The Billion Dollar President: How Trump Profits While In Office

We have Isaac Saul from Tangle online, and the reason that we have Isaac on is because he has a really hard-hitting 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.”

It was just like 6,000 words, and it's jaw dropping. Thank you for coming on the show, and thank you for your hard work. We all appreciate this kind of accountability journal. I think it's why so many people come to the Tangle, and why they come to the red letter, and it's our own area show. People just try 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 who 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 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 tickle 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 dollars in licensing deals right now.

Melania has a movie. She got paid $28 million by Bezos. He wants government contracts for SpaceX. No anti-trust regulations. He doesn't want them to raise the cost of the postage.

“The $400 million could tarplain. I mean, crypto currency 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 private equity firm.

This is the man who was supposed to save us in the middle of a 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 buy and never at 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 under Biden, which totally fair, what under was doing and Jim Biden, frankly, has brother to, you know, making money off this healthcare business.

It's horrendous, but we'll get into all that 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. 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 buy gone era of four years ago, would have dominated for an entire presidential term and there were to been months and months and months of new cycles about it.

By story, it's one or two sentences. I mean, just the president, 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 price vice president Joe Biden. This is the president's son having holdings and investments in companies that are taking multi million 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. Hey, I somebody who has sort of followed the space and I think understands it maybe more than the average person.

The value of it has now fallen. Something like 47%. Yeah, there's like, so there's real people who probably loved the president who put in thousands of dollars bought up this meme coin thinking 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 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 of $50 million or whatever with the cryptocurrency stuff with Trump.”

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, it's just like an astonishing level of self-dealing and also, again, the opacity for us, 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. Yeah, no. And this line that you wrote in the piece really resonated with me, you said, I'm just heart and frustrated now to see that right wingers, Trump's voters and Republicans, politicians who cheered me on when I was investigating potential buy and corruption are now just ignoring the comparable gargantuan scandals of alleged corruption we're witnessing now. I think that you put a legit in a brackets, by the way.

I feel you. I mean, when I was covering the Biden administration for political, I reported on the Biden underbiden's gun scandal, which actually led to a real conviction, the fact that he, you know, bought a gun light on the forum, the Secret Service, my reporting told me tried to get that form back through the gun out near a school.

“And just, you know, all of the entanglement with like Anita Dunn, his senior advisor, who was a special governmental employee, just like Corey Lewandowski, he was meeting that he could also have contracts outside of the White House.”

And she did not defile 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 is throwing after it.

But now it's so blatantly everywhere, like you wrote it in your title, all at once, and yet there's 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 about corruption.

They just care about whether their party is in power or not.

“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 a 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.

Or 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 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.

He has $3 million in a super packed by the way, he hasn't spent any money on it, any relishes revenge, like if there's anything about this administration, you saw it in DNA last week too.

“They relish revenge, you cross him, they enjoy killing you in a primary because that is where they know they're power.”

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 re-elected 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, they're 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 on to 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 with the investigative journalism that we have, the people who are slew thing 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 stable coin. 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. 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 Trump's 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 willing to just deal with these fraudsters and grifters, the part-in system too. I mean, it is a pay for play, part-in system is a shocking, is shocking. 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 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 and 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 can take that money, go to somebody and 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 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 ambition as well.

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 bunch of 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 scan and Trump pardons them and wipes the recitation now.”

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. Yeah, I mean, according to the Wall Street Journal, he told a group of people, I'll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the oval. If that isn't a pay for play, I don't know what else is. I mean, Pam found these brother gets a pardon. You mentioned that there was this company that was fraughting 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.

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 it's technology. It's worse. Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, 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 the 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 recitation to the victims of the scheme, Trump who pardoned him, wipe that recitation out. And this guy, Trevor Milton, his defense attorney was Pam Bonnie, 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 recitation.

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 led 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 Santas who we all know lied about basically everything involving his personal stories, a fraud at 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 Santas beat the drum of being a Trump supporter and that seems to work on the president. Yeah, and also Santas is now going on to allegedly onto hosting reality show. He also helped the Cressley's who were the Cressley family, a 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 innocent like he is. 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. You're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no other than day one. How did Donald Trump turn the presidency into a king? Well, it didn't start with him. It was the goal of a decade's long master plan.

When the president does it, it is not illegal. I'm the designer, and I decide what is best. Where they won't act, I will.

I'm David Sarota from the lever. On our new season of the award-winning master plan podcast, we uncover the stealth plot to create an all-powerful president, or as some call it.

The unitary executive. The unitary executive. Our journalist revealed the hidden scheme to eliminate checks and balances. Crush democracy and turn government by the people into government by one man. I have the right to do whatever I want as president. Check out master plans season two, the king makers. Visit masterplanpodcast.com or search master plan in your podcast app to start listening right now.

It's a great question, right? I mean, I think it's because we are so overwhelmed with the diluge of corruption and news and war and, you know, the whiplash and 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 to be in a power right now, but if they win the election, which they probably will, the 2020 election, they'll have the ability to launch investigations.

And when do you think they should focus on first? Like what would be a slam dunk and would attract the attention of the American people.

So that they would see that this is a grieges. Like it's a kind of file sex ring to get America riled up, right?

“Like can we get it to a riled up about the idea of people committing vast financial crimes to enrich themselves at the highest level of power?”

Well, I think a couple of things. One, I agree, you know, about sort of 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 the most common threads I heard from people who were saying they didn't care that hard time getting upset was being upset doesn't seem to change anything for the people who opposed the president. For the people who supported 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 Washington DC's 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 in 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 of this feedback just to say, like, I'm a cynical about DC as anybody, but let's not let it get so absurd that you just sort of caricature everybody, Washington DC is being, you know, guilty, fraudster, criminals, whatever. That's not actually true. There are people who are good people trying to follow the law and do the right thing.

In terms of a democratic focus on, I mean, if you want to steal a playbook from how successful Republicans were, I think you start with the sons. 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 straight forward 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 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 it. 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 sons 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 low that personally is kind of complicated.

And if you're not somebody who is, you know, taking your 4A 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 suns 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 is that.

Yeah, I do think that the Iran war just feels so close and like, like, it has this kind of vision in it that makes people very angry that we're involved in a war and that Jared Kushner has been the wheeler and dealer, the entire time trying to make money while negotiating. It's great. I mean, the the the the story is straightforward. I mean, 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.

Whether we're doing that because the Saudi negotiators wanted 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. 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 the kind 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. Also, Jared Kushner is like a Prince Princeling little boogie man kind of I could see for Democrats is coziness with Israel, you know, if 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 Laura Trump was there and she spoke and I'm almost certainly, I'm almost certain 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 foreign partnerships with in the country.

They obviously have this huge crypto deal with the United Arab Emirates, $5 million in and $500 million investment in world liberty financial from the UAE Royal shake to noon bins. I'm not even going to try, but the point is 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 amoluments 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.

And yeah, no, I mean, it's not even hiding it, the $500,000 club membership to the executive club that he's unlaunched on junior in Washington.

And it's just a bunch of lobbyists who want to move up at memories, who want access. And I do think there is, you know, the, the brazenness is part of the secrets us, 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 are upset with the framing of the piece and how I wrote it and questioned the underlying facts. 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, 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.

“That was public recorded. You can go read the transcripts. 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 and saying 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 need 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 presidents.

Like, are Republicans going to be okay with Mark Cuban using the presidency to galvance across the world.

Land a bunch of licensing deals, make billions upon billions 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.”

The whole thing about it is that if you're on a apologetic, 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 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, but you point out.

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 draw. 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 families or the presidency,”

they're going to have to pick some like more tangible, maybe you know how to tell a story. And I actually don't think they do a great job of telling stories right now. 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 this opinion about it. 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 help 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 to animate it about that. Also, it's like, maybe it's justified. There should be this place to host the events of the White House and it should be the secure bunker and whatever.

The stuff where it's like the partings, the sun's getting money off these government deals, you know, the general premise that the president is profiting from these international deals with foreign adversary. Sometimes foreign allies, whatever it is, but the money's coming in while he's doing businesses 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.

Yeah, I think a number would be really great if they could just Blair and number and be like, yeah.

“100 billion dollars is how President Trump has made from the presidency so far. Like, remember that you should do that with the debt and that would just stop the debt thing.”

The Republicans used that debt banner of how much money were 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?

Well, 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 has grown.

Since you 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 they're 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. Now it's just what, you know, Malania had her own meme coin.

You know, that's not even touching this multi-billion dollar crypto firm. It's just he launched a shit coin, jack the price up, sold a bunch, and pocketed the profits.

And that alone, you know, $350 million, 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 barisma stuff.

Now there, you know, hosting dinners at the White House or Marilago River else, with all the top holders of the coin continuing to pump it. I mean, yeah, it's hard to understand how the overton window moves so fast, but it has. And then also just like the random trading that happens before President Trump announced that they're going to war with Iran. People close to Trump suddenly making a ton of money really bothers me a lot. Um, barren Trump getting in the family business early.

The young and 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 I've even heard of that.

And I wrote this whole, so I don't even know what you're talking about. Well, I'm going to tell you about it. Okay. (Laughter) A Palm Beach based startup focused on Europe, a mountain for everyone who doesn't know what that is. It's a caffeinated herbal tea from Peru. Taking perhaps he will be importing this from Latin America.

(Laughter)

“Will that country have a better terrorist status, CBD?”

The company is set to launch its first product, a pineapple and coconut flavor. That sounds gross. Yeah, that sounds gross. Sorry, one second.

Um, in May, 2021, 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. Ugh. I don't even want to drink. Yeah. I'm hearing about that.

I mean, yeah, it's just, um, that's a, 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. You see one post about it on Twitter and you've got a scroll pass, like, oh God, Baron Trump's making money off this. Whereas 10 years ago, if that was like one of the Obama kids that would have been everywhere. Um, but two is, it's a perfect example of the sorts of conflicts of interest that come up.

You hit the nail right on the head. You hear that. My immediate thought is tariffs. Okay. Fees importing all this stuff. How is he going to navigate that?

“And you have to literally think that Trump would say to a son, Baron.”

Sorry, I'm not going to help you with your tariff problem to get your cost down on your Yoruba Mattei 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. Um, and I think his youngest son, wanting a little help is probably a pretty easy way up case where you'd see the Trump administration acting some way. Um, there he is.

I just wanted to throw that picture up because it's ridiculous and. Yeah. 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. They know how to ship posts. They have sent the message to the world. They know how to ship posts with the best of them. It's true. And the wrapping is really good. The songs are catchy. You know, um, 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 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 letters go so much.

“Um, yeah, I'm worried about your mental health too, but it's okay. I think we're all going to get through this period at some point.”

Isaac, this was a great. I love having you on next time you have a big investigation. You are always welcome to come on the red letter and the terror pulmonary show.

We're definitely in alignment on wanting to expose corruption no matter where it 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 a few make themselves richer. Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate you on with love to do it again. And yeah, keep fighting a good fight. 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 terror pulmonary show. You can send it around. You can support both of us in doing journalism. You can do journalism. Tangle Isaac Saul has an amazing newsletter. Tangle again very investigative driven. Head there, subscribe. You can read his latest piece and 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.

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.

“Hi. I'm Tampson Fidel. Journalist and author of How to Manipause and host of the Tampson Show.”

A weekly podcast with your roadmap to midlife and beyond. We covered all from dating to divorce, aging to ADHD.

Sleep to sex, brain health, the body fat, and even how perimenopause can affect your relationships and trust me. It can.

“Each week I sit down with doctors, experts and leaders along Jevity for unfiltered conversations.”

Pack with advice on everything from hormones to happiness. And of course, how to stay sane during what can be. Well, let's face it a pretty chaotic chapter of life.

Think of us as your midlife survival guide. New episodes released every Wednesday. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.