Apple News Today
Trump returned to the White House twice as rich. It’s raising concerns.
07 Feb 2025
On today’s show: Bloomberg’s Annie Massa looks at the potential for conflicts of interest for Trump and those he’s tapped to join his administration. The White House says Elon Musk will regulate his own conflicts of interest. Bloomberg has more. NPR explains why Venezuelans in Florida feel betrayed by Trump. The path to winning at this weekend’s Super Bowl is simple for both the Eagles and the Chiefs. The Athletic’s Nate Tayor explains. Plus, a federal judge halted the administration’s deadline for government workers to decide if they want to resign, and authorities are investigating the theft of 100,000 eggs from a trailer in Pennsylvania. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Friday, February 7th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, why Venezuelans once loyal to Trump are feeling betrayed, the Big Easy gets ready for the weekend's big game, and how police are trying to crack the case of 100,000 stolen eggs.
But first, a look at how President Trump's potential for conflicts of interest has changed and expanded since his first term. In 2020, a New York Times investigation found over 200 companies, interest groups and governments patronized Trump businesses while reaping benefits from Trump's administration or Trump personally. The Washington Post reported one example.
T-Mobile spent $195,000 at Trump's D.C. hotel while seeking federal approval of a merger with Sprint. The merger was ultimately approved, and the Justice Department and FCC declined to comment on it to the Post.
Critics argue that Trump's refusal to disentangle himself from his businesses while president not only creates ethical murkiness, but in cases involving foreign governments as clients, violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits government officials from accepting money from foreign entities. Now, in his second term, Trump's money-making ventures have only expanded.
In fact, Bloomberg reports that Trump returned to the White House more than twice as rich as he was before. Bloomberg reporter Annie Massa told us that ethics experts are even more concerned this time around.
While there have absolutely been presidents with business interests before, the types of businesses, the regulatory flux that some of those businesses are under right now, and the scope, the actual dollar value of the assets in question are unmatched in any other historical context.
For example, Trump now has a massive stake in a media company, Trump Media, which owns Truth Social.
It's a huge part of his net worth, worth billions of dollars, and it's a publicly traded company. But the reason that we're paying such close attention to that company is because it does absolutely have a huge impact on the personal wealth, personal net worth of the president.
Trump and his family also have multiple cryptocurrency ventures.
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