Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Nicolle Trump's outlandish plan to turn vanity project arch into military complex is 'SO STUPID'

Transcript

Nicolle Trump's outlandish plan to turn vanity project arch into military complex is 'SO STUPID' · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Nearly two years into Trump's second term as president, it's
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: clear that his number one priority is boosting his own ego,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: protecting his feelings from critical press coverage and pocketing as
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: much cash from the American people and other foreign entities
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: as he can, even if the American people suffer in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the process. His plans for a gilded arch face an
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: uphill battle in court. Trump has found a workaround so
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: stupid and dangerous that only he could come up with it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: He posted this on social media, quote, At the strong
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: request of the United States military and for national security purposes,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I have agreed to convert the magnificent triumphal arch into
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a top-grade military complex to house store and have the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus... capitalized
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: snipers on both the roof and plaza areas and additionally
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: have and hold large quantities of blah blah blah blah
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to read the rest of this now
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: while Trump is clearly trying to create some security predicate
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: for having his shiny arch overlooking Arlington National Cemetery and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Truth doesn't really track with the things he's saying. Washington
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Post reports this, quote, Trump and his deputies had previously
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: maintained that the arch would be a new tourist attraction,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and the administration has released detailed plans of its intentional
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: design and outside observation deck. Critics also question the practicality
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of building a military complex at the center of a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: widely used traffic circle not far from Reagan National Airport.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Trump's plans to place snipers and drones in proximity of
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: America's largest, one of America's largest airports and something that's
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: supposed to be a tourist attraction is only the latest
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: in his apparent willingness to play fast and loose with
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: American lives and ludicrous, contradictory rationales. Washington Post is reporting this, quote,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Trump's sprawling family business empire has become increasingly intertwined. With
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the boom in AI, at the same time that he
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: has resisted calls to slow the development of the technology,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a Washington Post analysis of his financial disclosures and corporate
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: announcements finds. Trump also has a personal financial stake in
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: industries benefiting from the AI build-out, creating potential conflicts of
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: interest as his administration makes decisions that could affect the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: value of those investments. Trump Media and Technology Group, the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: parent company of Truth Social, has announced a merger with
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a nuclear fusion company that plans to develop power plants
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: as electricity demand surges in part, in large part, because
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of the rapid expansion of AI data centers. In response
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to that, Washington Post reporting a White House spokesperson said
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: there are, cue the propaganda, quote, no conflicts of interest.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I want to bring in one of our White House
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: reporters who continues to press Donald Trump and the White
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: House despite... the White House banning her, Laura Barron-Lopez, who
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we heard moments ago pressing New York City mayors Zohra
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Mamdami and Donald Trump about the press ban. Also joining us,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at DOJ,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Mary McCord. Eddie is still here. Laura, my question for you,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and good on you for getting in a question to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the mayor and the president working around that ban. Thank you.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you about what we know about the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: investment and the entanglement of Trump and his family's enrichment
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: from their own disclosures. Trump is someone who refused to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: release his own taxes for years because he lied about
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: or said he was being audited. What we know is
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: what he's disclosed. How much do you think we don't know?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Well, there could be a lot that we don't know because, again,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: we find it out whether it's because reporters like us
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: are pressing for it, scouring through those disclosures, or others
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: are uncovering it through sources. I mean, that is how
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: it was discovered that John Jr. 's wedding, in part,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: was paid for by a Russian oligarch. And Only after
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: it was discovered did the president and his family have
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to answer for that. And so there are obviously larger
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: questions also that my colleague Akilah Gardner has written about
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: in terms of the Trump sons working with potential outside
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: businesses who are getting government contracts. We don't know the
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: full extent to where all of the government contracts are
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: even going and how the different members of the Trump
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: family are– helping with those contracts, enabling those contracts to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: go to friends that are made or not. But this
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: president and his family are very transactional. And the president
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: himself has openly talked about liking to be transactional. And
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: even in the case of as he's looking at different
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: projects and trying to get funding for those projects, be
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: it the ballroom, the way he solicits it from private donors.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: And the administration has not released the full list of
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: those private donors or other ways that he is trying
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to solicit donations from private companies and big CEOs. He
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: hasn't released those full lists. And I was just talking
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: to a former administration official recently about this transactional nature
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and them essentially saying that the president likes it when
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: people bring things to him. And in return, he may
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: ask how he can help them as well, Nicole.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, Mary, it leaves us with the portrait that
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Anne Applebaum writes in her latest piece in The Atlantic
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: with a country that is suddenly for sale to the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: highest bidder. The AI example in the reporting I just read,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: just one example. But as Laura's pointing out, Don Jr.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: 's wedding being paid for by a Russian oligarch in
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: such good standing with Vladimir Putin that he left Putin's
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  Speaker 1: entourage to travel abroad. to Don Jr.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: 's wedding.
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  Speaker 1: What is your sense of how far we are from
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  Speaker 1: anything that is ethical, legal or normal?
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: Well, like so many things we've talked about over the
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: last year and a half, Nicole, it's like it shows
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: you that norms that have guided presidents in the past
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  Speaker 4: just don't work with this president. It is the case
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: that presidents are not subject to all of the same
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: ethical restraints as other federal government employees. And in previous presidencies,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: that didn't so much matter because presidents wanted the public
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: to be able to see them as presidents who were
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: not capable of being bought off, whether it's by a
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  Speaker 4: foreign government who's looking for a favor, a domestic company
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: looking for a favor or what have you. And so they,
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: you know, voluntarily stayed within the lanes and the boundaries
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: of ethics, not, you know, always with zero exceptions, but always.
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  Speaker 4: What we're seeing now just doesn't even compare. And I
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: think it is time for us to be thinking like
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: we have with so many other authorities that the president
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: has abused. Like, are there things Congress should be doing
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: to try to restrict? But I would also say... That
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: kind of depends on what happens in the midterms, because
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: even where there are restrictions that Congress could be doing
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: more to enforce, like you're not allowed to tear down
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: the east wing of the of the White House and
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: build a ballroom without getting congressional approval. Right now, we
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: have a Congress that doesn't do anything about that, even
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: though they could. In addition to oversight, they can bring litigation.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: But until the leadership changes, that's not going to happen. But,
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: you know, I think we'll be seeing if leadership changes.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: very robust legislative agenda to maybe try to fill in
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: some of the gaps.
• 7:42
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