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Let's start with this fear you expressed earlier in the week that Donald Trump was essentially setting up a slush fund for friendly criminals
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Well, that's exactly what he's doing. But now, James, he is facing monumental pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill who are enraged about what many here are describing
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many ysts are describing as the most naked effort to engage in corrupt practices by any
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president in American history. And yesterday, when the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche
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went to Capitol Hill for lunch with Republicans, he found himself on the receiving end of huge
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pushback from more than 25 Republicans up on Capitol Hill telling him that this idea that
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Donald Trump has forced Todd Blanche to implement, and remember this is what happens when the
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traditional but not constitutionally guaranteed independence of the Department of Justice is completely eviscerated by an American president who has turned the Department of Justice
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now not only into his personal office of retribution, but also into an ATM, a cash machine, potentially for his mates
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If we just spin back, you will remember that Donald Trump's businesses
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and his tax returns were being audited by the IRS, the American equivalent of HMRC
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Some of those tax returns leaked to the American public. Donald Trump as president sued his own government for billion sued the government over the leaking of those tax returns The case ran into all sorts of difficulty in court It was then that the Trump administration said to Todd Blanche OK we going to pull this
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lawsuit, but in exchange, we want this slush fund created. $1.776 billion, 1776, it's the 250th
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anniversary of American independence that is going to be made available to people who claim
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that Joe Biden unleashed weaponized lawfare against them. In other words, politically motivated
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prosecutions. Now, the Trump family would not be eligible for that cash. We were told initially
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that all they were getting out of this whole arrangement was an apology over the leaking of
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some of the tax returns. In fact, 24 hours later, we also learned that what the Trump family
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the president himself, and the Trump organization was receiving was complete immunity, an agreement
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by the IRS that it would not pursue any claims on past tax returns. I mean, that had the potential
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to save the Trumps about $100 million in possible penalties that they might have been looking at
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as a result of IRS enforcement. I mean, why would you need that in place
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if you hadn't done anything wrong? Well, I mean, precisely. And, you know, we don't know if the audit was still ongoing
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I mean, certainly a couple of years ago, one of Donald Trump's sons indicated that it was
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But then this idea also to set up this fund that anybody who can claim they were victimised
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and weaponised by the Biden administration could go after the cash raised huge questions about whether that meant the January the 6th insurrectionists would be eligible for the cash Clearly they would be
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including some January the 6th insurrectionists who have since been convicted of other crimes and
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returned to jail, including one particular case of a January 6th insurrectionist later arrested on
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child molestation charges. So members of Congress were sort of asking in open hearings, the acting
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Attorney General, would that figure be eligible for some of this cash? And he absolutely sidestepped
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the question. So the Trump administration now has found that every camel's back has a straw that
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breaks it. Why? Why now? And in the case of this weaponization fund, it's the Republicans that are
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demonstrating some spine and turning around to Trump and saying we're not doing this
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Why now? Well, because it's not the worst thing he's done. It's not the worst thing he's done, is it
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No, I mean, it's up there. It's certainly up there with many of the worst things that he's done
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But the answer to your question is because they are angry with him
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They are angry over the way in which he has purged the party, effectively, of some of their friends
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Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana last week thrown out by Republican voters in Louisiana in a primary contest as the result of Donald Trump's intervention
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They're furious about what the president is doing down in Texas, endorsing a scandal ridden, impeached former attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, in many ways, the Donald Trump of Texas
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endorsing him over their friend the incumbent Senator John Cornyn And they also terrified for their own skins They about to go home for the Memorial Day weekend They are going to face so much anger from their constituents in their home
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states, as we also wait to see whether the price of petrol here is going to tick up, on average
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above $5.02 a gallon, the high point that it hit in Joe Biden's presidency. There's every
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indication that that's going to take place. Bond markets are soaring, credits getting harder to
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find here. I can tell you here in Washington DC, the property market is at a complete standstill
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The Fed is going to have its hands tied again by economic circumstances and won't be able to do
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Donald Trump's bidding in terms of dropping interest rates. So those lawmakers are terrified
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for their own futures as they prepare to face voters in November and realise how many of these
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president's policies including this sort of naked act at corruption uh is uh just resulting in
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enormous pushback from the country so i mean we're not going to have time to talk about cuba but it's
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fairly easily explained as he's desperately trying to distract attention away from all the things
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that you're talking about by potentially starting another war or doing another venezuela but after
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we last spoke it occurred to me that trump's patronage is still essential to get the republican
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nomination but it is probably a net negative when that nomination that nominee actually fights the
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election so it's as if the stamp of trump gets you the republican nomination but hobbles you
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when you actually are up against a democrat yeah if you're donald trump you can pick off
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individual republicans that have crossed you yeah but if we're now at the stage where 25
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republicans in the u.s senate yesterday crossed you yeah do you really have the juice to pick
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all of them off, almost certainly not
