PJ Vogt

But the facts that we know are that the president has nearly $2 billion at his discretion, and he won't have to tell us who he pays it to.

And, Jesse points out, this fund also contains language that's meant to inoculate Trump, his family, and his family organization from IRS audits, past audits and possibly future audits, depending on how a court interprets the language here.

All of this, of course, will be challenged in court.

To some degree, what happens next has to do with judges and politicians and the next election, but it also has a lot to do with us, with what we decide is worth our sustained attention.

We're gonna take a short break.

When we return, we will go back, in a way, to the beginning.

This whole story started, weirdly, because a lot of very wealthy people wanted to avoid paying their taxes.

And some journalists thought if they could get more people talking about this, that might be a good thing.

People are talking about it.

Has it been a good thing?

Honestly, the answer will surprise you.

It'll surprise you after these ads.

Welcome back to the show.

So here's something I think about sometimes.

When there's an unsolved problem in American life, whether it's immigration policy, whether it's taxes, sometimes the problem benefits from more attention accruing to it.

But just as often, the heat of public attention can actually make things worse.

The politicians begin to politic, sober voices leave the field.

I'm describing a thing that I don't think I need to describe because you live here too.

Jesse cared about tax policy before it was, and I use this term very loosely, cool.

Or as nerds would put it, before it was more highly salient.