DSR Daily May 20: The Unbelievable Corruption of Trump’s Justice Department

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I'm David Rothkoff. I'm joined by Riley Fessler, Minnesota, and the world's going to hell, where the people to tell you about it, may not tell us about it. All right, former Navy SEAL at Gallerine defeated a seven-term incumbent representative

“Thomas Massey in Kentucky's Republican primary yesterday, securing 54.8% of the vote”

to Massey's 45.2% so it was quite close, but Gallerine was hand-picked by Donald Trump and his victory allows the primary defeat of Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, just days prior, solidifying Trump's unmatched influence over the GOP. Additionally, in Texas, Trump's last-minute endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has thrown off the Texas Republican Senate primary into chaos just a week before

the runoff election. By backing Paxton over-sitting Senator John Corin, Trump rejected the explicit appeal of national GOP leaders who favored Corin as a stable general election candidate. "Dable, who wants stable? He wants loyal.

He wants people who bend the knee. He explained.

“He said he picked Paxton because Corin and wasn't there for him whenever he needed it.”

This is Trump, but I got some bad news for you, Uncle Don, first of all, then Massey

got 45% of them out in a deep, deep, red district, means that 45% of the people in that deep red district were willing to tell you to fuck off. That can't feel good today, Don, and furthermore, you're now winning these things during the primaries, who shows up to vote in primaries, kind of real dedicated party loyalists, activists, and for the last few years, that's meant the maga base, the maga faithful.

But the primaries are coming to a close, and we're about to enter the general election season. And obviously, in the general election, things are looking a little different. We have the New York Times Seattle poll earlier this week in which an issue after issue from the economy to inflation, to the war in Iran, to how he's handling immigration. Two-thirds of Americans do not approve of Donald Trump's behavior.

And only about a third, and in some cases less than a third, do.

What does it mean? It means that if voters show up, then Trump and maga and all these people who are celebrating their little victories of bending the need to a criminal today are going to be crying in their beer on election night in November. Nothing to take for granted, their folks. It all has to do with turnout, and whether people actually turn out.

But if, as we've seen again this week, the president insists on doing things that are hugely unpopular, whether it's domestic policy, foreign policy, economic policy, building ballroom, stealing money from the U.S. Treasury, he's going to have a very hard time, and these little victories of people who refuse to stand up to the most corrupt president in American history.

They're going to seem far, far, far, far back in the time. They're going to be forgotten, and that's where we're headed, folks. So let's not overly read too much into the fact that Trump has had a few primary victories in the past couple of weeks. Well, that's not the only victory Trump got yesterday because we've reached levels of corruption

time.

“He's like the all-time corruption champion.”

He's a little bit of corruption for sure. Well, yeah, the victor webinar, well, we can debate that. But go out. Because the Justice Department has granted a Trump, his family, and his businesses, permanent immunity from all pending attacks, inquiries, audits, and prosecutions.

Why? I don't really know. Why?

But it was added as a supplement to a broader agreement, which Trump dropped his $10 billion

lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a $1.8 billion slush fund. I mean, sorry, compensation fund for his allies. No, no, super corrupt, but, but folks, this is real important. That's not fall into the trap that Riley just fell into of using Trump Todd Blanch

“language to describe the crimes they're committing, okay?”

Because they're crimes and they're not what they say they are. Trump did not reach a settlement with the US government. There was no case to settle. The judge said so, he was on both sides of the case. There was no adverse interest of the parties in this case.

It was not resolved.

And therefore, this is not a settlement.

It is an act of collusion to steal money. He did not create a slush fund. He colluded with Todd Blanch. He colluded with Todd Blanch to commit all arsenate in public stealing money from the US treasury.

As if he had backed a pickup truck up to Fort Knox, filled it with gold boyon and attempted to drive away. But you say he can't do that. That's illegal. And these cases are going to be challenged.

This is not a deal. This is a crime for which Trump and Blanch must be prosecuted. And let's not dilute ourselves. Let us not lean back and say, "Oh, but he's got immunity." He does not have immunity when he commits acts that are not official acts and acts

that violate the Constitution. The acts that violate his oath of office acts that violate the law cannot by definition be official acts. So he is prosecutable. Furthermore, his effort to protect himself from audits and other kinds of investigations

from the IRS ought to be a red flag for other tax collecting authorities. And let's remember there are a lot of those in the United States. There are state tax collection authorities. Trump cannot pardon himself from prosecution for violating those tax laws. Trump cannot protect himself against investigations in that regard.

We've seen it happen in the past in New York State. And he's operating in multiple states. So let's be clear. This is not the story that's being reported in your papers today of a fate, a complete. This is the story of criminals trying to commit a crime and broad daylight who think

because of the titles they have that they're going to be able to get away with it. But I predict right here, they are not.

“I think these things are going to get blocked.”

I think their liability for these things will be huge. I would add one other thing. And that is that the Constitution actually provides for what to do when people violate their oaths of office, violate the Constitution and abuse their power. And that is impeachment.

He cannot be pardoned for impeachment. He cannot declare himself immune from impeachment. And if the Democrats win, you know, remember Donald Trump will get impeached for committing acts like that by the House. Now you might say, oh, no, no, this will be a distraction.

Well, first of all, folks, he was impeached in December 2019.

And he then lost the next election. It does have an effect on the politics of this country. Secondly, a lot of facts were brought out into the open in the course of the impeachment hearings in the House that need to be brought out into the open here, whether he is convicted

Thirdly, the Democrats could take control of the Senate and for all we know, there will

“be senators who are willing to go and prosecute this, including, you know, perhaps, you”

know, some of the outgoing senators, depending on when this all happens. So there are a whole host of reasons to believe that they will not get away with this. Should this dampen your outrage? Of course not. This is the most corrupt act we have ever seen from a president since a few days ago when

we found out that the president has insider traded thousands of times promoting companies with his bully, pulpit of the presidency and trying to cash in on it in the market.

We have seen area after area of corruption, whether it's selling Trump swag or it's Trump's

kids taking money from the Department of Defense or it's deals with foreign powers or it's selling partners or it's selling regulatory favor. This is not an administration that is fooling around when it comes to corruption. They can't get much done, but in this one area, they lead all other administrations by a lot.

“And the chickens will come home to roast and what's more, I believe the chickens need”

to come home to roast because it is only by ending the idea of elite impunity, whether it's for Trump or for Epstein or for billionaires that would begin to do the structure reforms, which include to the Supreme Court, to campaign finance reform, to ethics laws for members of the court or for the president, to the number of states we have, to the Electoral College

that are essential if we are to end the gross inequality in this country, are to end the

crime-spray of American oligarchs, are to end the area of the era of culture capitalism in the United States, which is destroyed the lives of millions. And we are to destroy and end, we put ourselves in the position to restore hope to all the rest of us and restore services and government support to the people who need it the most. You can't do those things.

You can't address affordability without also demanding accountability. They go hand in hand, one is not a distraction from the other, that is a common misconception among some Democrats and as one we need to get over real fast if we are to produce the changes that this country desperately needs. Sorry, sorry, I ran to wake up, let's go on to the next story.

I'm sure I've lowered you to sleep. Not even close, but nice to meet you. Yeah, I'm a nice try. Well, here's snoring, that's gotta be right. Sorry, did you say something?

“No, no, no, go right back to slumberland, there a little boy, okay, yes?”

Chinese president Xi Jinping welcomed Russian president Vladimir Putin to Beijing, rolling out a high profile state reception just days after concluding a summit with our fabulous president Donald Trump. The rapid succession of visits underscores China's positioning as an independent global superpower, capable of balancing relationships with competing major powers.

The two leaders focus heavily on expanding their energy and security partnership, formally extending a bilateral friendship treaty originally signed in 2001. Yeah, this is expert class trolling. The putting the Putin visit next to the Trump visit, so we can look at them and that we can't help but compare them.

Where the Putin visit is so much more enthusiastic, there is so much more warmth. There are actual concrete deals being signed. It is very clear that the relationship there is a real one. He's not snubbing the team that traveled with Putin in the way that he apparently kind of snubbed to the CEOs that traveled with Trump.

He's not having turning away Putin empty handed as he essentially did with Trump. He's not making Putin bend the knee as he essentially did with Trump.

Right now, no global power has more big mo as more momentum feels more confident than China.

“For a whole host of reasons, do they have problems?”

Oh yeah, they have problems, economic problems, social problems, political problems. But they've also got the wind at their back key areas of their economy, leading in key

technologies, leading in key areas of global influence and they are seen for the first time

in the modern era as a greater force for stability within the international system than the United States. How did that happen? Because the Trump administration seeded America's moral leadership became a rogue nation, became a force for instability and opened the door for China to look like the answer for

countries that want global stability, economic predictability and so on.

And moving beyond, you know, on the United States was a moral force, but we are not a moral

force when our president is a criminal when we are breaking the law, when we are violating international laws, when we are supporting genocide and Gaza, when we are blowing up schools, full of girls in Iran, when we are kidnapping leaders and stealing oil out of Venezuela, when we're planning new attacks on Cuba and Greenland, when we're blowing up our alliances, when we're blowing up international treaties like the treaties that we had on trade,

we have lost our bearings, but we have also lost our position in China has stepped right in. They haven't said it's over to us now folks because they don't have to. And they are showing deft, deft management of this a very unusual moment and both of these two visits illustrate how that's being manifest. Well, on a related note, the Trump administration plans to inform a native allies that

it will significantly scale down conventional military capabilities the US makes available to assist Europe during a major crisis. So just kind of driving your previous point home. Another, another, I mean, what a day for Vladimir Putin, right? I mean, he's getting the big treatment in Beijing. He's getting a bear hug from Xi Jinping. He's like signing a new friendship pretty saying we're not just friends like we were before. We're super duper extra special

friends. And meanwhile, his, his little Aaron, well, I Donald Trump is saying, we're going to make it easier for Russia to threaten Europe. We'll make it easier for Russia to attack Europe if they want because we are going to pull back from the alliance that has been the bedrock of US national

“security and global stability for the past 80 years. What did Vladimir Putin do to get so lucky?”

He's going to mark this day down in his calendar because this is, this is, this is good news for the Kremlin. It's good news for Beijing. It's good news for autocrats everywhere. It's bad news for democracy. It's bad news for the United States of America, but you know, who doesn't give it down? I'll just, I will let you two guess. Who doesn't give it down? Riley? Who do you think doesn't give it down?

Trump. Trump. Exactly. Exactly. Right. I know Minah had the answer in the 10th or 10th as well. All right. Sorry. I interrupted you, but did we get to the gist of all this?

That's basically the gist. Bad, not good, and it's a pattern with Trump of undermining NATO.

And that's really all there is to say about it. And yeah, right, more to come, more to come.

“All right, Minah. What else? This could be the last story of today. Exactly. That's what I was going”

to say. Our last story for today. We're going to take a trip down distractions, memory lane. Talk about something we haven't had. We're going to talk about Bongo Ranga. We are. We did not talk about we did talk about Bongo Ranga or the Eurovision. The triumph for Bulgaria. Now, I loved it. I watched every minute of it. I didn't watch this year, but I don't know. It was great. It's great.

Trump. But here's the good news. And there was a good New York Times story about this the other day.

“Bulgaria is win in the Eurovision is being seen as something that will pull Bulgaria closer to the”

EU. It entered the Shengen Accord's last year. Of course, it's a member of the EU. And even it's kind of rush-a-leaning new Prime Minister has seized this and said, "Yeah, we're going to house to Eurovision. We're going to be a bigger part of Europe and so forth." And so Europe is getting tighter, getting its act together. And part because Trump is such a snake. Anyway, sorry, I know you weren't going to talk about Bongo Ranga, but I felt bad. We didn't talk about it yesterday.

I wasn't. That being said, I did just recently rewatch the Eurovision movie with Will Ferrell

and Rachel McAdams. And it's truly a favorite dream I recommend everyone see it. But actually,

“that ended up being super relevant because we're talking about something we haven't talked about”

in a while, which is tariffs, but also the EU. The European Union reached a provisional legislative agreement to eliminate import duties on US industrial goods and grant preferential access to American agricultural and seafood products. The milestone move aims to formalize the trade framework, struck at President Trump's turnberry golf resort, last July, and avert his threat of hiking

tariffs on European automobiles to 25% if the block missed his strict July 4th deadline. So amazing

foresight on that one. Yeah. I don't know. If I were in Europe, I don't know if I'd want American seafood products. And just to begin with, I mean, shouldn't you sort of get your seafood products from closer to where you are, or is this am I just old fashioned in that? I, no, frozen seafood and is the best seafood and everybody knows that, David. I, well, I speak, I don't want to give away too much, but as for the Memorial Day weekend, Riley is going up to New England, where they really

value their seafood, Riley. I mean, they really value the threat. No, he's just eating frozen while he's there. Yeah, he's gonna be like, where did, yeah, I do have Gordon's of Glost, I'm from the John C. Winston Silver's. I was a kid. I really thought those were like, and I thought that was the best, that was like the best kind of, or Red Lobster. I stand by Red Lobster. I've been there in a long time, but yeah. Was it Red Lobster kind of sucks? Isn't legal seafood the one that you

should be going to? All seafood is best. All seafood sucks. And yeah, now we're here from the girl to grew up on the beach. Yeah, fish are friends, not food. So fish are friends. Well, that's something that we can we can end on a positive note, fish or our friends. Glad we still have some friends somewhere, given the behavior of this administration, and we are nudging every closer today as a Wednesday. Friday is, you know, you're all like bugging off for the holidays. So this is a kind of

short week, just like next week is a short week. So there's really only tomorrow. Having said that, we will be here. We will do a podcast tomorrow on Thursday. We will do a podcast on Friday that you can listen to at our through treacherous fish and ships or long john silverers or whenever a place you go to get your, you get your fast food seafood. And then we will resume on Tuesday. We will not be doing this podcast on Monday. Unless the world goes completely to hell and

man basket and which we will cut our brief respite short and be back to you with the breaking news. For now, because it's Wednesday, we do have the ability for you to look forward to deep state radio, the podcast, which in one form or another, we've been doing for like 12 years. Holy shit, there weren't even podcasts back then. And all our other big, very popular podcasts, also coming soon. If you want more of my rant about why accountability is linked to affordability and why

“it's so essential, please go to our need to know Substack where I wrote a PC yesterday, which has”

gotten a lot of traction, but each of you, I hope you read it. I hope you'll share it because it's a very, I think it's an important idea. For now, thank you, Riley. Thank you, Mina. Fish everywhere.

And that will be back with you soon. Bye bye. (upbeat music)