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The Mona Charen Show

Trump's Staggering Corruption Is Finally Catching Up to Him (w/ Jonathan Chait)

The Mona Charen Show

The Bulwark

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic joins Mona to discuss the incredible scope and scale of Trump’s corruption—from the $4 billion the Trump family has added to its net worth since January 2025, to the $1.776 billion “weaponization” slush fund, to the dozens of DOJ officials who quit rather than follow corrupt orders. They trace how a century of progressive-era reforms that kept American government relatively clean is being systematically dismantled, and why the mafia-style loyalty-and-punishment logic now governing federal law enforcement is more authoritarian than merely corrupt. Plus: are Senate Republicans finally showing a spine? And is the Democratic Party’s new obsession with monopolies as the root of all evil a winning strategy—or a trap?

Make laundry day the best day of the week! Get 20% off your entire order @LaundrySauce with code MONA at https://laundrysauce.com/MONA #laundrysaucepod

Read Jonathan’s article on the $1.8 billion slush fund: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-january-6/687215/

Read Mona’s article on Trump’s corruption: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-corrupt-is-trump-here-are-the-numbers-trades-chips-nvidia-pardons-settlement-fund

Transcript

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0:00.0

I don't want to go around.

0:00.8

It's like you're going to lose the election if you promise these things because a lot of these things are popular.

0:05.1

But what you can't do is try to implement them.

0:08.1

Oh, God.

0:13.0

Welcome to the Mona Charrin Show.

0:15.3

So glad you could join me today.

0:17.5

I am delighted to welcome back Jonathan Chate, who is a contributing writer at the Atlantic.

0:23.5

We're going to talk corruption today, something both he and I have been focused on a bit.

0:30.0

But I also just want to very strongly recommend a new piece that he has that just came out today.

0:37.9

And if I had known about this in advance,

0:40.0

maybe this would have been our topic because it's a good one.

0:43.7

Maybe we'll have you back.

0:44.9

But here's it's called a sweeping theory of everything

0:49.0

is revolutionizing the Democratic Party.

0:52.8

And the subhead is Democrats are enthrall to the idea that corporate consolidation is America's

0:59.0

biggest and maybe only problem.

1:02.4

So, as you can probably guess, John doesn't think that's quite right.

1:07.0

So it's a great piece.

1:08.5

And we will perhaps return to that another time.

1:12.4

In the meantime, go read it.

1:15.0

But let us turn to the topic of the day, which is corruption.

1:20.0

The Trump family has increased its net worth by about $4 billion since January of 2025. And there are many different kinds of

...

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