Foreign Conflicts and Family Wealth

Today explained from Voach, Seawn Robasfirm here in Washington, DC, where all the attention is on the reflecting pool Back in May, it was going to be indestructible. If you had a dife, I don't wantan to give anybody ideas. If you had a knife, you can't even cut it. Yesterday, it's been vandalized. Who would think that somebody would go into a pool and take a knife and start cutting it People are big mad because it sure looks a lot like the president of the United States gave a buddy of his and another company like fifteen million dollars or so of our taxpayer money to completely bungle a renovation of our national mall just weeks before our nation's two hundred fiftieth birthday. What a waste, what a scam. We're going get to that one later in the week On the show today we're going to talk about two Trumpy scams that are directly enriching the Trump family all while Daddy Trump is running the country, the Trump phone, which maybe you've heard about, and a Trump bank, which maybe you haven't Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin orr what that clunking sound from your dryer is With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro You just have to hire one You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app Download today Support for this show comes from Fetch Pet Insurance Do you have a pet Every six seconds, a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill of over a thousand dollars, and it's almost always an unwelcome surprise That's where Fetch pet insurance comes in. Fetch is the most complete pet insurance paid back up to ninety percent of vet bills. You can use any vet in the US and Canada. All vets are in network Go to fetchpet dot com slash save right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet d. com slash save. Lisa, what happened? Greg waited until nine o'clock last night to get started. That's when my free minutes kick in. You are fired, you minute hoarding clockwatcher. Ding ding, ding, ding, ding ding Bum. Don Preston, news editor at the Verge. And you recently wrote about a telephone I did a very specific telephone, the T one phone eight ero zero two brackets gold version What a name? What a name? AKA the Trump phone, which is what everyone's been calling it, just it's a bit less of a mouthful. We're here to talk about the one the only Maybe even the infamous Trump phone. Gold casing a flag stamped on the back. This long awaited T one phone from Trump Mobile is finally here. But yes, it was just the one year anniversary of the announcement of Trump Mobile and the Trump phone. The made in America phone It wasn't really made in America One year later has still kind of only halfway launched. Do you have one I do not I have one on the way. It has been we have paid for one. The Virge has bought a phone. We've put down money. U is it is somewhere in transit at the moment How much does a Trump phone cost? four hundred and ninety nine bucks. Oh, But to get that, you've got to put down a hundred dollarars deposit. So we paid one hundred dollars a year ago and have been waiting very patiently ever since to see if we would get anything in exchange for that one hundred bucks. It looks like maybe we actually will Donald Trump, president of the United States, I believe user of the iPhone. Yeah Yy phone? veryer unclear in all honesty. I think the bigger angle from the Trump organization perspective, they just like licens the name to this company that's running all this stuff Really, they seem to be building it all around the network. There's Strom Mobile, which has this plan called the forty seven plan, which costs you forty seven, forty fiveents a month. forty fifth presresident of the United States. forty fifth and forty seven. Very carefully chosen numbers. Wow. And I think that's really what it's about. That's the way of making money. I shout outed to a couple executives from the company back in February this year And they kind of said we're we're in the razor bllade business, not the razor business, by which they clearly meant The money is made in the monthly subscription service, the money is made in the plan. Here's what you get, Unlimited talk, text and data, free calls to over one hundred countries including places like US military bases. You will see the telecom tax being added to the cost of the plan. And this is really high. This is higher than the taxes and fees added by AT and T, TMobile, or Verizon The phone When I spoke to these executives, they keatch when I'd downplay the phone. likeike the phone was this m idea they'd have. The phone was this thing that would dram up interest in the plan. And then suddenly all anyone wanted to talk about was the phone. I think I might be the first person to have T one Trump Guys, you will not believe what I have in my hand. This is actually the Trumpe. the T one. It's actually real So weird, but tell us about this phone? I mean, how does it compare to some of the most popular phones on the market It's a very generic mid range Android phone.. It's golden. It's kind of golden m isish. It's a bit of a yellowy gold in person from everything I've heard. They couldn't even get the gold, right? The phrase pe colored has been thrown around. Oh no. And this anodized aluminum is just straight up not gold. It's not even really yellow, It's like orangey It's ugly. Not real goal. Look at this cheap pie This is a phone circuit like what twenty eighteen? It's golden ish. It's got an American flag on the back on the back. We've got the American flag with the n Not enough stripes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven stripes. This is the T one phone is made for Americans that they kind of got the I think in a way, one of the funny things about it is it's not a bad phone from the specs. The specs they're pretty decent. The screen looks nice, it's one hundred and twenty hertz panel. It's got a pretty respectable Qualcom chip set inside. It's got five hundred twelve gigabytes of storage and twelve gigabytes of RAM, which is certainly in the current economy is actually getting kind of unusual.. So bits of the spec sheet look good for four hundred and ninety nine bucks. The problem is there's just So much a good phone these days is actually about the software and the support and the stuff around the pure hardware that's inside. And that's where we look at this and just think Trump mobile is definitely going to be lacking. I mean just the obvious thing is long term support. They've made absolutely no commitment to how long they're going to keep giving people software updates for the phone. And when I asked executives about that, they just seem kind of confused by the question whichich isn't a great sign when you've got companies like Google and Samsung promising, you'll get updates for seven years. This can be your phone for a long time. Okay, so it's a decent phone hardware wise. It looks like it's going to be a problematic phone software wise. Who is it for? Is it just for people who wear Mga hats Presumably, that's a big part of the base for this. I can't imagine they're really trying to draw in anyone who's particularly technically minded. I think one of the telling things from what we've seen, there've been a couple of people who've gotten the phone and kind of managed to unbox it and see what's inside is that it actually comes with a printed user manual. which includes instructions like how to make a phone call whichich it's been a long time since Apple sent out a phone with instructions on how to make a phone call And I think that probably speaks a little bit to the audience they think they have here, which is people who are as far from technically minded as you can get and really We do not have a decent understanding of what they're buying here. Do we know how many such people have bought this thing so far Not entirely. There were rumors for a long time that there'd been six hundred thousand preordders of the phone, but I couldn't find a shred of evidence that that was true. I mean, that would be a huge number for a company like this and would represent a lot of money coming in even just from the hundred dollar deposits. It looks more likely that it's somewhere in the twenty to thirty thousand range. They had a website leak It turned out they weren't really securing order data properly. So some people managed to get in and pull out what appeared to be a complete database of every order that had been placed. and that had twenty seven thousand and something entries in it So that was as of about a month ago So that looks like there might be the cap of how many of these they've sold, but it's hard to be certain and the company hasn't confirmed or denied either way. And what do we know about the production process? You mentioned with some skepticism that one of the promises of this phone would be that it would be made in the United States where of course, not many cell phones are made. What's the truth of that claim So it doesn't look like it's made in the US. at all. And in fact, even Trump mobile admits that. Oh, Trump moobile has had to make changes for its upcoming smartphone. Earlier this week, made in the USA was taken off the Trump mobile website. Well, now they're scrapping that tagline It sounds like they just realized that the phone cannot be manufactured in the US of A For that price tag of four hundred and ninety nine dollars. They said it was made in the USA when they first announced the phone And they walked that back less than two weeks later It took I think twelve days for them to say Oh no, okay. And they just very quietly went into the website, took away every mention of made in the US, and replaced it with these very vague suggestive phrases like American hands behind every device. desesigned with American values in mind this is like iterations of the classic apple, the iconic designed in Cupertina, right? Yes, very careful in that. They do now say it is assembled in the US. I've been told that happens in Miami. We don't know exactly what that means. I mean, made in the US is protected terminology. The FTC has very strict regulations on what counts is made in the US And the hard bit of it is basically every component has to be US made. And for a phone, that's borderline impossible. There's one company called Purism that manages it and their phone costs two grand U huh The FDC does also regulate assembly in the US. There are some criteria there. They're a bit broader, they're a bit looser. Hopefully, it is honestly meeting those assembled in the US. criteria. It means it's got to be more than a simple screwdver assembly is the phrasing. So in theory, they can't just be getting a couple bits and slapping the cover on the phone and shipping it out. They have to be getting it in sort of a smaller number of pieces and making a substantial transformation. but we don't know exactly what's going on there. U We're not sure where it is made, but we have some pretty good guesses. It looks uncannily like a phone called the HTCU twenty four Pro. And now that some people have managed to get the phone and tear it open, we know that it looks uncannily like that phone inside and out. It has pretty much the same body Almost all the same parts. The battery is different. That's basically it, which seems to really strongly suggest they are basically the same device. And that HCC phone is made in China So we don't know where the Trump phone is made that the phone it seems to be a carbon copy of is made in China That sounds a little bit like a grift. Is it a grift, Dom I have gone back and forth on this question every day for the past twelve months. I've been reporting about this thing kind of week in week out for seven or eight months now and constantly going back and forth on whether this is a scam, a grrift, whatever The general place I've settled on is that it's a bit of a rip off. They are definitely overcharging for what they're selling. But it's that combined with a lot of naivety about how realistic and simple it is to put together a phone and sell it. You know, they annced this thing would be made in the USA and would ship Within two or three months of them announcing it, which anyone could just tell was nonsense. The moment they said this, everyone on YouTube was like, that's not happening. So what is going to happen? Let's try to figure that out. because it's not what they just said U And yeah, that's my general feeling. there's a sort of incompetence and naivety mixed with a little bit of a desire to just make a quick buck Read Dom at theVverge. com We're heading to the Trump bank when we're back on today Explained. Cfort to explain comes from Chime. And if you're thinking about, you know your doorbell, then you got another thing coming. ' sometimes banking can feel like going through an obstacle course, constantly trying to avoid overdraft fees, minimum balance requirements and monthly charges. Chime wants to make things easier. Chime is changing the way people bank by offering rewarding, fee free banking, banking built for you, because why should you pay to get your own money? A question as old as timeime and Chime wants to answer it. Chime is int a traditional bank in that they won't charge you overdraft monthly fees. and they even have thousands of fee free ATMs for you use built for you. Not the one percent, the pesky one percent. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. You can head to chime. com slash explain. That is chime d. com slash explained It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is Fintch not a bank banking services for Pay and Chimeard provided by Chime' bank partners optional products andvices have fees charg, stated anual percentageield cash for Chim prime, minimum balance requred. Taking account ranking bas on JP Powerurvey published octber twenty, twenty five. For more information on APY rates, my Pay, spot me and travel perks, go to Chime com slash disclos Support for the show comes from Hs and Hims wants to support you too. because E is ED is more common than most people think. And for many people, it's more manageable than they realize. they don't put a period between the E and the D. so I'm always gladed to say Ed, but I think it's ED. HISs makes it easy to connect online with a licensed provider to explore Treatments for ED, options that fit your needs, all on your schedule from the privacy of your home Medications through hymns include Sedenophil, also known as generic for Viagra, available up to ninety five percent less than the brand name version. Plus there are additional treatment options available so you can find what works best for you. To get simple online access to personalized affordable care for ED hair, loss, weaight, loss and more visit Hs d. com slash explained. That's Hims dot com slash explained. For your free online visit Hs dot com slash explain, prescription required C website for details And important safety information, Sedenifhil is the generic version of Viagara. Viagara is a registered trademark of Viatrice. Specialty LLC Hys is not affiliated with or endorsed by Vatrice Pd for todayod Explained comes from Vanta. What's one thing in business? Vanta asks that's spreading as fast as AI. AI risks, says Vanta. Every new tool that your team signs up for, every vendor that turns on AI features every new integration has the potential to create a risky situation for your company and most security programs were not built for AI's pace of growth. Enter Vanta. Vanta is the leading agentic trust platform used by over sixteen thousand fast moving companies companies such as RampM P and Harvey to ensure they're always audit ready. And now Vanta is helping companies like yours watch for the risks that show up between those audits across your vendors, your AI tools, your whole environment. The Vanta agent works like a twenty four seven GRC engineer in the background, finding issues drafting fixes, cutting vendor assessment time by up to fifty percent, whether you're a fast growing startup or a global enterprise Vanna is here to help you automate your security and compliance and earn and impve trust. You can get started today at Vanta dot com slash explained. That's vaNa dot com slash exxplain You follow drugs You get drug addicts and drug dealers She start to follow the money And you get today explained Zack Everson is a research director at something called the Trump acccountability Project at a group called Public Citizen. He and another guy try to keep track of all the president's many side hustles. Zack mostly follows the money. And lately, that's meant following the Trump family's efforts to basically Get into banking Yeah. what we're seeing here is making what happened in the first term look ethical So there' essentially three steps here. first in september twenty twenty four, shortly before the election. Trumpss and the Witcffs launched World Liberty Financial. Trump announced World Liberty Financial in a live stream on X saying, quote, crypto is one of those things we have to do. World Liberty Financial, the new crypto platform in which President Donald Trump and his affiliates hold a sixty percent stake, announced a strategic token reserve designed to bolster Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies Second, they came out with two products for World Liberty Financial a stablecoin and a crypto token. Just think about a digital currency like Bitcoin, Wld Liberty Financial, this digital token part of this broader cryptocurrency venture that the Trump family launched really just weeks before the election. President Trump's World Liberty financial is jumping into the stablecoin game. They just introduced USD one, a digital asset whose value will be pegged to the US dollar and backed by short term US government treasuries, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. And now what they is the banking authority so that they can cut down on the fees that they'd have to pay outside sources. They can increase the fees that they make, and they can also centralize all regulation under the federal government USD one It is a stable coin which is crypto. it means It is backed one to one by reserves. So think of it as a bank loan only going the opposite way. You are giving money to World Liberty Financicial. You're giving US dollars and they are giving you this virtual currency. And the whole time that they're sitting on your US dollars, they are investing it in treasuries and they are keeping the interest So this made news So what would have been eyes spring of twenty twenty five when It was announced that an investment firm backed by The National Security advisor of the UAE purchased two billion dollars of these magic beans using US dollars and was investing them in finance. So it essentially creates its own currency here and you've got It went from nothing to all of a sudden being one of the most popular stablecoins out there by way of the UAE ational national security advisor directing this money towards him. Nearly half of the Trump family crypto company, World Liberty Financial, was purchased for five hundred million dollars by Sheikh Tanouun bin Zayed Al Nayan, who heads the United Arab Emirates State Investment Fund and serves as national security advisor, sometimes referred to as the spy Sheikh There's been some direct conflicts, especially with a big deal that came through the United Arab Emirates. They decided to use a Trump cryptocurrency to pay for a two billion dollars investment. So that put them really on the map there. and that's a lot of what this banking L trust license would have to do. It would allow would allow them to do Right now, if they the reserves have to be held someplace else. They can't hold their own reserves. Similarly, they can't issue their own coin in the United States. It has to be done elsewhere If this trust gets approved, which we believe it's going to be soon, that would allow them to essentially Cllect more fees in direct transactions and take out some middle men in transactions they already have going on Binance is of course I think the most popular crypto exchange. It is, it is Finance is not allowed to operate in the United States So when we say eighty to eighty five percent of USD one is held at Binance, The law is being followed. That means that eighty to eighty five percent of Donald Trump's stable coins is in the hands of people overseas which is a huge problem, you know, for the United States presresident to be so beholden. you know if all those foreigners just started dumping Yeah that that would really crash this currency he's got there cut away from the interest he can make And that is that is a lot of financial power that foreigners have over the United States president right now Okay, so Donald Trump has Wld Liberty Financial, this token. He's got this stable coin, he's got business with Binance. Help us understand this transition that's going on right now in the United States to help World Liberty Fancial essentially become more of a bank. So we at public citizen and other groups have long been concerned about regulatory capture You know, that's when the lobbyists or the business interests come into government and they take control of the agency that oversees their former employer This is regulatory capture to the extreme where they are applying for a banking license from the office of the Croller of the currency, and that is part of the treasury, which is under Donald Trump's administration. So here you have World Liberty Financial is going to be regulated by an agency of the US government that is under Donald Trump's control And someone who answers to the presresident of the United States will decide whether his financial firm, World Liberty Financial gets to essentially have these banking privileges. Exactly, exactly. And another benefit of this that ties into the administration is if this does get approved for this license It will fall under federal regulators, not state regulators as much. So that you know we've seen a lot of efforts from the states for all sorts of areas combating Donald Trump in his administration that states are filing lawsuits. This puts his World Liberty Fancial in the purview of a federal agency, which It appears that it would make it a lot harder for states to try to get in there and push back on this. What are the potential conflicts of interest here Everything U everythingverything, you know, you've got an issue where we have a foreign government investing in this. another firm backed by The UAE's national security advisor also owns forty nine percent of World Liberty Financials, somethinghing the American people didn't find out about until like a year after it took place. He bought this share right before Trump was inaugurated. You know We heard a lot in the first term about foreign emoluments. There were all sorts of concerns about foreign governments buying rooms drinks at this hotel holding banquets. An annual meeting on U. S. Turkey relations Most years A standard event but not this year Because this year, it was at the Trump International Hotel in DC, ground zero for President Trump's conflicts of interest NBC News has obtained receipts showing Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qutatar, Turkey, China, and Malaysia spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. At the very same time, they were seeking to influence U.S foreign policy in their favor. Sometimes know there are accusations that were never proven to the best of my knowledge, but that they would buy rooms and not even use them as an easy way to get money to the president You know, if that was the case, we're talking, you know, Hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe a little millions if that was going to be the case. Here, you've got You, hundredundreds of millions of dollars going to Donald Trump. business partners right before he became president. You know, a time where he's already announced who his cabinet is largely going to be. And according to the Wall Street Journal, it looks like the payments didn't even go through until after he was inaugurated. So if you have concerns, as the Constitution does, about the United States president accepting payments from foreign powers This one seems to be a massive one It kindind of impossible to imagine another president doing this kind of thing recent or, you know, especially like't I can't picture Teddy Roosevelt being involved in crypto. but is there some It agreed to like Trump has this long history of grift people just kind of look the other way at this massive grift. I've absolutely thought so since he first came in. when he first came in and had that DC hotel and the golf clubs I thought people were like, well, it's Donald Trump, Of course, he's going to do this sort of stuff. And you know, they pledged not to do some things. They weren't going to do any foreign deals. Don and Eric will say they abided by that promise and didn't get any credit for it. It lot deeterms on you know how you What you consider a foreign deal? You know, if you think a foreign government spending a lot of money on one of his properties is a foreign deal, then they clearly violated it U Yeah, it's Donald Trump. It's what were you expecting? You know, I think that's the advantage that Donald Trump has long had is that