David Kirkpatrick: Trump's Self-Enrichment

The Bulwark Podcast

The Bulwark

News, Society & Culture, Politics, News Commentary

4.6 • 11.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Back in the day, Trump used to puff up his wealth to get on the Forbes list. Lately though, he doesn't talk about how much money he has, especially now that he and his family have pocketed an estimated $3.4 billion off his time in the White House. The bulk of those billions comes from various crypto-related ventures—and money from foreign nationals and some adjustments at the S.E.C. have helped grease the wheel. At the same time, the Trump Org is making development deals directly with dictators in the Middle East. Meanwhile, his supporters may think they're helping MAGA by buying hats and beer koozies, but their money is all going to Trump. Plus, the European leaders had their flattery game down in the Oval Office on Monday.

The New Yorker's David Kirkpatrick joins Tim Miller.
show notes

David's piece, "The Number: How Much Is Trump Pocketing off the Presidency?”
White House photo of the European's flattery game in action
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Transcript

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0:00.0	Building a coffee business?
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0:38.9	Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
0:42.5	Previously was New York Times Cairo Bureau Chief during the Arab Spring. He was author of Into the Hands of the Soldiers, Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.
0:48.1	His new piece in The New Yorker is the number, how much is Trump pocketing off the presidency?
0:53.7	Spoiler, a lot. It's David Kirk Pactor. Welcome to the podcast, man. It Trump pocketing off the presidency? Spoiler, a lot.
0:54.7	It's David Kirk Pactor.
0:55.9	Welcome to the podcast, man.
0:57.2	It's a pleasure to be here.
0:58.3	Good to have you, man.
0:59.3	Welcome to the show.
1:00.5	I want to spend most of it on the Trump corruption graft, enrichification of his family,
1:05.4	whatever we want to call it.
1:06.3	But first, you've covered some high-stakes diplomacy in your years.
1:11.8	I'm curious what your impressions were of the multilateral, I guess we'll call it, visit to the White House yesterday of all the European leaders, giving Zelensky some backup and some support to ensure that the meeting didn't go as ugly as the one did a few months ago.
1:29.2	I guess they achieved that goal. It was a little bit more affable, but unsure what the progress
1:33.9	was beyond that. What did you make of what we saw yesterday? I thought one of the most striking
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