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Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, November 21st, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that has learned that Elon Musk’s AI assistant bot, Grok, has been programmed to say exceedingly nice things about Elon Musk. When I say exceeding, I mean quote, “more fit than LeBron, a better quarterback than retired NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, a better supermodel than Naomi Campbell,” and, um, some achievements I really cannot describe on this show. [music break] On today’s show, President Donald Trump threatens violence against Democrats. Shocker. And New York City mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, gears up for an Oval Office meeting. But let’s start with a word that, weirdly, isn’t one of Trump’s favorites, corruption. You probably heard a lot, like on this show, about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the United States this week, complete with pomp, circumstance, and some murder rationalizing. But you may have missed another story about a foreign country with some fancy gift-giving habits, Switzerland. See, the United States set tariffs on Switzerland at 39% back in April, which, understandably, made Switzerland very, very upset. So companies from Switzerland and Liechtenstein pledged to invest $200 billion in the US over the next five years. But like every foreign country now, Switzerland knew what it really needed to do, give Trump fancy gifts. During a visit by the Swiss delegation on November 4th, Trump received a 1 kilogram gold bar stamped with 45 and 47, with an estimated value of $130,000, as well as a special Rolex desktop clock. According to the White House, Trump accepted these gifts on behalf of his library, making them totally legal. Sure. And voila! Last week, the U.S. lowered tariffs on Switzerland from 39% to 15%. I’m sure in no part related to a gold bar weighing 2.2 pounds. If we’ve learned anything about this administration, it’s that it is perpetually for sale. From $400 million planes to $300 million ballrooms, from cryptocurrency to just plain currency, Donald Trump and his family have profited massively from his return to the White House. According to the Center for American Progress, the Trump family has received nearly $2 billion dollars in cash and gifts since President Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Here’s Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons speaking to MSNOW’s Katy Tur on Wednesday in response to Crown Prince Bin Salman’s visit to the United States and the money Trump’s family stands to make in Saudi Arabia. 

[clip of Senator Chris Coons] The amount of public corruption that we are seeing from this administration is unprecedented in our history. They’re doing it right out in the open. The first time he ran for president, Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp. Now he’s swimming in it. 

Jane Coaston: So for more on just how much money Trump and his family are making from his return to the Oval Office, I spoke to journalist Andrea Bernstein. She’s a writer, podcast host, and author of American Oligarchs, The Kushners, The Trumps, and The Marriage of Money and Power. Andrea, welcome to What a Day. 

Andrea Bernstein: Great to be back, thanks. 

Jane Coaston: So at the start of President Trump’s first term many moons ago in 2017, the Trump Organization agreed not to enter into any new foreign business deals. Did they abide by that pledge? 

Andrea Bernstein: I mean broadly, yes, I mean, it sort of depends what you mean by deals. So during Donald Trump’s first term, there were many foreign leaders who stayed in Trump properties, who otherwise put money into the Trump organization, but in terms of new, for example, real estate deals, licensing deals, he didn’t really do them with foreign countries. And he largely stuck by that. 

Jane Coaston: What were some of the more glaring conflicts of interest that you reported on during the first Trump administration? 

Andrea Bernstein: Yeah, so I mean, one of the things that um, you know, Trump was sued by a number of different parties for violating the Emoluments Clause, which sounds like an extremely obscure part of the Constitution, and it pretty much was a very obscure part of the constitution. Nobody had ever invoked it really in any kind of serious way, now just to back up. So the founders were very, very concerned about corruption. They were as concerned about corruption as a threat to the new republic as they were about war. So, they put in this clause that said, if you are the president of the United States, you cannot accept a gift from a foreign leader unless Congress approves it. And the idea behind that was that everybody understands that if somebody gives you a very nice gift, for example, Benjamin Franklin had been given a snuff box with some 400 diamonds. 

Jane Coaston: Ooh. 

Andrea Bernstein: And the founders understood that if you took something like that, an hour later, you probably wouldn’t be voting against that person’s interest. So that was the idea. So there were a number of lawsuits during the first Trump administration against his taking gifts from foreign leaders in the form of their patronizing Trump properties for the most part. So that came up. The other thing that happened quite a bit is that Trump promoted his brands from the White House. He would go to his golf courses, he would talk about how great they were, he would talk about his properties all the time and he would use the White House to promote his business in a way that he hadn’t promised to do. And also he would bring these large entourages to his properties and then they would pay him money. I mean the so-called perfect phone call where Trump called Ukrainian President Zelensky and said do a investigation of Joe Biden and I’ll take care of the rest. In that phone call Zelensky said, oh, by the way, I stayed at one of your hotels and it was great. Because foreign leaders understood that the way to Trump’s heart was to patronize his businesses. 

Jane Coaston: So true. And while Donald Trump was out of office, he was very busy selling Trump-branded products including Bibles, sneakers, watches, and way more. He was basically like QVC, but for himself. Is his family still profiting from all of these items, or has that died down now that Trump can’t hawk them as directly? I mean, he probably would, but he doesn’t. 

Andrea Bernstein: The Trump family business, according to various estimates, has made anywhere from a billion to six billion dollars, at least on paper, during the presidency. And this comes from all kinds of things. I mean, it comes from things like the meme coin, the Trump meme coin which he announced just days before he took office. He started a crypto company, World Liberty Financial, which is uh run by, essentially, his sons, all three of them, Eric, Don Jr., and Barron Trump, who is still in college. And that is also making money through various foreign deals that it’s doing and including with people who Trump is doing foreign policy deals with, with someone who wanted a pardon from Trump. There are all these avenues to do business with the president’s family business. In a way that Trump, although he’s not running the family business in a day-to-day way, he still can make money off of it. 

Jane Coaston: And this time around, the gloves are totally off, basically non-existent when it comes to foreign deals. How are Trump’s sons justifying that reversal if they’re even doing that at all? 

Andrea Bernstein: Yes. So I was at a Bitcoin conference with Don Jr. and Eric, and they were very clear. They said, we were punished during the first Trump administration for whatever we said, and you can’t win, so we are going to go ahead and be business people and make money as we are entitled to do it. And they have really done that. I mean, they have sold real estate around the globe, including a deal that they are working on right now with Saudi Arabia. They have other property deals going. They have investments coming from the Middle East. There are a myriad of ways in which foreign investors and some US investors are involving themselves in the Trump family business while Donald Trump is president, and we’ve never seen anything like it. 

Jane Coaston: It’s interesting you brought up Saudi Arabia because Trump, during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this week, he said that the Trump organization has done very little business in Saudi Arabia, which, to your point, sounds not very true. But he also said, quote, “I have nothing to do with the family business.” Is that true? Like I know–

Andrea Bernstein: Right. 

Jane Coaston: That that’s one of those things–

Andrea Bernstein: I mean. 

Jane Coaston: –where it seems obviously–

Andrea Bernstein: Yes. 

Jane Coaston: –false, but also I’m like, does he have any–

Andrea Bernstein: Right. 

Jane Coaston: –plausible deniability there? 

Andrea Bernstein: Well, the family business is named Trump, so–

Jane Coaston: Yeah like–

Andrea Bernstein: I think everybody understands what that means. You know, this is somebody who bestows favors on his friends and punishes his enemies, and everyone understands the way to Trump’s heart is to give him money. He’s had foreign leaders from Switzerland come and give him watches. He’s had huge media organizations who want things from the Trump presidency to settle lawsuits and donate to all kinds of, you know, sort of intangible things like the new ballroom or the Trump library. The Qatari government gave him a $400 million plane, which is going to replace airforce one, which needs to be properly retrofitted. And then, after Trump is president, it won’t be the property of the US government. It will go to the Trump Museum/foundation. Which Trump will then control. So there are lots of ways to give to Trump and to get his attention, which don’t mean that he’s sitting at a desk signing loan documents, but people understand that he is the head of the of the company. 

Jane Coaston: Yes, I do think that getting a giant plane from a Middle Eastern government does constitute doing business. But uh you mentioned the Trump family launched World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company. How successful has World Liberty Financial been since Trump took office? 

Andrea Bernstein: I mean, so again, like, this is something, you know, crypto is a business where part of the way you make money is by hanging on to it and getting more people to buy it. And World Liberty Financial has gotten this huge infusion of money this spring from the United Arab Emirates, that was in fact, brokered by a crypto company named Binance, whose CEO was at the time seeking a pardon from the president. So they- 

Jane Coaston: Would that be uh crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao? 

Andrea Bernstein: Exactly, or CZ as people call him. So the company has sort of, you know, drawn a lot of attention and a lot of money, and I think it’s you know quite obvious what happens when people understand that Trump is associated with this company. Now, if you go to the company’s website, you will see that Donald Trump and his co-founder, Steve Witkoff, if that name sounds familiar to people, it’s because Steve Witkoff is Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, now negotiating possibly a Ukraine deal. 

Jane Coaston: Sure. 

Andrea Bernstein: With Russia. And they are listed on the website as founders emeritus. And then there’s a little asterisk that said, well, you know, they’re, they’re not running the company anymore, but their pictures are on the website and Donald Trump is nothing if not a master of branding. And I think it’s pretty clear to him how to get people’s attention and how to get people people’s investment. And I, think in some ways it’s kind of the perfect Trump business, because it depends on gaining the confidence of consumers and getting people to place their money in this pool of money where Trump can, the Trump family, broadly speaking, can figure out ways to make money from it. And Donald Trump, if we, you know, he says, okay, I’m, I just own this. I’m not involved with it, but he too is in a position to profit. 

Jane Coaston: Now I knew a lot of this, but you putting it all together is like, it’s the amount of obvious to me corruption is astronomical. Is there any work being done to try to rein any of this in or apply more oversight towards President Trump’s apparent conflicts of interest or are we just like, have we just blown past that highway exit?

Andrea Bernstein: To the question of oversight, what happened this time around is not only did Donald Trump sort of take over the presidency and make this announcement, but he also very early on fired the inspector’s general, the corruptions watchdogs. So the people internally who would might blow the whistle are gone. Um. The other entity that can really blow the whistle is Congress. There are some Democrats in Congress who’ve been very actively protesting this. But I think until we see the Republican controlled Senate and the Republican controlled House decide to blow a whistle on it, the control mediums or the ways to control what Donald Trump is doing are blunted. On top of that, you have a Supreme Court, which ruled in Trump versus the United States, which was the case that arose out of the January 6th case, that Trump had extremely broad immunity and could be prosecuted for very little, almost nothing that he did while in office. I mean, there are some exceptions, but it gave him immunity to use his government office to do many things. So he feels very empowered and that enables him to do things that not only promote his ideology and his philosophy and his principles, but also things that can help his company with a lot more impunity. 

Jane Coaston: Great. Andrea, thank you so much for joining me. 

Andrea Bernstein: It’s great to talk to you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Andrea Bernstein, podcast host and author of American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, and The Marriage of Money and Power. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines.

[clip of unknown speaker 1] This administration is pitting our uniformed military. 

[clip of unknown speaker 2] And intelligence community professionals. 

[clip of unknown speaker 3] Against American citizens. 

[clip of unknown speaker 1] Like us, you all swore an oath. 

[clip of unknown speaker 2] To protect and defend this constitution. 

Jane Coaston: In a video posted Tuesday, six Democratic lawmakers with military and national security backgrounds told service members that they not only can refuse unlawful commands, but that they must. Trump, very normally, replied on Truth Social by calling the video, quote, “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” He then amplified posts claiming the video was an insurrection. Some even called for the lawmakers to be hanged, something Trump typically reserves only for his former vice president. Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin responded on Thursday. 

[clip of Senator Elissa Slotkin] I would hope that people of all backgrounds, Democrat, Republican, Independent, would agree that threatening death for people you disagree with is beyond the pale of who we are as Americans. 

Jane Coaston: At a briefing Thursday, White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, defended Trump’s post saying, quote, “to suggest and encourage that active duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do.” Colorado Democratic Representative Jason Crowe, one of the veterans in the video, spoke with Crooked Media’s Matt Berg, who asked Crowe about Leavitt’s statement. 

[clip of Representative Jason Crowe] What they do is they literally say the exact opposite of what we said. What we said was the oath and the constitution and the law require that people only obey lawful orders. Because there is actually a law that says, you can’t violate the law if you are in uniform. That’s what we stated. They are trying to say the opposite and accuse us of things that we did not say, which you know is par for the course with them. 

Jane Coaston: The government finally released its September job numbers, you know, the ones that would have been released in early October if it wasn’t delayed by the longest government shutdown ever. The Department of Labor said 119,000 jobs were added, an unexpectedly strong number given the 50,000 jobs economists had predicted. But unfortunately for Trump, the good news ends there. The delayed report offered revisions on August job numbers citing the loss of 4,000 jobs instead of the 22,000 added jobs reported originally. Not great, and more bad news for Mr. The Economy is booming. The economy also lost jobs in June, which marked the first time since the 2020 pandemic that the monthly jobs report turned negative twice in a single year. We’ll also have to wait even longer to get more real job numbers, since the Department of Labor said Wednesday that a full October job report won’t be coming because the government shutdown prevented it from calculating the unemployment rate. It was reported that Customs and Border Patrol was winding down its immigration enforcement operation in Charlotte, North Carolina, nearly a week after agents were first deployed to the city, according to the local sheriff’s office. But Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told news outlets, quote, “The operation is not over and it is not ending anytime soon.” Ruining both lives and a classic children’s book in one fell swoop, Operation Charlotte’s Web has resulted in the arrest of more than 250 people by immigration officers in North Carolina. Though federal officials have offered few details about those arrested. And because CBP is an equal opportunity terrifier, the Associated Press reported earlier this week that it is preparing a new enforcement operation focused on Louisiana and Mississippi. According to internal documents obtained by the AP and people familiar with the plan, agents could begin staging in the region as early as today ahead of a December 1st launch. Operation Swamp Sweep aims to arrest up to 5,000 people who were in the U.S. illegally over the coming weeks. There’s slightly better news coming out of Chicago, though. On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the release of more than 300 people detained during federal immigration enforcement operations in the city. Attorneys argued the arrest violated a standing court order because they were carried out without warrants. 

[clip of Karoline Leavitt] It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House because that’s who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country. 

Jane Coaston: White House press secretary and top of the worst Americans list, Karoline Leavitt, said Thursday President Trump is willing to meet with anyone on behalf of Americans. And by anyone, she means New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. How kind of the president. For what it’s worth, Mamdani has been very vocal about being a democratic socialist, not a communist. Not that I would expect Karoline Leavitt to know the difference. Trump said in a Truth Social post this week that Mamdani asked to meet and confirmed a sit-down would take place in the Oval Office today. Mamdani told reporters ahead of his trip to D.C. that the meeting gives him a chance to make his case. 

[clip of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani] It’s more critical than ever given the national crisis of affordability, one that New Yorkers know very well across these five boroughs, and the specific challenge many cities are facing with balancing public safety against steps taken by this administration. 

Jane Coaston: But don’t worry, Mamdani hasn’t blown his principles to curry favor. 

[clip of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani] I have many disagreements with the president and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker. 

Jane Coaston: Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral race earlier this month with a campaign heavily focused on the affordability crisis. Trump watched the race closely with a particular disdain for Mamdani. The president had threatened to punish New York city, his hometown that now hates him, by withholding federal funds if Mamdani won. Nothing like a hometown feud to get you in the spirit of Thanksgiving. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing, it’s Friday, so let’s end our show with some positive news. Everyone kind of hates this presidency. Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 38%, according to Reuters. He’s dropped 17 points with Independents. And Fox News reported on Wednesday that his approval rating on the economy is the lowest of either of his terms in office. Though Fox and Friends host Lawrence Jones argued that maybe the American people are being too mean to poor old Donald Trump. 

[clip of FOX News host Lawrence Jones] I’m not going to tell the American people how to feel, because I think Joe Biden made that mistake of saying, hey, you know, it’s transitory, you’re not feeling it. But it has only been nine months and the bill the big beautiful bill has not it was passed but it’s not been implemented just yet. There’s still some time for that so he’s giving people and then when it comes to some of the energy policy all of that has not been implemented just yet, so I’m not saying hold on a little bit, but I am saying it’s kind of unfair right when someone has been there nine months to put it all on them. 

Jane Coaston: It definitely sounds like he’s trying to tell the American people what to feel and to hold on a little bit, but I digress. Trump’s approval has plummeted with pretty much everyone. According to YouGov, his net approval with white Americans has fallen by 17 points, and his net with Black Americans has dropped 36 points. Though it’s worth noting that his approval with Black Americans was already negative at the start of his second term. And with Latino voters, it’s very bad. CNN’s Harry Enten on Tuesday took a deep dive on the numbers. 

[clip of CNN’s Harry Enten] You know, back a year ago, what did we see on the issue of immigration? Latino voters trusted Kamala Harris more than Donald Trump, but by just two points, one, two, look now at Donald Trump’s net approval rating on immigration among Latinos. He is 38 points underwater. That is a 36 point shift essentially from where we were a year ago on immigration. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were basically tied on the issue of immigration, and now on the issue of immigration, Latinos despise, hate Donald Trump, 38 points under water, in their mind he is doing something absolutely wrong when it comes to immigration. 

Jane Coaston: Looking at all of this, perhaps Trump’s election did not mark a vibe shift or a golden age or a reason for financial professionals to start using slurs again. Maybe, just maybe, voters thought that Donald Trump would make the economy like it was in 2019. And he hasn’t. Instead, he’s destroyed the east wing of the White House, apparently given the keys to the Twitter feed for the Department of Homeland Security to white nationalist shit posters, and made lots and lots of money for himself and his family. Maybe that’s why voters are mad? Just a theory. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, say toodle-oo to Larry Summers at Harvard, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about the former president of Harvard University whose chummy emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were exposed by the House Oversight Committee earlier this month, and who, after saying earlier this week that he’d keep teaching at Harvard, decided to step aside while Harvard completes a review of his ties to Epstein, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out, and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and I’ve already seen some pundits arguing that this is a witch hunt. But honestly, this was a man who asked Jeffrey Epstein how to seduce a student he was mentoring while married, so it’s more of an idiot hunt. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Fohr and Chris Allport. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Caitlin Plummer, Tyler Hill, and Ethan Oberman. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

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