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Chapter 1: 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.
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Chapter 2: How did the $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund come about?
And so the president had a conversation earlier this week with some of his team and ultimately decided that they were not going to pursue this fund.
Is it really, really dead or is it just dead for the moment because it's so incredibly unpopular? Do we know?
That's the big question. So initially, the DOJ had issued a statement saying that they were going to comply with this court order that had come down on Friday. But the court order lasts essentially until I think mid-June. And so the question was still, OK, well... Does complying with the court order mean it's dead? A lot of people said it doesn't. I think I agree with that.
But then Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch on the Hill yesterday was specifically asked, are you going to pursue this? Like, is this over?
And he said, we are not moving forward with the fund, period. But he also said... I mean, I think there'll be a transcript of what I say here, so that will be in writing.
So the question I have is, you know, there's still that court situation going on. And so are we going to see the DOJ formally file something to the courts saying it's dead? And I think that is when people who are still concerned about this will say, okay, finally, we can put this to rest.
I mean, one sign that this might not be completely dead is that one part of it, a part of it that we haven't really discussed thus far, is very much still alive, which is this idea that Trump and his family and his businesses are immune from IRS inquiry.
Yes. And actually, Todd Blanche was asked about that specifically. And he said that the only part of this settlement that the Justice Department was not planning to enforce was going to be this nearly one point eight billion dollar fund.
So that indicates that every other part of the settlement that the Justice Department came with decided on with the president's personal lawyers, including that provision. that will bar the IRS from auditing the president, his family, his business, that stands.
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Chapter 3: What were the motivations behind Trump's lawsuits against the IRS?
So why has she not been replaced?
That has not happened yet either. And so you have a very frustrated Trump, but a frustrated Trump who has, you know, rhetorically turned the screws a bit on Thune, but really hasn't, you know, put the full force of pressure on Thune to get his legislative agenda through.
And we should say that includes things like the president has talked a lot about the Save America Act, right, an elections-focused piece of legislation. That's one of his top legislative priorities.
It's called the Save America Act. We've changed your name. It's the Save America Act, and the Democrats are against it. I heard one of them say, we will stop the Save America Act. No, we're trying to save America.
There's this housing bill that includes this institutional investor ban that he wants to see across the finish line. And then, of course, he wants to see security funding for his ballroom slash bunker.
This will be the entrance into the ballroom. The ballroom will be right here. This is a glass, beautiful glass tunnel, beautiful tunnel that goes right into the ballroom. The ballroom's right there. Pretty good, right?
I mean, with the Iran war in this sort of quagmire, especially coming from a president who rallied against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with gas prices where they are, with the president constantly trying to... gaslight the American people into believing that somehow the Iran war is good for them and that high gas prices even are good for them.
It feels like he doesn't care about the midterms, but then there's all the gerrymandering that he's pushing. I mean, which implies that he very much cares about the midterms and his endorsement of candidates. What's your read on what's going on with the president when it comes to the midterms?
Yes, it definitely feels like those two things are at odds with one another. I think the way that White House allies view it is, you know, he needs to—the president needs to be able to say, I don't care about the midterms, I don't care about high gas prices, because that language is for Iran, right? He's saying, like, I'm willing to take this gamble because—
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Chapter 4: How was the 'anti-weaponization' fund intended to operate?
And while we're on concerts, he even lost the Kennedy Center?
Yeah, I mean, this has been one that has been, you know, near and dear to the president for months now. His fight to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center and this, you know, planned massive renovation of the center, all put on hold by a federal court last week. We saw the president take to True Social to express his sincere displeasure at that decision.
Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the radical left would rather see it die than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of.
But just another loss in this sort of string of challenging circumstances for the White House right now.
Do they have any wins that they should be celebrating right now that they could be parading in front of the American people?
So some White House allies I spoke to said, you know, this is the challenge is that it's not like they don't have any wins. And the White House as well. This was their pushback to me in the story was we do have things we're doing. For instance, their efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs through Trump R.X., The coming launch of Trump accounts for millions of children.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, you know, was on the road last week in California and elsewhere touting these investment accounts, right, that are supposed to sort of build generational wealth for the next generation.
Over the next four years, every child getting $1,000 put in an index fund in their Trump account. They're going to learn about the markets. Their parents are going to learn about it. And the president has done peace deals, trade deals, and tax deals. But I think this could be his most enduring legacy.
But that is all getting overshadowed right now by Iran. And so the White House blames the media for not doing more to sort of highlight these things. But ultimately, I think the challenge, and this is what I hear when I'm sort of talking to regular voters, is, okay, these Trump accounts are great, but like,
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