Speaker 1: The first term, everybody was fading me. In this term,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to be my friend. I don't my personality
Speaker 1: changed or something.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump will be president again by tomorrow, and while
Speaker 2: it might not be everybody, he wants to be his friend,
Speaker 2: plenty do. He's broken the record for the amount of
Speaker 2: money that's been donated to his inauguration fund, with two
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars coming in from billionaires and companies all
Speaker 2: wanting time with you.
Speaker 1: The great executives coming in, the top executives that out bankers.
Speaker 1: They're all colleague and honestly, in the first time, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was.
Speaker 2: And these funds they're not just for throwing a party.
Speaker 2: They can be used in secretive ways and are not
Speaker 2: subject to the same rules as campaign funds. From Schwartz Media,
Speaker 2: I'm Daniel James. This is seven.
Speaker 3: AM today, Public Citizens lobbyist on ethics and campaign finance,
Speaker 3: Craig Holman on who is giving Trump money and what
Speaker 3: they're getting out of it.
Speaker 2: It's Monday, January twenty Craig, you've been tracking the money
Speaker 2: going into Trump's inauguration fund. We know it's record breaking. Hey,
Speaker 2: let's cold pay to past funds.
Speaker 4: This is an all time record breaking inauguration. I mean literally,
Speaker 4: we're expecting about two hundred million dollars in private money
Speaker 4: to be raised to pay for the party for Donald
Speaker 4: Trump to celebrate his victory. The previous record was the
Speaker 4: Trump administration, the first Trump administration in twenty seventeen, which
Speaker 4: was one hundred and seven million, and that broke all
Speaker 4: time records. With Obama and Biden, it got up to
Speaker 4: fifty and sixty million. But we've never hit these one
Speaker 4: hundred million marks until Donald Trump. And now, I mean,
Speaker 4: the two hundred billion just blows everything out of the water.
Speaker 2: So what kind of rules is there around the expenditure
Speaker 2: of this money?
Speaker 4: Is it? That's the problem. There are only two rules
Speaker 4: in place. One is foreign nationals cannot contribute to an inauguration,
Speaker 4: and the second is ninety days after the inauguration, the
Speaker 4: Presidential Inaugural Committee will release the disclosure report of donors
Speaker 4: of two hundred dollars or more. And those disclosure reports
Speaker 4: do not include any records of how the money was handled,
Speaker 4: how the money was spent, and if there's a surplus funds,
Speaker 4: how those surplus funds are being disposed of. So it's
Speaker 4: pretty much a wild West when it comes to financing
Speaker 4: the inaugural activities.
Speaker 2: Okay, what are the inaugural activities and what are we
Speaker 2: about to see?
Speaker 4: The only one event that really is open to the
Speaker 4: American public or no fee whatsoever is the victory rally.
Speaker 4: Hundreds of thousands of people show up to you know,
Speaker 4: celebrate Trump selection. But after that it all turns into
Speaker 4: like exclusive parties and exclusive dinners for the very very
Speaker 4: wealthy donors to the inauguration. Trump has set up a
Speaker 4: series of tiers of donors. So, for instance, we're seeing
Speaker 4: a cabinet reception for Tier one donors, and that means
Speaker 4: donors who gave them million dollars or more get to
Speaker 4: actually meet all the different cabinet nominees, shake hands, visit
Speaker 4: with them, talk to them, lobby them, you know, try
Speaker 4: to convince them to carry through in certain policy matters.
Speaker 4: There's the Vice President's Dinner, where Tier one donors get
Speaker 4: to sit down with the Vice president and other cabinet
Speaker 4: officials and have a very intimate dinner with them, you know,
Speaker 4: rub shoulders get to know them. Then there's a candlelight
Speaker 4: dinner in which donors of two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 4: dollars or more get to have dinner with Donald Trump.
Speaker 4: And then what's really breathtaking for the first time ever
Speaker 4: is an event called One America One Light Sunday Service,
Speaker 4: where donors of one hundred thousand dollars or more get
Speaker 4: the privilege to pray with Donald Trump. So those are
Speaker 4: the types of events that these people are paying for.
Speaker 4: The public is only invited to the major victory rally.
Speaker 4: Beyond that, it's all just a playground for the very wealthy.
Speaker 2: And so you've spoken about the various tears to the
Speaker 2: people paying for these dinners and access to Donald Trump
Speaker 2: in his administration. Do we know that?
Speaker 4: So Public Citizen has been tracking everyone who's made a pledge,
Speaker 4: a public pledge to help finance the inauguration, and we
Speaker 4: found thirty one people or companies or businesses or government
Speaker 4: contractors who have now pledged money to finance the inauguration.
Speaker 4: All of them have pledged one million dollars or more,
Speaker 4: and all of them, every single one of these donors
Speaker 4: has business pending before the next administration. So the big
Speaker 4: group of donors cryptocurrency. They really want deregulation of the
Speaker 4: cryptocurrency industry So we've got companies like Ripple that have
Speaker 4: given five million, Robinhood that's given two million, Coinbase, moon Pack,
Speaker 4: Cracking all have given a million dollars each. They're the
Speaker 4: number one industry right now. They're closely followed by big tech.
Speaker 4: So you got said Google, Microsoft, made Amazon, Open Ai,
Speaker 4: all giving a million dollars each to the inauguration. And
Speaker 4: they're followed by Wall Street where you've got Goldman Sachs,
Speaker 4: Bank of America, Hedge Fund CEO Ken Griffin each giving
Speaker 4: one million dollars. So these are all companies and individuals
Speaker 4: that actually want something out of the Trump administration.
Speaker 2: So does PINNA get time with the president payoff? Have
Speaker 2: we sent examples of these types of diners getting fireable
Speaker 2: treatment out of having Trump's ear in the past?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yes, indeed, we've seen various concrete examples. Back in
Speaker 4: the twenty sixteen election. For instance, Miriam and Schell and Adelson,
Speaker 4: who are very concerned about Israeli interest, gave twenty million
Speaker 4: dollars to the Trump superpack and they were asking for
Speaker 4: Trump to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel
Speaker 4: Avision to Jerusalem. As soon as Trump won the election,
Speaker 4: sure enough, he moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv
Speaker 4: to Jerusalem. You got the whole crypto currency industry. I
Speaker 4: mean they want to be fully deregulated. Trump is now saying, yes,
Speaker 4: let's get rid of any kind of regulations of cryptocurrency.
Speaker 4: Yes said by spevers, especially to a president who just
Speaker 4: worships money.
Speaker 2: Coming up after the break Trump's transition to the White
Speaker 2: House and the security clearances he wanted to avoid. Craig,
Speaker 2: We've been talking about the unprecedented amount of money flowing
Speaker 2: into Trump's inauguration fund, but Donald Trump has also been
Speaker 2: receiving huge donations towards his transition into the White House.
Speaker 2: So tell me about how presidential transitions typically work and
Speaker 2: while they cost so much money.
Speaker 4: Back in the nineteen sixties, we passed legislation to make
Speaker 4: it a publicly financed effort to smooth the old transition process.
Speaker 4: And in that effort, the incoming president simply signs a
Speaker 4: memorandum of understanding and that commits the incoming president to
Speaker 4: a certain amount of public funds, office base, security clearances,
Speaker 4: access to all the different agencies in exchange for limiting
Speaker 4: any private contributions to no more than five thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Every president since the nineteen sixties law has complied with
Speaker 4: that sort of smooth transition process until Donald Trump that
Speaker 4: he just did not want to participate in any of this.
Speaker 4: He didn't want his cabinet nominees to be scrutinized for
Speaker 4: security breaches, and he did not want to limit contributions
Speaker 4: from private sources, and he especially did not want to
Speaker 4: tell the American public who his private donors are. So
Speaker 4: he was just bucking the entire process until it became
Speaker 4: very clear that he's going to have a problem moving
Speaker 4: his new administration into office because they're not getting security clearances.
Speaker 4: So Trump eventually made his own memorandum of understanding saying, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'll allow the FBI to do security clearances, but he's
Speaker 4: not going to give up private financing of his transition
Speaker 4: team and he's not going to disclose where the money's
Speaker 4: coming from.
Speaker 2: So he's dodged having any limits on how much people
Speaker 2: candynite to his transition fund. And he also doesn't have
Speaker 2: to say where the money is coming from. So what
Speaker 2: can he use this money on? Can it just be
Speaker 2: used to line Trump's pockets for instance.
Speaker 4: Well, it's a nonprofit organization. The money is supposed to
Speaker 4: be used for this stated specific purpose of the nonprofit organization.
Speaker 4: But you know that stated purpose of both the transition
Speaker 4: team and the Inaugural Committee are very very ambiguous in general.
Speaker 4: I mean, basically, for the inaugural it's to pay for
Speaker 4: a party. So what does that mean? What limits go
Speaker 4: with that? With the transition team, it's basically whatever Trump
Speaker 4: says he needs to do to make the transition. Trump historically,
Speaker 4: in the last inauguration, for instance, used the money to
Speaker 4: pay for Trump services. So he rented up Trump Hotel
Speaker 4: both in New York and DC, paid for various Trump
Speaker 4: products and services. With all these funds, that money goes
Speaker 4: into Trump's pocket. He's known for routing the money, campaign money,
Speaker 4: public funds into his own business empire to enrich.
Speaker 2: And so so Trump has written the book when it
Speaker 2: comes to transition finance and the inauguration. Could this change
Speaker 2: the way future transfers of power are handled.
Speaker 4: We'll see. Legislation has just been introduced in the House
Speaker 4: of Representatives to set up various regulations of how inaugural
Speaker 4: funds are used, not transition funds, but inaugural funds. And
Speaker 4: I'm contacting Senators trying to get a companion bill introduced
Speaker 4: in the Senate. This legislation would basically close all the
Speaker 4: loopholes that Donald Trump is exploiting. It would first of all,
Speaker 4: prohibit donations to the inauguration from corporations and that includes
Speaker 4: government contractors. It would limit contributions from individuals to fifty
Speaker 4: thousand dollars, so you don't have someone like Zuckerberg and
Speaker 4: others throwing out millions to buy influence. It would require
Speaker 4: disclosure of how the money is handled and spent, so
Speaker 4: regulation is afoot these bills. By the way, similar bills
Speaker 4: have been introduced earlier and they haven't gone anywhere. However,
Speaker 4: what makes the legislation more likely this time around is
Speaker 4: the extent of the Trump abuses. I mean, two hundred
Speaker 4: million dollars for a party. Wow. I mean that's got
Speaker 4: to get even a lot of Republicans in Congress saying,
Speaker 4: you know, this is getting a little out of control.
Speaker 4: We better rein this back.
Speaker 2: Craig, I've got to say, I really admire your optimism
Speaker 2: given that Trump has so much control. Why are you optimistic.
Speaker 4: Because reform has always come on the heels of scandal.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, we're seeing millionaires and billionaires buying
Speaker 4: immediate direct access to Donald Trump sides of the fact
Speaker 4: that they financed his campaign. I mean they're rampant throughout
Speaker 4: his transition team, and now they have taken over his inauguration.
Speaker 4: We're going to see a federal government here in the
Speaker 4: United States almost entirely dominated by the very wealthy special interests.
Speaker 4: And you know, Trump is just bringing in billionaires and
Speaker 4: millionaires into his administration, most of whom have very little
Speaker 4: experience with the roles they are being asked to be
Speaker 4: put in. And when you get that kind of moneyed operation,
Speaker 4: special interest going full fledged as we're seeing now, there's
Speaker 4: going to be scandaled after scandal.
Speaker 2: Well, I have a feeling that we'll be speaking to
Speaker 2: you from ton to ton out of the next full years, Craig,
Speaker 2: but Finea, thank you so much for your ton.
Speaker 4: Sure, it's a pleasure, glad to talk to you, Denny.
Speaker 2: Also in the years today, a Motor Attach executive with
Speaker 2: the backing of Deputy Liberal Leader Susan Lay and former
Speaker 2: New South Wales Premier Claudyspiagiclian has one pre selection in
Speaker 2: the Sydney seat of Bradfield Salesforce executives to sale Capterian
Speaker 2: be prominent no vote campaign of Warra Mundine, who had
Speaker 2: the backing of key Conservative figures, including Tony Abbott. The
Speaker 2: seat is being vacated by a retiring senior motor at
Speaker 2: Paul Fletcher, who has been closely watched as an early
Speaker 2: indicator of how the Liberal Party plans to approach city
Speaker 2: seats which deserted them in favor of the Teals at
Speaker 2: the last election and incoming US President Donald Trump and
Speaker 2: said he would probably hit pause on a law that
Speaker 2: would ban TikTok. The law, which was passed last year,
Speaker 2: would ban the app until it cuts ties with its
Speaker 2: China based parent, Byte Dance due to national security concerns.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump was indicator he's looking at an day extension
Speaker 2: for the company. One hundred and seventy million Americans, almost
Speaker 2: half the population, used TikTok. I'm Daniel James. This is
Speaker 2: seven am. Thanks for listening.