Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We begin with the breathtaking and brazen corruption of Trump and his family,

as they shamelessly monetize the presidency,

having grifted more than $5 billion so far in Trump's second term.

Joining us to discuss the off-the-book deals Trump is making with foreign governments and U.S. corporations like NVIDIA,

which he personally controls in pockets, is Aziz Huck, a professor of law at the University of Chicago.

He is a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and is the author of How to Save a Constitutional

Democracy and his latest book is The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies.

We will discuss his article at the New York Times, Trump is raising billions in federal funds.

That's not a good thing.

Then we're looking to how trust in elections is cratering across bipartisan lines among Democrats, Republicans and independents,

as Trump deliberately soes doubts about electoral outcomes unless he happens to win an election.

Joining us is Lauren Prather, an associate professor of international relations at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.

Her work focuses on U.S. foreign policy, democracy promotion and democratization, and Middle East politics,

and she has a new survey at the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at UCSD.

We will discuss. Trust in elections decline across party lines ahead of 2026 midterms.

Then finally, we'll speak with Victor Picard, a professor at the Annenberg School of Communication

at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-directs the Media Inequality and Change Center.

He's the author of America's Battle for Media Democracy,

The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform.

And his latest book is Democracy Without Journalism,

...