The Many Legal Fights Facing Dem AGs

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Many Legal Fights Facing Dem AGs"
What A Day by Crooked Media
Release Date: March 11, 2025

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What A Day, hosted by Jane Coaston, delves into the pressing issues shaping the United States each morning. In the episode titled "The Many Legal Fights Facing Dem AGs," released on March 11, 2025, Coaston explores the multifaceted legal battles that Democratic Attorneys General (AGs) are currently navigating against the Trump administration's policies. The episode features an in-depth conversation with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, shedding light on the challenges and strategies of state-level legal opposition.

1. Introduction to the Legal Battleground

The episode opens with Jane Coaston setting the stage for a discussion on the aggressive legal stance taken by Democratic AGs. She references a concerning statement by Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, highlighting the heightened political tensions:

Jane Coaston [00:02]: "It's a show that felt pretty okay until it heard Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville talking to Larry Kudlow on his Fox show Monday where he said this. We have no chance unless he does tariffs and holds people accountable to what's been going on."

Coaston outlines the key issues at hand, including the Trump administration's attempts to deport undocumented immigrants via the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) app and the potential rise in utility bills for over a million Americans due to tariff escalations.

2. The Supreme Court and Conversion Therapy in Colorado

A significant portion of the episode focuses on Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth, a measure currently under Supreme Court review. Coaston introduces the topic by explaining the case and its broader implications:

Jane Coaston [00:56]: "On Monday, the Supreme Court announced that they decided to hear a case challenging Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ kids."

Phil Weiser [02:41]: "If this cruel and this unaccepted practice of so-called gay conversion therapy is given First Amendment protection and Colorado's decision to regulate a practice... It'll be a sad day for America."

Weiser emphasizes the potential rollback of equal rights and the dangers of permitting harmful practices under the guise of free speech. He stresses that conversion therapy is not only ineffective but also causes significant psychological harm.

3. Democratic AGs' Multifaceted Legal Strategy

Cooston expands on the diverse range of legal challenges that Democratic AGs are tackling. These include combating robocalls, debt collection fraud, and opposing the Trump administration's efforts to restrict state autonomy on various issues such as birthright citizenship and federal funding for essential services.

Phil Weiser [04:17]: "We knew we were gonna face challenges. That's why even before the election, I and my colleagues were preparing... And we're ready for whatever's coming."

Weiser discusses the rapidity with which these legal battles have unfolded, contrasting it with the previous administration's slower pace in addressing similar issues.

4. Specific Legal Battles: Birthright Citizenship and Educational Grants

Weiser provides concrete examples of the AG's proactive measures:

Phil Weiser [04:56]: "I find morally offensive and legally unjustifiable... We were ready. And on day one, we were able to finalize the lawsuit and file it immediately."

He details the successful preliminary injunction against the administration's attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, highlighting the AG's role in safeguarding constitutional rights.

Another significant case involves Colorado's educational grants aimed at supporting rural teachers. The administration's abrupt cancellation of these grants without justification prompted immediate legal action:

Phil Weiser [06:25]: "Colorado has a grant we get from the Department of Education... I've got a clear harm to the people of Colorado, to our rural communities, and a clear legal violation. We took action."

This example underscores the AG's commitment to defending state-funded programs that directly benefit citizens.

5. Coalition Efforts: Protecting Gender-Affirming Care

Cooston discusses the collaborative lawsuit led by Colorado AG Phil Weiser alongside AGs from Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota against an executive order targeting federal grant funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors.

Phil Weiser [07:42]: "I'm a big believer in listening and I'm a big believer in hearing from people... I jumped into this case because our hospitals in Colorado were affected."

Weiser highlights the personal impact of such policies, noting testimonials from friends whose lives were positively influenced by gender-affirming care. He frames the lawsuit as a defense of state autonomy against federal overreach:

Phil Weiser [08:41]: "The federal government can't bully us into allowing people to be harmed in a way that I know... It's potentially a life or death issue."

6. Upholding LGBTQ Rights Amid Political Divides

Addressing internal Democratic debates over LGBTQ advocacy, Weiser defends the party's stance on inclusivity and equal rights, emphasizing the importance of principled leadership over political pragmatism.

Phil Weiser [09:06]: "People have the right to live as their best authentic selves... Attacks on anyone based on who they are... It's an attack on all of us."

Weiser argues that strengthening LGBTQ rights is integral to the broader Democratic agenda of fostering an inclusive society.

7. Personal Resilience: Holding on Amidst Legal Storms

In a lighter segment, Coaston inquires about Weiser's personal strategies for maintaining mental well-being amidst his demanding role. Weiser shares his approach to finding joy and balance:

Phil Weiser [10:22]: "I have two kids... a dog who I enjoy walking... I've gotten out skiing once this year... I enjoy watching TV with my family."

He underscores the necessity of personal resilience to effectively serve the community:

Phil Weiser [10:22]: "I need to stay in good shape, good frame of mind and stay fit."

8. Broader Political and Economic News Coverage

Following the interview, Coaston transitions to other significant news:

• Ontario's Electricity Surcharge: Premier Doug Ford's 25% surcharge on electricity exports threatens to increase utility bills for 1.5 million Americans, particularly impacting states like Minnesota, Michigan, and New York. Weiser criticizes the move as a retaliation against Trump's tariff policies.

  Phil Weiser [14:30]: "Believe me when I say I do not want to do this... That's President Trump."

• Elon Musk's Cyberattack Claims: Musk alleges that his social media platform, Twitter (rebranded as "X"), suffered a massive cyberattack originating from Ukraine, a claim he made without substantive evidence. Concurrently, Tesla faces significant stock declines due to public protests and internal challenges.

• NASA Job Cuts: Under directives from the White House, NASA has laid off over 20 workers, leading to concerns about the agency's capacity to address critical scientific missions, including climate change studies. Weiser voices apprehension over the diminishing role of government agencies in favor of private enterprises like SpaceX.

• Trump Administration's CBP Home App: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introduced the CBP Home app to facilitate the voluntary deportation of undocumented migrants. Coaston critiques the app as a tool for mass deportation without safeguarding migrants' legal rights.

• Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: In a conversation with Bloomberg Senior Story Editor Stacey Vanek Smith, Coaston explores President Trump's initiative to create a national cryptocurrency reserve using seized Bitcoin assets. Smith expresses skepticism about the reserve's purpose and its benefits to the average American.

  Stacey Vanek Smith [22:05]: "The digital strategic bitcoin reserve... is more puzzling because certainly we don't need bitcoin to make the economy go."

9. Conclusion

The episode concludes with Coaston wrapping up the discussions, emphasizing the significant role of Democratic AGs like Phil Weiser in countering federal policies deemed harmful to state interests and individual rights. The episode underscores the ongoing legal battles that shape the political and social landscape of the United States.

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Notable Quotes:

• Phil Weiser on Conversion Therapy:

  [02:41] "If this cruel and this unaccepted practice of so-called gay conversion therapy is given First Amendment protection and Colorado's decision to regulate a practice... It'll be a sad day for America."

• Phil Weiser on Preparing for Legal Challenges:

  [04:17] "We knew we were gonna face challenges. That's why even before the election, I and my colleagues were preparing... And we're ready for whatever's coming."

• Phil Weiser on Gender-Affirming Care:

  [07:42] "I'm a big believer in listening and I'm a big believer in hearing from people... I jumped into this case because our hospitals in Colorado were affected."

• Phil Weiser on Inclusive Rights:

  [09:06] "People have the right to live as their best authentic selves... Attacks on anyone based on who they are... It's an attack on all of us."

• Phil Weiser on Personal Resilience:

  [10:22] "I need to stay in good shape, good frame of mind and stay fit."

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This episode of What A Day provides a comprehensive overview of the strategic legal efforts by Democratic AGs to counteract federal policies undermining state autonomy and individual rights. Through the insightful conversation with Phil Weiser, listeners gain an understanding of the complexities and motivations driving these legal battles, as well as the broader political and economic context in which they unfold.

Transcript

[Jane Coston]

It's Tuesday, March 11th. I'm Jane Coston and this is what a day. A show that felt pretty okay until it heard Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville talking to Larry Kudlow on his Fox show Monday where he said this. We have no chance unless he does tariffs and holds people accountable to what's been going on. I don't like where this is going. On today's show, the Trump administration is asking undocumented images immigrants to self deport using the Customs and Border Patrol app. And more than a million Americans could expect to see a hike in their utility bills as the tariff war on the northern border heats up. But let's start with our series of conversations with Democratic attorneys general currently tasked with dealing with all of this. On Monday, the Supreme Court announced that they decided to hear a case challenging Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ kids. The plaintiff, a Christian therapist, argues that it is a violation of her First Amendment rights for the government to prevent her from helping her patients stop being gay, lesbian or transgender. Of course, conversion therapy is stupid because there is absolutely nothing wrong with being lgbtq. Also, it doesn't work and it causes real and lasting harm to the people who have endured it. But the Supreme Court says, eh, let's hear this out. As we've said, Democratic attorneys general are fighting a multi front war. First, they're the top law enforcement officials in their states. That means they are handling criminal cases and working on behalf of their constituents to stop, say, robocalls or debt collection fraud schemes. But they're also having to battle the Trump administration's efforts to limit the ability of states to determine how their citizens live their lives. From cases on birthright citizenship, to arguments over the administration's efforts to stop federal funding for services, from wildfire prevention to helping rural communities access much needed services, Democratic AGs have had to stand in the breach to say, actually the federal government can't just do that. One of those Democratic attorneys general is Colorado AG Phil Weiser, whose state is at the center of the Supreme Court conversion therapy case. I talked to AG Weiser on Monday afternoon. Attorney General Weiser, welcome to what a Day.

[Phil Weiser]

It's great to be with you. What a day it is here in Colorado.

[Jane Coston]

What a day it is indeed. Let's start with the Supreme Court and the Justice's decision to weigh a challenge to Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ kids. Close to half the states have similar bans. The case won't be argued until the fall. But what worries you about this case?

[Phil Weiser]

What worries me about this granting of a decision from Colorado saying that our law banning so called gay conversion therapy is constitutional is. We could see the turning of an arc of equal rights for everybody. If this cruel and this unaccepted practice of so called gay conversion therapy is given First Amendment protection and Colorado's decision to regulate a practice that both the American Psychiatric association and the American Psychological association say has no value and is harmful, it'll be a sad day for America. It'll be the turning of an arc away from justice, away from equality. I am particularly perplexed in this case because the therapist has never offered this so called gay conversion therapy.

[Jane Coston]

And you're talking about the therapist who's suing, right?

[Phil Weiser]

That's right. There's a therapist suing and the therapist is claiming that her First Amendment rights are implicated by Colorado regulation. That's a position that I see as damaging not just to equality, but more broadly to regulations that protect the public. There's a number of professions that are regulated and the standard that Colorado follows, like most states, if we know a practice is categorically harmful, it doesn't provide value, it just harms people, then we would ban that practice. Once you start saying that, we're going to second guess that of the First Amendment. It's a problem for consumers as well as for equality.

[Jane Coston]

You've been the Attorney General in Colorado since 2019, so you've got about a year of experience dealing with the first Trump administration. How did that inform the ways you prepared ahead of Trump returning to office? Did you have any advice for your fellow blue State ags?

[Phil Weiser]

I am in an interesting situation because the first Trump administration took a little longer to get its footing. And so some of the cases that we're seeing now out of the box actually took three years before we saw them last time. This time has come fast and furious. We knew we were gonna face challenges. That's why even before the election, I and my colleagues were preparing and I did, as you note, have the experience of the first time to fall back on. And we're ready for whatever's coming.

[Jane Coston]

So what did the preparation look like? And honestly, how much preparation can you do ahead of time for something like this?

[Phil Weiser]

Sadly, some of the harms, some of the lawless actions were in plain sight in Project 2025. To take one notable example, the idea that a president would seek to end birthright citizenship I find morally offensive and legally unjustifiable. But we knew it was coming, and so we were ready. And on day one, we were able to finalize the lawsuit and file it immediately. We now have a preliminary injunction that's preventing that ban on birthright citizenship from going into effect. There are other things that we didn't necessarily have knowing at the ready, like, for example, giving the so called Department of Government Efficiency or doge, access to our private information. We had to move quickly in a case involving Doge, and we also got a preliminary action there that's helping us protect our private information. One of the hardest things in this moment, it's hard for all of us, citizens, government leaders alike, is how do we sift the signal from all the noise out there. There's so much noise that people can react to. We need to make sure we're focusing on the signal. There might be things that are problematic as a policy. It might be harming people, maybe in other countries. But if you know it's not a violation of law that harms Coloradans, it's not going to be in my lane.

[Jane Coston]

Yeah. How do you weigh whether to get involved with a suit against the administration? Is there an example of the kind of noise you were talking about where you thought, like, this is bad, but we're going to put that to the side.

[Phil Weiser]

The dismantling of the U.S. agency for International Development appears to be happening without legislative authorization and appears to actually run counter to separation of powers. There is litigation on that case, but it's not one that I, as a state AGM, involved in because it's not something that I've been able to identify Coloradans who are directly affected by it or a law that I am authorized to enforce that protects Coloradans. By contrast, let me give an example from last week. Colorado has a grant we get from the Department of Education to supporting rural teachers who are growing up in rural areas, get trained and go back to rural areas to teach. 50 individuals are set to be in that pipeline and that pipeline is about to be shut down immediately without any notice, without any justification, in a way that was illegal there. I've got a clear harm to the people of Colorado, to our rural communities, and a clear legal violation. We took action. That was one of those seven lawsuits.

[Jane Coston]

We brought in another suit. You joined three other states, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota in suing the administration over a Trump executive order that would in part block federal grant funding to hospitals that provide gender affirming care to kids under the age of 19. Why was that an important case for you to join?

[Phil Weiser]

I'm a big believer in listening and I'm a big believer in hearing from people and I have had friends who told me that they've had kids whose access to gender affirming care is the reason they're alive today. And that, for me, made this a pretty straightforward case. And so I jumped into this case, and what difference it made is powerful because our hospitals in Colorado were affected by this executive order. And this is worth lifting up a little bit. A lot of these executive orders, ones on diversity and inclusion, for example, are meant to intimidate, are meant to change behavior, even if they're illegal. And what I need to do as attorney general is fight to defend the law and protect people. And that's what I'm doing in this case, to make sure that Colorado gets to decide that gender affirming care is legal or not. It is in our state. We have made that clear. The federal government can't bully us into allowing people to be harmed in a way that I know, again from my relationships, from having listened, is potentially a life or death issue.

[Jane Coston]

It feels like there's been a growing divide among Democrats since the election over how much to go to Batman for LGBTQ people and whether that can be done without alienating swing voters. Just this week, the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTQ advocacy groups wrote a letter that called on the Democratic Party to do more to stand up for LGBTQ rights. Do you think the party is doing enough in the face of Trump's attacks, especially for trans people?

[Phil Weiser]

It's very important that we all stand on principle and we explain what we're doing, why we're doing it. And when I took this case on, it is easy for me to explain the principle, which is people have the right to live as their best authentic selves. And gender affirming care for parents and families and medical providers in Colorado is critical, and that's why it's a principle I would stand for. You mentioned before this case about so called gay conversion therapy, there's a critical principle there too, which is what happens to people when they're put into that therapy, is cruel. It is motivated by an animus towards gays and lesbians. And what I would say on this point, and it's a point I've had the chance to talk about, attacks on anyone based on who they are, who they love, their gender identity, their religion. It's an attack on all of us. We as Democrats have moved for an arc that is towards a more inclusive we the people. Everyone in Colorado matters. I'll protect everyone. We have to protect equal rights for all.

[Jane Coston]

On a totally separate note, how are you staying sane? In these times, what are you doing for fun or to disconnect when you're not working? I mean, you live in a state where it's pretty easy to go outside and find something to do.

[Phil Weiser]

I want to go back to this point because a friend of mine who was active in equal rights efforts in the 1990s said that he had a friend who said there's an importance of finding joy in difficult moments or dancing in the storm. We are in a stormy time right now. We're in a dark time. We have to work to find the light and we have to find the light in our lives. So I'm lucky to have two kids who now are old enough that I'll take every moment they'll spend with me, have a dog who I enjoy walking. A beautiful state where I've gotten out skiing once this year and it was tremendous. A big fan of the Denver Nuggets who are in it. We'll see whether it gets to the finish line or not, but we've got the best player in the world on our team, Nicola Jokic, and I do enjoy watching TV with my family. I'm someone who needs to continue to find time for joy, time to take care of myself, to exercise. I am working as hard as I can with people of Colorado and for me to do my best work, I need to stay in good shape, good frame of mind and stay fit.

[Jane Coston]

Attorney General Weiser, thank you so much for joining me.

[Phil Weiser]

It's really a pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

[Jane Coston]

That was my conversation with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a Day is brought to you by Nutrafol. You should love your hair. I do, but that can be hard if you're dealing with shedding or thinning. Luckily, Nutrafol is here to help their whole body approach to hair health works from the inside out so you can start loving your hair again. Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand trusted by over one and a half million people. You can see thicker, stronger, faster growing hair with less shedding in just three to six months. With Nutrafol, everyone's root causes of hair thinning are different so a one size fits all approach to hair growth doesn't work. Nutrafol has multiple formulas that are tailored to give your hair what it needs to grow throughout different stages like postpartum or menopause, as well as for different lifestyles like plant based diets. While many supplements rely solely on ingredient studies, Nutrafol clinically tests final formulations to ensure their efficacy. In a clinical study, 86% of women reported improved hair growth after taking Nutrafol Women Hair Growth Supplement for six months Building a hair growth routine is easy. Purchase online, no prescription required. Automated deliveries and free shipping keep you on track. Plus, with a Nutrafol subscription, you can save up to 20%. You'll have access to free naturopathic doctor consults and a Headspace Meditation membership is included. Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to nutrafol.com and enter the Promo Code Day Find out why over 4,500 healthcare professionals and stylists recommend Nutrafol for healthier hair Nutrafol.com, spelled N U T R A F O L.com, promo code day that's Nutrafol.com promo code day.

[Phil Weiser]

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[Jane Coston]

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[Phil Weiser]

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[Jane Coston]

Here's what else we're following today.

[Phil Weiser]

Head of Lines Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people because it's not the American people who started this trade war. It's one person who's responsible. That's President Trump.

[Jane Coston]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford means business. Ford announced Monday that Canada's most populous province is implementing a 25% surcharge on electricity exports that could hit 1.5 million American homes and businesses. Ford said at a press conference Monday that the surcharge will cost people across Minnesota, Michigan and New York each and every single day.

[Phil Weiser]

On an average, this will add around $100 per month to the bills of hardworking Americans. Let me be clear. I will not hesitate to increase this charge if necessary. If the United States escalates. I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely.

[Jane Coston]

He is talking some big shit and I've lived in Michigan. I know what those electricity bills look like in the winter. Yikes. Ontario's tariffs come in response to Trump's will. He won't he tariffs against Mexico and Canada. After a lot of back and forth, they went into effect last week, but days later Trump postponed them on a huge swath of imports from both countries until April, Ford said. Until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent. In response to Ontario's threats, New York Governor Kathy Hochul called on Trump to immediately rescind his tariffs and said, quote, this is a textbook example of bad public policy. Elon Musk claimed his social media site, which I refuse to call X and will always be Twitter to me, was targeted in a cyberattack and he blamed with zero evidence Ukraine Multiple outages were reported on the platform Monday. Tracking website Downdetector.com said at one point, more than 40,000 outages were reported. Musk said in a post, we get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources, either a large coordinated group and or a country is involved. He went even farther. During an appearance on Fox Business host Larry Kudlow's show, Musk said, quote, we're not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the EX system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area. Musk didn't provide any evidence to back up that claim, and as of our recording late Monday, it has yet to be verified. And given the source, Ukraine had also not issued a response. Meanwhile, another one of Musk's companies is facing major problems. Tesla dealerships have become a popular protest site in recent weeks, thanks to the billionaire's role in the Department of Government Efficiency. Shares of Tesla plunged 15% Monday, on top of seven continuous weeks of losses. NASA laid off more than 20 workers Monday. It's the latest federal agency to cut jobs. Under orders from the White House to downsize the federal workforce, NASA shuttered three departments. They include the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy and the Office of the Chief scientist, part of NASA's Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, was also shut down. Workers were notified about the layoffs Monday morning via email. NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner told Whataday that the firings are to, quote, optimize our workforce. But Victoria Sampson, a longtime space expert at the Secure World foundation think tank, told us the job cuts at NASA will have huge consequences. She said that's especially true for the agency's studies on climate change. We're seeing this happen elsewhere in the government. It just seems a pity that an agency administration that's set up to deal with scientific missions and research can't is having its wings clipped in terms of dealing with one of the biggest scientific problems of our current time. Elon Musk and his Doge Bros have been playing a key role in the mass federal layoffs. Sampson told whataday that Musk's aerospace company SpaceX, could play a bigger role in the agency if it cuts more jobs. I'm worried there's the mentality that, well, why do we need NASA? We have SpaceX, and while SpaceX has been able to do a lot of amazing things, they have a different mandate than a government agency. Not to mention that President Trump has nominated commercial astronaut Jared isaacman to be NASA's chief. The billionaire is not a scientist, engineer or academic of any kind. He just happens to be pals with Musk. Isaacman's nomination has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. The Trump administration has unveiled a new version of a cell phone app to help undocumented migrants voluntarily deport themselves. The Department of Homeland Security announced the CBP Home app Monday. It used to be known as the CBP1 app, short for Customs and Border Control. Under the Biden administration, migrants used it to apply for asylum in the U.S. trump shut down the app immediately on his first day in office, canceling tens of thousands of asylum appointments. The app rebrand as part of DHS's bigger push to get migrants to self deport to help the Trump administration save money while carrying out its mass deportation plan. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem launched a multi million dollar ad campaign last month threatening undocumented migrants in the U.S. president Trump.

[Phil Weiser]

Has a clear message for those that.

[Jane Coston]

Are in our country illegally. Leave now. If you don't, we will find you and we will deport you. You will never return. As of our recording time, it was not totally clear why DHS thought CBP Home would pop off on the app store. Noem did tweet Monday that migrants who use the app may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. Submit personal information into an app, including a photo, and hope the government that spent the last few months demonizing your meager presence in the country doesn't screw you over. Sign me up and that's the news. One more thing. Donald Trump loves cryptocurrency. I think though every remark he makes on the subject Raises some questions as to what Trump thinks cryptocurrency is. From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin knows very well. Never sell your bitcoin. That's a little phrase that they have. I don't know if that's right or not. Who the hell knows right now? To be fair, I also am a little unsure as to what crypto is. But Donald Trump definitely loves cryptocurrency owners and advocates and made a big play to pander to them during the election and it paid off. The crypto industry put millions of dollars into his campaign for the presidency and now he's trying to seal the deal with crypto fans with the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve. But why? To try and figure out why we are keeping a strategic reserve of a form of currency most countries don't use and most Americans don't have or trust, I had to turn to a friend of the pod, Bloomberg senior story editor Stacy Vanek Smith. Stacey, welcome back to what a day.

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

Thanks, Jane. It's good to be here.

[Jane Coston]

So what is the purpose of a so called national crypto reserve? How is it supposed to work?

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

That's a very good question, and I'm not entirely sure I have the 100% answer. So normally a strategic reserve in a country like we have a strategic petroleum reserve because we need gas to make the economy go. Like if we ran out of gasoline tomorrow, if our supplies were cut off, or if the price went, you know, haywire, most of our economy couldn't function. We couldn't get shipments, we couldn't drive. So it makes sense for us to have a strategic petroleum reserve because it's very central to our life. The digital strategic bitcoin reserve, which was created through executive order by President Trump last week, is more puzzling because certainly we don't need bitcoin to make the economy go.

[Jane Coston]

We do not. No, we do not.

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

So everyone's been a little bit scratching their heads about this. I mean, I think it's seen as kind of just a pro crypto move.

[Jane Coston]

How does the government plan to fund this reserve?

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

So apparently this is not going to come from taxpayer money. It was emphasized they're just using the bitcoin that have been seized in criminal cases.

[Jane Coston]

So civil asset forfeiture.

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

Yes.

[Jane Coston]

Wow.

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

Yes. We have $17 billion worth of Bitcoin apparently from this. And so that's going to be our reserve for right now.

[Jane Coston]

How is this reserve supposed to benefit Americans like me?

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

You know, I'm not sure. So that's a good question. I read the executive order and they were kind of comparing this. They said, oh, this will be like a digital Fort Knox, because bitcoin is like digital gold. And I think the idea would be to sort of help stabilize the economy maybe if something were to happen to the value of the dollar or we somehow needed this, this pile of bitcoin. For some reason, it is unclear if.

[Jane Coston]

The idea here is that cryptocurrency having a reserve of something that's stable. Well, the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been falling. So if this is such a great idea, why is that happening?

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

So bitcoin's apparently lost like almost 20% of its value in the last month, around 17%. The reason is apparently people were speculating that the strategic bitcoin reserve would not only be created but but the government would start buying up a ton of bitcoin, which it's not going to do for right now. It's just using these seized assets. So that apparently disappointed all the investors. So the price of bitcoin went down.

[Jane Coston]

Stacey, thank you so much for coming and attempting to explain the strategic crypto reserve to me. A crypto skeptic.

[Stacey Vanek Smith]

I wish I'd been able to explain it more, but it is just a little bit of. It's a bit puzzling to everybody, I think.

[Jane Coston]

That was my conversation with Bloomberg Senior story editor Stacey Vanek Smith. Before we go, Trump is blaming everything from plane crashes to wildfires on dei. It's giving the LGBTQ dog ate my homework. The Crooked Store has new merch to help you embody Trump's biggest scapegoat, the DEI hire. Grab a DEI hire T shirt and wear it to show you won't stand for DEI cuts and the reverse in progress that comes with them. They'll also be great costumes for scaring Republicans when Halloween comes around. Head to cricket.com store to grab yours today. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, blame Ukraine for your personal problems and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about how, who knows, maybe Ukraine is responsible for why that girl ghosted you that one time. I mean, sure, you were an asshole, but hey, maybe it was Ukraine like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and [e-mail] subscribe I'm Jane Coston and apparently blaming Ukraine is our America First Destiny. Water Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Foer. Our producer is Michelle Aloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adrienne Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America. East.

[Phil Weiser]

By the time I hit my 50s, I'd learned a few things, like how family is precious, work can always.

[Jane Coston]

Wait, and 99% of people over 50.

[Phil Weiser]

Already have the virus that causes shingles. Not everyone at risk will develop it, but I did. The painful, blistering rash disrupted my life for weeks.

[Jane Coston]

Don't learn about your shingles risk the hard way. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

[Phil Weiser]

Sponsored by GSK with leading networking and connectivity, advanced cybersecurity and expert partnership, Comcast business helps turn today's enterprises into engines of modern business. Powering the engine of modern business powering possibilities. Restrictions apply.