Trump enters his flop era
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What recent events led to the discussion of Trump's 'flop era'?
The NBA Finals tip off tonight. The New York Knickerbockers have a shot at winning their first championship since 1973 if they can defeat the seven and a half foot Frenchman Victor Wembanyama and his San Antonio Spurs. Nowhere to be seen though, last year's champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, undeniably elite, but also hated on in just about any city outside Oklahoma because of flops.
It was Alexander's foul as he went up.
For those of you who aren't familiar, flopping in the NBA is basically taking a dive. You put up a shot and then on your way back down, you fall to the ground in hopes that the ref calls a foul and gives you the opportunity to score a few extra points. And in this particular regard, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a lot in common with the President of the United States at the moment. Not only have they both taken some huge L's in recent weeks, but on Today Explained from Vox, Donald Trump has officially entered his flop era.
What's up, y'all? I'm Skylar Diggins, seven-time WNBA All-Star, Olympic gold medalist, and mom. And I'm Cassidy Hubbard, host and reporter for nearly 20 years, covering the biggest names and stories in sports and mom. And this is AmMom, a community for athletes, game changers, and moms of all kinds. Dropping May 14th. Tap in with us. We hold the world ransom for... 1.776 billion dollars.
Today explained here with Shelby Talcott, who's the White House correspondent for Semaphore. Shelby, this whole 1.8 or 1.776 billion dollars slush fund fiasco, easy to forget. It kind of started in a legitimate place. Can you remind us where that was?
Yeah, so this all started back in January when the president filed a lawsuit against the IRS. He was seeking, I think it was $10 billion in damages over the disclosure of his tax returns. He had also filed a few other claims. And so this was essentially the culmination of that because the Justice Department decided, well, we don't really want to defend the government. So instead, we're going to work with the president's personal lawyers to sort of come to an agreement. And this slush fund, if you will, was the culmination of those lawsuits and what came from those conversations.
Someone leaked the president's tax returns to the New York Times. They showed I pay a lot of tax. So the president had a legitimate grievance. Then, of course, he immediately transmutes this legitimate grievance into something that feels a little lopsided, a $10 billion lawsuit against the government that he runs, in which he pits his personal lawyers against Todd Blanche, eventually, who is also his former personal lawyer. What pushes the president to settle this lawsuit with himself?
Well, I think that he decided that this deal where, you know, you have a huge amount of money that is going to go to people who argue that they've been, you know, politically persecuted by the government is a good deal. Because remember, that is exactly what he believes as well.
This is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America. The whole thing is a witch hunt. It's a disgrace.
After he lost the 2020 election, he had a number of lawsuits. He has not stopped talking since then that those were persecutions by the prior administration. So for him, this sort of agreement is personal in a way, I think.
By the way, that election was totally rigged. Tell us how this anti-weaponization slush fund was meant to work in theory.
It was essentially taxpayer funded fund. And it was supposed to come from this account that was going to be overseen by a board of five people. This board of five people were going to decide who had been politically persecuted by the government. And then there would be payouts.
Pretty incredible setup for January 6th. There's other perhaps defenders, allies of the president. Do we have any idea how long this fund was in the works or where it came from, how it originated? Was it the president's idea?
Yeah, so I think it was the idea of his legal team, of everybody involved. The president obviously signed off on it.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What recent events led to the discussion of Trump's 'flop era'?
0:00–8:03
2
How did the $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund come about?
8:03–15:28
3
What were the motivations behind Trump's lawsuits against the IRS?
15:28–20:24
4
How was the 'anti-weaponization' fund intended to operate?
20:24–24:35