Trump's rise from bunker boy to billionaire
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Why did Matthew Flinders write such saucy letters to his best friend, George Bass?
Who really chopped off Chopper's ears?
And why did they name a swimming pool after an Australian Prime Minister who drowned?
I mean, why didn't they just use Harry Holt's high school nickname? Puss. These are the kind of historical questions we'll be asking on The Dead Can't Sue.
Search The Dead Can't Sue podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
This podcast was produced on the lands of the Awabakal and Gadigal people. Donald Trump gets very upset when he can't control the narrative. So there's possibly nothing in his first term that upset him more than when this news leaked. It was on Friday night that the Secret Service bundled the president into the bomb and plane proof bunker under the White House, fearing the grounds of the executive mansion were about to be overrun. It was mid 2020. 100,000 Americans had died of COVID. Lockdowns were in place. The economy was struggling and people were in the streets protesting against police brutality and against Donald Trump specifically.
I'm tired of my black men and my black women being shot.
Just a block away from the seat of power. Angry voices echo through the night.
As enormous protests raged outside the White House perimeter, the Secret Service decided that as a safety precaution, Trump needed to be taken to the White House bunker. Then they erected a large steel barrier around the White House grounds to ensure that nobody could get in. By the following morning, people were calling Donald Trump mean names.
Hey, bunker boy, you're supposed to be the leader
Bunker boy, as many are calling him.
Bunker boy, Donnie Trump, finally got his wall.
He was furious. He demanded that the person who leaked the news that he'd been taken to the bunker be put on trial for treason and then executed. This was a particularly low point in his presidency because at the time, his accountants reported that while he apparently had a net worth of over $5 billion, he only had about $92 million in actual cash on hand. Obviously, that's quite a bit of money, but it wasn't enough to give him lifelong security. See, the bunker under the White House might be able to protect him from an angry mob or an airstrike, but it wouldn't be able to protect him from legal trouble if he lost power at the upcoming 2020 election. Court cases, both criminal and civil, would end up costing him tens of millions in legal fees and potentially see him hit with a bill for hundreds of millions in damages.
And yet, fast forward to Trump's second term in office and a lot has changed. Firstly, he's not the bunker boy anymore, largely because the bunker is gone, along with the entire building on top of it. And secondly, he's got significantly more money in the bank.
Newly released financial disclosures show the US president raked in more than 2.2 billion US dollars last year.
Now, in an average month, he's earning twice as much money as he had in total back in 2020. His fortunes have changed, quite literally. So what happened?
While last week we talked about the secrecy surrounding his White House ballroom project, this story is very, very public. It involves podcasters, pick-up artists, and the one commodity that never loses its value, access to powerful people. Buckle up, because it's a lot.
What happened when Secret Service took Trump to the White House bunker in 2020?
I'm Matt Bevan, and this is If You Listen.
MUSIC
Okay, so until very recently, Donald Trump didn't spend a whole lot of time talking about cryptocurrency. In fact, he thought the whole idea was a scam.
Bitcoin just seems like a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar.
If you don't know anything about cryptocurrency, don't worry. Neither does Donald Trump.
We will create a framework to enable the safe and responsible expansion of stable coins.
Do you know what a stable coin is? Does anybody know? Please raise your hand. Now, fortunately, most of the story is about people. And like almost everything these days, it starts with a couple of podcast bros trying to make money from their audience.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:09
2
What happened when Secret Service took Trump to the White House bunker in 2020?
4:09–8:48
3
How did public reaction and the 'Bunker Boy' nickname shape perceptions of Trump?
8:48–11:36
4
How did Trump’s cash position in 2020 contrast with his later disclosures?
11:36–22:07
5
How did podcast bros and marketing operators like Chase Hero and Zach Folkman enter Trump's orbit?
22:07–25:26