Trump’s $5 Billion Grift: How Capitalism Steals From Us
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Trump’s family made $5 billion on Monday when they launched a new currency, a memecoin called $Trump. Along with propping up failing company Intel, these are recent examples of the resources the capitalists take from U.S. workers. Professor Richard Wolff & producer Nicole Roussell lay out how this corruption and grift occur.
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.
Join the The Socialist Program community at https://www.patreon.com/TheSocialistProgram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Trump family made as much as $5 billion in paper wealth on Monday when they launched a new currency. |
| 0:08.2 | This is, of course, extreme corruption and the ultimate grift. |
| 0:12.4 | We are very excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us for a regular weekly segment, |
| 0:16.5 | where we discuss the biggest stories relating to the economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business. I'm Nicole Roussel, sitting in for your host, Brian Becker. |
| 0:26.1 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded |
| 0:32.1 | impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable but an imperative necessity. The Socialist Program brings you content several days a week thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com slash the Socialist Program. |
| 1:06.3 | We appreciate all of your support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to the show. |
| 1:12.3 | Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is available at Democracy at Work. |
| 1:22.3 | So, Richard, Trump is in office. I think everyone's aware of that. |
| 1:26.8 | But he created a new currency, |
| 1:28.8 | this meme coin. He now has five or six billion dollars as a result of it. I mean, this is the |
| 1:34.3 | ultimate grist. Over the course of history, one factor that scientific Marxism has identified |
| 1:39.8 | that can create a revolutionary crisis is when people see that the government could fix an issue, |
| 1:44.6 | but they don't do it. And it becomes delegitimized. Change is like within their power, but they |
| 1:50.3 | choose not to do it. And this has happened throughout history and led to revolution. And this seems like |
| 1:55.9 | such a prime example. Trump's incredible and unhidden corruption, you know, this administration |
| 2:00.7 | having the power and |
| 2:01.6 | resources to fund or fix any number of things, but instead choosing to enrich themselves. Is that how |
| 2:07.3 | you see this? I think my answer would be yes and no. I understand what you're saying, and yes, |
| 2:13.8 | it is of a peace, we might say, with many of the other things that this regime is doing, |
| 2:20.5 | in terms of narrow self-interest variously defined. But I must say there are bigger fish |
| 2:32.0 | that we, you, me, and the audience we're dealing with have to fry. |
... |
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