the Terrible Mary Show. We're definitely in alignment on wanting to expose corruption no matter where lives, whatever political party. This is not, you know, this is about making sure the power is back with the people and that our leaders are accountable to us and that they aren't using their roles as public servants. After all, they are paid by us to make themselves richer.
- [41:46]
Isaac Saul
Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate you having me on? Would love to do it again. And yeah, keep fighting the good fight.
- [41:51]
Tara Palmieri
Yeah, you too. Thanks so much. And of course you can support both of us by hitting that subscribe button here at the Red letter you become a paid subscriber. It's awesome. The Tara Palmieri show. You can send it around. You can support both of us in doing journalism Tangle. Isaac Saul has a amazing newsletter, Tangle Again. Very investigative driven. Head there, subscribe. You can read his latest piece in full. Keep us going. We're independent journalists. You know, it's not easy to do investigative reporting. It's not like cheap political commentary. It takes a lot of time. It's expensive. And the great thing about it is when you are truly independent, you don't give an F where you go in these stories. You go after the story, no matter you know who it touches. So keep us going with your support. We appreciate it and see you soon.
- [42:44]
Monday.com Announcer
Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com relax as AI does the manual work while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.comstart for free and finally breathe.