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Trump, Inc.

Paying to Protect the President

Trump, Inc.

WNYC Studios

Don, Trump, News, Business, Jared, Ivanka, Jr, Politics, Business News, Government, Eric

4.65.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last year, Eric Trump defended his father’s frequent visits to properties owned by the family business, saying that Trump hotels charge far less than others would. “If they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like 50 bucks,” Eric Trump told Yahoo Finance. But recent reporting by The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold revealed that’s not the case: records show that the Secret Service was charged rates as high as $650 a night to stay at Trump properties — then tried to keep that information secret. “It’s not only that Trump has control over this - he’s paying money to himself - but also that we weren’t told,” Fahrenthold said. “You could make the case that if they publicly advertise this and listed these things in public spending databases and you and I knew about this from the beginning, they might be able to make the argument that like, ‘Oh well, the public knows and they're okay with it.’ But we didn't know. They didn't tell us. So there's a real moral distinction.” Related episodes:• The Government's Bar Tab at Mar-a-Lago• How a Nigerian Presidential Candidate Hired a Trump Lobbyist and Ended Up in Trump’s Lobby• Government Employees Spend Your Money at Trump Hotels Learn more about Fahrenthold and The Post's unanswered questions about government spending at Trump properties. Stay up to date with email updates about WNYC and ProPublica's investigations into the president's business practices.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I have my hand drawn bar graph, which has been mocked by some, but I think is very compelling.

0:05.9

And my list of what Trump wore charges to secret service.

0:09.0

Who's mocking your hand drawn bar graph?

0:11.2

People who don't know anything about good graphic design and describe the bar graph for me,

0:16.5

what does it say?

0:17.5

Well, I drew it with a pen and I have to use a straight edge, I use the side of an envelope

0:21.0

to make a straight line.

0:22.4

I'm trying to show people as my knowledge grows of how much total Trump has gotten from

0:26.8

his own government.

0:28.1

So I'm up to $471,000, that's just from the secret service just in 2017.

0:33.0

And as the number grows, the bar graph will grow.

0:35.0

And we may even end up exceeding the piece of paper that I'm on.

0:37.4

I have no idea how big it's going to get.

0:44.4

Hello and welcome to Trump Inc.

0:46.8

An open investigation from WNYC and ProPublica into the business of Trump.

0:52.0

I'm Ilya Maritz.

0:54.0

Today, one of the most direct ways Donald Trump makes money from the presidency,

0:59.8

told by a reporter with that hand drawn bar graph and a mandate to follow public money flowing

1:06.0

into Trump properties.

1:08.2

This is something that people ask me all the time, even when they find out I cover

1:12.4

the Trump organization, they say, well, what are we paying him?

1:14.6

How much money is he getting from the taxpayers?

...

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