meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Al Franken Podcast

BEST OF: David Kirkpatrick on Trump’s Shameless Profiteering

The Al Franken Podcast

The Al Franken Podcast

News, Government, Comedy, Politics

4.68.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of Donald Trump's most successful initiatives in his second term has been making himself and his family richer than ever. In this Best Of episode, we revisit our November 2025 conversation with The New Yorker’s David Kirkpatrick, who wrote a piece outlining all the ways the legendary grifters have cashed in during Trump’s presidency. 

The Trump family has long been associated with shameless cash grabs, but we have reached new levels of corruption by using his office for their money-making schemes: international real estate deals, Trump-branded merchandise, and cryptocurrency.

David lays out the long list of ethical implications involved and calculates the staggering amount of money Donald Trump and his family have made off his presidency.

READ David's piece “The Number” in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/the-number 

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Indeed Presents. Hires you can't afford to get wrong. Like a warehouse operations manager. Uh, where are the forklifts? I sold them. They were too expensive. I got a great deal on these scooters though. You expect us to move a two-term palette on a scooter. It'll be fun. Just think of the core strength you'll build. This is a job for sponsored jobs. This is what happens when you don't sponsor your job on Indeed.

0:21.5

So the next time you need someone to get the job done right, get matched with quality candidates with an Indeed sponsored job.

0:26.8

Visit Indeed.com slash Next hire and sponsor your job today.

0:30.1

Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.

0:34.8

Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business

0:38.9

with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your

0:43.7

products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scale

0:48.8

ups, online, in person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.

0:58.7

Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.

1:08.0

Hey everybody, we've got a great one for you today, you know, for a change. And that's because this one is a best of.

1:12.2

I'm taking a little break from the podcast.

1:14.7

I've been doing the show now for seven years, and frankly, I deserve it.

1:20.8

So I'd like to revisit my conversation with David Kirkpatrick from November.

1:26.1

David is a staff writer at the New Yorker and has been

1:30.1

tracking just how much the Trumps have been enriching themselves. It's pretty staggering,

1:37.4

completely unparalleled in the history of our country. The family has enriched themselves

1:43.7

to the tune of billions this term so

1:47.1

far in crypto alone. And of course, quite a bit more has been accumulated since we last talked to

1:55.5

David. Now, I'm not sure why Americans are not more outraged by the staggering self-dealing that the Trumps and others in the administration have engaged in.

2:05.8

I mean, we recently learned that the Trump's sons are starting a new drone business using Ukrainian technology to sell drones to our defense department, just something that normal everyday Americans could set up to make a few million.

2:25.7

And the New York Times has reported that Jared Kushner is raising $5 billion in new funding for his private equity firm, affinity partners, targeting Gulf Arab

2:37.0

states like Saudi Arabia, raising some conflict of interest questions, considering he's an

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Al Franken Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Al Franken Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.