Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Trump's meme coin to host exclusive dinner for top holders as Americans struggle to make ends meet

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Trump's meme coin to host exclusive dinner for top holders as Americans struggle to make ends meet · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump is once again accessible to the highest bidder.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The company behind the president's meme coin is hosting a
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: private dinner at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: for top investors in his cryptocurrency.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Surprise, surprise.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: So far, Donald Trump has earned $ 635 million from his
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: meme coin in just his first year in office. That
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is according to financial disclosures. Joining us, professor at Yale
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Law School and president of the Budget Lab at Yale,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Natasha Sarin. Eamon Moyadine is with us. So is this
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: helping people's budgets? It is hard to draw the connection.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: But one thing that we have been talking about with
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: both of you over the course of the last few
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: years is that President Trump, when he was elected in 2024,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: was elected on a mandate to help the American people
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: with the issues that matter to them with respect to affordability.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: On all of those dimensions, we're actually in quite bad
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: shape at the moment. We're in a situation where In
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the last year, workers' wages haven't actually kept pace with
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: price increases.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about those jobs numbers as well.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: And the jobs numbers. So workers' wages haven't kept pace
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: with price increases from inflation. And today we got a
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: relatively low jobs number. We got 29,000 jobs, which honestly,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: if you average over the course of the last three months,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: the labor market unemployment is still high. pretty much at
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: around 4.1, 4.2 percent. But we're in a situation where
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: on a host of metrics, it really doesn't feel like
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: this is an economy that's doing great for regular people.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: And it does feel like it's an economy that's doing
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: great for people in the financial position of the president.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: This is where I think we're all trying to figure
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: this out. Does Donald Trump actually believe the economy is
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: great because he's feeling it's great? And his friends feel
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: it's great. And he looks at the stock market and
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the stock market's doing well. So does he actually believe
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: that and wonder what's going on in the rest of
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the country? Or has he just stopped caring and is
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: now just lining his pockets?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: He does not care. Donald Trump is about enriching himself,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: enriching his family. You know, we talk a lot about
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: the wheelings and dealings of Donald Trump. But if you
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: widen that circle out to include people like Howard Lutnick,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, It is a kleptocracy. This is
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: an administration that has managed to make billions of dollars
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: in dealings that are super questionable at the best. I
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: don't even want to say illegal, but certainly, hopefully, if
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: the Democrats take power in November, can begin by investigating
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: a lot of these transactions and these relationships. Because you
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: have a president who, whether it is the ballroom going
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: to sponsors, corporate sponsors, or whether it is cryptocurrencies, or
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: whether his son raising billions of dollars from sovereign wealth
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: funds while he's negotiating an end to wars in the
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Middle East... I think that there is a lot of
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: questions to be asked, and certainly the American people aren't
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: getting answers. So the short answer to your question is
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  Speaker 3: I don't think Donald Trump cares about farmers. I don't
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: think he cares about hourly wages and workers in this country.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: What he cares about is he knows he's in power
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: for four years, maybe unchecked for years. two years. And
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: so he wants to enrich himself as.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Much as possible. So getting into this dinner where you
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: get to see the president, you'll have access to the president,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is potentially going to cost you a million dollars worth
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: of Trump coin to guarantee you an invitation. A million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Have you heard of a president finding a way to
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: auction off? Not just like, you know, this is auctioning
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: off an invitation to a dinner. And using the thing
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that you buy is the thing that actually pays him.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: It goes into his pocket.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that you really worry about,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: that I worry about as an economist as I'm watching
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: all of this happen in kind of like shocking ways
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: in real time, is that one of the things that's
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: made the American economy great, the place where foreigners want
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: to invest, the place where people from other countries who
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: look to build businesses want to come in, is that
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: it is an economy that is based on rules. And
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: an economy that is based on the rule of law.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: And institutions that are strong, like a strong independent central bank.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And what you worry about as you hear these stories
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: is not about any one particular dinner or any one
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: particular deal. You worry that we're transitioning from a rules-based
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: economy to a deals-based economy. And frankly, that the consequences
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: of that might very well outlive this particular president. Right.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: The president makes, what, $ 350, 000 a year? Is that the salary?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: It hasn't changed in a long time. I think it's that.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: That is— it' s a lot of money, but it still puts
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you in a realm where you have some sensitivity to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: what Americans are going for. It makes you relatively accessible.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump doesn't see the presidency that way. He sees
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the presidency as— magnificent, as luxurious. I mean, he wants
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the White House to be more luxurious. He's called it
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a building of luxury. It's not. That's never what it
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: was intended to be. There's a real disconnect with the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: way that he sees the seat of power and the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: way the seat of power in this country was always
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: intended to be a representative of of the people, a
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: country run by the people.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: It's such an important point because when you go to
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: presidential palaces in Europe or palaces elsewhere in the Middle East,
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  Speaker 3: they always used to be so opulent and so over
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: the top. And the White House didn't have that. The
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: White House was more about the history it carried and
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: the significance of it. I mean, for those who have
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: been in the Oval Office, it is an impressive office,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: but it was never the lavish office of like the
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: French Elysee Palace or, you know, the. palace in Rome
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  Speaker 3: or what have you, where heads of states usually- A
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: fucking palace? Yeah, or where heads of states gather around
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: the world. But to your point and to Natasha's point,
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  Speaker 3: it's not just that the business community is seeing this,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: international business community is seeing this and saying like, hey,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: America is changing. Our politicians now are starting to see
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: that if you are willing to wheel and deal with
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump, if you're willing to be part of his
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: grift and You will be enriched and you will be rewarded.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: And we saw that recently in Texas with the Republican
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: convention that was held there where tickets were selling for $ 250, 000
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: for a picture with Donald Trump and a roundtable dinner.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: It was a convention that nobody needed. It was not
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: a party convention that actually passed any policy platforms, elected
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: delegates or did anything. It was just for the Republican
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Party to enrich itself with Donald Trump at TrumpCon.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: $ 400, 000 is what the president earns. I just did a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: quick check on Google. $ 400, 000. It's been that way since 2001.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I graduated in 2001, which was the last time I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: think I learned about presidential salary in a classroom. And
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: that maybe is why I got the number wrong. All right.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Natasha Surin, Eamon Moyadine, thank you very much. Graduated from
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: high school.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Qualifier. Hey, it's Rachel.
• 6:50
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• 6:51
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• 6:53
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• 7:08
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• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Thanks.