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It's the 4th of July and Simon Marks is back with a rundown of this week in American politics. 0:11 | Trump’s war with NATO wages on 1:51 | The true beauty of America 2:44 | Trump defends £2 billion income 5:23 | Trump accused of ‘hijacking’ America 250 8:20 | The Great American State Flop 10:18 | Court upholds birthright citizenship With the Great American State Fair becoming the Great American State Flop and Trump under fire for diverting funds from America 250 to Freedom 250, have this weekend's birthday celebrations been a bust? Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #simonmarks #america #independenceday #donaldtrump #trump #whitehouse #uspolitics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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It's a big weekend in the United States, or at least it should be, as America celebrates its 250th birthday
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But the country is in a right old mood, and so is its president
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taking to social media on multiple occasions this week to launch fresh tirades against NATO
0:17
It's ridiculous for the USA to continue along this one-sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal, he fumed on his Truth Social platform last night
0:27
Take that NATO Secretary General Mark Reuter, who, as viewers of last week's missive will remember
0:33
was on his knees before Trump in the Oval Office begging him not to pull out of the alliance
0:39
In another presidential social media posting, Trump's backers at Red Wave helpfully attached
0:44
video of a recent interview the president gave to Fox Business just to drive the point home
0:50
You know, we've had no help, zero, from NATO. We're there for them, they're not there for us
0:57
Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO if they're not going to be with us
1:04
And look, I don't want to rain on Andy Burnham's coronation before it even begins
1:08
but the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Secretary of State Pete Hegseth
1:13
was planning to announce more US troop withdrawals from Europe during last month's meeting of NATO military chiefs
1:20
and had to be talked down from the ledge by Secretary of State Marco Rubio
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As a result, Hegseth announced instead a six-month review of America's troop presence in Europe
1:30
the outcome of which seems absolutely preordained. Whether NATO in its current form exists on America's 251st birthday is now a very open question
1:42
Still, at least America's ambassador to NATO, Matt Whittaker, is having deep thoughts about the transatlantic relationship this birthday weekend
1:51
Here he is on Fox News yesterday answering this bouncer from presenter Brian Kilmeade
1:57
We have a lot of Europeans here watching the World Cup. What you take as you see them really enjoying our country, maybe things that we take for granted
2:05
What are your thoughts seeing that? People are enjoying the United States of America because it's an awesome place and we have extraordinary things
2:11
like Bucky's, like Chick-fil-A. You know, just some very convenient to eat in your car
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as you're, you know, doing, having a phone call. I mean, it's an amazing country and
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I'm glad that people are finally, you know, kind of discovering what real America is
2:27
Come for the ability to eat a Bucky's barbecue sandwich in your car while you're on the phone
2:32
Stay for a quick glance at the Declaration of Independence. I ask you again, how did we
2:38
get here? Because that is a question that a lot of Americans are asking themselves this weekend
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after some stunning revelations this week regarding the unprecedented billion in financial benefits that President Trump and his family have accrued since he returned to the Oval Office Now to some breaking news President Trump
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has released his financial disclosures for 2025. Our team is still going through the
3:05
thousand page document disclosure here. So far, though, we've learned that the president
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reported more than a billion dollars in income related to his family's crypto ventures
3:15
and meme coins last year. $1.4 billion of the money he made last year
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came from his family's crypto business, which boomed as his administration loosened regulations on the industry
3:27
Democrats on the attack. Obviously, Trump has been engaging in an all-you-can-eat corruption buffet
3:36
Maybe even gorging on it while he was sitting in his car on the phone. Who knows? The reporting of NBC and ABC there
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The White House, managing amazingly to keep a straight face, insisted there had been no conflict of interest
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and any suggestion that the president has been lining his own pockets
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is a tired false narrative, albeit, of course, one fuelled by the revelation
3:59
that Trump's income has miraculously tripled since he returned to power. In a magnificent coincidence of timing
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the president was asked about the financial disclosures shortly before clambering aboard a new Air Force One
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that was gifted to him by the government of Qatar and that, under the arrangement, he will get to keep
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when he leaves the presidency. I don't get involved in my personal
4:24
We have funds that run my money. And I purposely, I never speak to any of the people that run the money
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You know why I'm profiting? Because the stock market's going up. Everybody's profiting. First, and I'm sure I don't really need to spell this out
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everybody is not profiting. You've got to be in the stock market to win it
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Secondly, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 21% up since Inauguration Day
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So good news for those people invested in it. But that's still 280% shy of how the Trump's portfolios are faring
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And when the president said this. And I purposely, I never speak to any of the people that run the money
5:02
His two sons, Don Jr. and Eric, the people who literally run his money
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were in the background on the airport tarmac, because, of course, they were there to enjoy the inaugural flight
5:14
of the plane that looks to most normal people like a massive bribe of the president by the government of Qatar
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And that's not all. America's 250th birthday is being run by a shadow company
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you've never heard of. Freedom 250 has raised millions of dollars. It's selling access to the president
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and it won't tell you who's paying or where the money goes
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This is how Trump hijacked America's birthday. That is Congressman Jared Huffman a Democrat from California He the party senior figure on the House Natural Resources Committee In a devastating 10 and a half minute film that he published on Thursday
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he lifts the lid on allegations that President Trump sought to neuter
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a previously created, congressionally funded body called America 250. It has spent the past 10 years preparing for this birthday weekend
6:09
Instead, the president allegedly diverted funding to his own operation called Freedom 250
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that Congressman Huffman claims struck its own deals with private donors to create 250th birthday events that would be directly beneficial to the president
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Freedom 250 went after the real commission's corporate sponsors, not just donations, but a quid pro quo of access to Trump in exchange for cash
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Lockheed Mark, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Mastercard, United Airlines, United Health. Most of these corporations are lobbying and trying to win contracts from the same government
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that's now selling them special access. And as they wrote their checks to Freedom 250
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the president was trading their stocks and posting their ticker symbols online to juice their values
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And the congressman suggested that the president's outfit, Freedom 250, may have engaged in duplicity that, if true
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could create significant legal jeopardy for those people involved in it. Fundraisers misled donors who intended to support the America 250 commission
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by giving them Freedom 250's banking information. And through this bait and switch, contributions meant for the nonpartisan birthday foundation
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were routed to Trump's shadow corporation instead. This is potential wire fraud
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He says if the Democrats win control of Congress in November's midterm elections
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they will launch full-scale investigations of the evidence they claim to have unearthed
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The White House referred questions to Freedom 250, which in turn called the congressman's claims a partisan smear
7:52
from politicians who would rather manufacture division than celebrate America's 250th birthday
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A spokeswoman said it was unequivocally false to suggest that any money had been illicitly misdirected from America 250 to the Trump-controlled enterprise
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Whatever the case, the allegations are fuelling a reticence on the part of many Americans
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to get into the Trump-orchestrated party spirit this weekend. And you can see that play out at the ongoing Great American State Fair
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It's taking place on Washington's National Mall. I can go around the corner of the line
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I can go around the corner of the line Attendance at the state fair has been so dismal that there have been no queues for any of the attractions not even the merry for the kiddies This supposed showcase of America storied achievements has become a total white elephant
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Andrew Feinberg, Washington correspondent for The Independent, spoke this week to some of those people at least taking a curious look
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I've been to state fairs all throughout the United States. This is terrible
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And how so? It's a program-length advertisement for the president. I'm totally underwhelmed
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It's part political. That arch over there is, I think, promoting one of Trump's vanity projects
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And indeed, there is a model of the planned arc to Trump that sits in the middle of the state fair
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It has not fared well in 40-degree temperatures that have left the industrial glue holding it together, oozing out of the structure
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Trump loyalists like Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have spoken to audiences of no more than two dozen people
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and then denied the event is a disaster. So from my perspective, it is hitting exactly every mark
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that we had hoped it would hit at this point. I do think this weekend we're gonna see massive, massive crowds
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but my goal is that people can come and walk and experience it, and 150,000 people coming to celebrate the Great American State Fair
10:00
over the last five or six days. I call that a huge success. She spun that yarn on Fox News
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There is no indication that they have come close to the numbers she claims. But let's not do the crowd size thing again, eh
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At least not in a week where we've got a big Supreme Court ruling to discuss
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The president's efforts to outlaw birthright citizenship, the automatic right to an American passport enjoyed by any baby
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born in the United States regardless of parentage, was rejected by the court this week because, well, it's in the Constitution in black and white
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so it really cannot be unconstitutional. But Stephen Miller, Deputy White House Chief of Staff
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has a new wizard wheeze. If any newborn gets a passport, let's stop pregnant women from visiting
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America. You have to now think very carefully about who you let into your country, even on a
10:54
temporary basis because the possibility, as you said, for birth tourism, right? They know that
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people come here just to have babies on American soil and that baby gets to be a citizen for life
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So you have mothers that come in fully pregnant, have a baby, go home. And again, that baby gets
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Medicaid and that baby gets welfare and that baby gets cash assistance. And when that baby grows up
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that baby gets to eat Chick-fil-A while sitting in their car on a telephone. So obviously the
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country now needs to install sonograms in arrival halls to cut all that out
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So much for bringing me your poor, tired, huddled masses. On America's 250th birthday weekend, those days are long gone
#news