Snapshot · The Bulwark Podcast
Trump has $14 million in personal hotel licensing deals in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, creating direct conflicts of interest with his foreign policy decisions involving those nations.
Where this was said
At 4:45 · chapter starts 1:53
Tim Miller leads with Trump's financial disclosures as the episode's central corruption story: at least $2.2 billion earned since returning to office, much of it from crypto ventures tied to the UAE investment fund [1] — Tim Miller "Trump's $2.2B income since returning to office: Trump's financial disclosures revealed he made at least $2.2 billion since returning to the…" 01:53 . Susan Glasser frames it in historical terms: Trump is doing what he accused Hunter Biden of — trading on presidential access — but at a scale that adds many zeros. Hunter Biden's board seat at a Ukrainian energy company was an embarrassment worth millions; Trump's foreign-linked billions represent something categorically different. Glasser poses the key political question of the moment: is the country so inured to Trump's corruption that it no longer registers, or is this the issue that finally breaks his coalition? She notes that unlike essentially any predecessor, Trump has decided to openly monetize the presidency as if he is, in her words, 'a consequentialist maximalist' who believes no accountability will come.
Trump's financial disclosures revealed he made at least $2.2 billion since returning to the presidency, vastly exceeding his pre-presidency wealth.
Trump's financial disclosures revealed he earned at least $2.2 billion since returning to office — mostly from crypto and foreign investment deals. This dwarfs anything Hunter Biden or any prior president's family ever did, and it's happening in real time with zero accountability.
Qatar gifted Trump a $400 million plane — a hand-me-down the emirate no longer wanted — and U.S. taxpayers then paid hundreds of millions more to upgrade it for presidential use. Trump plans to keep it personally via his presidential library. Meanwhile, Qatar is a key player in the Iran conflict and Hamas negotiations that Trump is actively managing.
Qatar gifted Trump a $400 million plane; U.S. taxpayers paid additional hundreds of millions to fit it with presidential-grade communications and security gear.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.