189. Trump’s Secret Slush Fund: His Most Corrupt Act Yet

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Hello, and welcome to the Restless Politics U.S. with me, Caddy K. Where are you Anthony? Do you want to tell us? I am in the South of France, actually. I met Hotel Dicac. Are you rumbling a little bit about being in the hotel decap for a few days? No, no, no, no. You see, aha, no, no, no. Come on, you're a Scorpio, you're supposed to keep all my secrets, Caddy K. That's what you're supposed to do. He says the man who spills the proud addresses. All right. What are we talking about? We're going to talk about the news that broke yesterday that has got a lot of lawyers very upset. It's been described to me as the most corrupt thing that Donald Trump has ever done. We're discussing his new anti-weaponization slush fund, $1.8 billion that will potentially go to the rioters from January the 6th, a massive rewrite of history there, compensating Donald Trump's allies, and at the same time as the DOJ and the IRS have agreed not to investigate the Trump family for any tax malfeasance. In the scheme of the things that Trump has done around corruption, this one seems to be ringing alarm bells even in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. In the second half of the program, we're going to look at the Republican primary drama in Texas. Donald Trump yesterday came out and endorsed the very troubled and scandal-ridden Ken Paxton over Senator John Cornyn. This will not be happy news to the stalwart to the Republican Party who would like to try and hold on to the Senate because it puts Texas in play and we'll talk about that. Okay. Let's start with the slush fund. For those of you who have missed it, here's what happened. The Trump administration, Donald Trump, was under investigation by the IRS when he ran for president in 2016, and he failed to disclose his tax returns, an IRS employee leaked those tax returns to the press that Trump, Donald Trump, sued the IRS because it's illegal to leak somebody's tax returns, and now he has agreed to drop the settlement. In exchange, he is getting a $1,776,000,000 fund to pay out to what he is calling enemies of government weaponization. There had been some speculation this money might actually go to the Trump family. I think that is not what's going to happen, Anthony. This looks like this fund, and it's a clearly a quid pro quo. I'll drop my lawsuit if you'll give me this money from the Treasury that I can pay to people who I think have been victimized by the government. In other words, supporters of mine and who are the key supporters of his, who he would like to pay money to, to reward for their loyalty, they are the people who rioted in the capital and beat up cops on January the 6th of 2021. Even by Trump standards, it's an unprecedented use of your and my money, and all of our American listeners, your tax pay or money to reward the president's political allies. I can ask you to play law-professor, because I know it's the role you like playing best, and tell me whether what the president has done is legal, and then we can talk about the politics of it. Well, I mean, the structure was designed literally to make it almost impossible to stop. There are some pathways. You've got a litigation against the fund itself, you have to find somebody that has a cause of action to do that. You've probably got to go to the Congress and try to figure out a way if they could legislate something to actually block it. It got designed so that you don't necessarily need a judge to sign off on it. That was one of the particulars in there, and then, of course, you could have a watchdog on the disbursements of it to see if any of it was disperse them properly. But while I was here at Hotel DuComp, I found a playbook, and it's called The Russian Playbook. It looks like it was left here by Victor Orban from Hungary, okay? So, can I read to you from the playbook of corruption, governmental corruption? What? Go ahead. Go ahead. We're just hanging around the hotel ducap. Yeah. I was hanging around. I blew the dust off it, and let me just read to you the five or six tenants that are in the book. Are you ready? Number one, you got to monetize the office, okay? You got to find ways to have direct payments from foreign governments or domestic disbursements, and do everything you can to monetize the office. Number two, Caddy, look at this pen. You have to use the power of the pardon as a tool, okay? So, hey, man, write me a check, I'll pardon you, okay? And this also provides access, okay? This is why the J6 defendants got released. It was a mess just to people. You do my nefarious deeds, I'll pardon you. You have to weaponize enforcement, Caddy, and you have to defang oversight, okay? It's right here in the book, okay? And this is exactly what he's done. I mean, what mug wouldn't, really? I mean, why wouldn't you? Got to sell access. So, we're going to have crypto parties, and you're going to come to Mar-a-Lago, a couple million-dollar membership, and I want foreign nationals there, and crypto buyers, and corporate interest seeking favorable treatment, and it's all very transactional. If to capture the referees, Caddy, okay? How about that? Right there in the playbook, you pressure the law firms and the universities, and the media companies, and of course, detect platforms through excessive executive orders and lawsuits and tariffs and regulatory threats until they either settle, donate to you, or people that you like, like people that are going against Thomas Massey, or they just totally and completely change their behavior. Two more, Caddy, okay? Two more. You have flood the zone, Caddy, Kay. You move so many things at the same time that everybody's a necessities to it, and you know, they can't take the heat of the whole thing. Which is why the president was out doing a press conference about the ballroom yesterday. Right, exactly. And so this 1776, this $1,776 million monumental slush fund hits every single one of these. And since he's weak, and remember, I want to talk about timing, Caddy. He waited until he did all of the things on the list that I just gave you, especially weakening the referees and the law firms that would have typically taken him on, or the watchdog groups. And he weakened everybody before he did this, okay? So I think he's getting away with it. I don't think he gets away with it in total, I think people like him, they usually get their come-up ends. And so he may end up getting his come-up ends. When the term is over, there may be another way to find him. You remember Al Capone wanted jail for tax evasion, not for the organized crime. And Victor Alban was booted out of office because of the corruption of the Hungarian government, not for very many other reasons. People do not love this. And the poll numbers are going very low, Caddy. And he doesn't care. He's on a mission. And I will just push back a tiny bit. I think he takes at least half of this for himself. He'll find a way to get it into his pockets. I thought you were going to push back and say, no, he'll give this to James Comey, some of it, because James Comey has been wrongly treated by the government or he'll give this to John Brennan, who's been wrongly treated by the government. And he would, I know, I'm kidding, that is clearly not where this money is going. I think you're right. And I actually don't think it worked for Victor Alban in the long run. The level of corruption was unsustainable for Hungarian voters. They couldn't tolerate it. And I do think when you've got the Wall Street Journal slamming this as corruption, I was actually sent by a EU official. All they sent me was the DOJ readout. If you can see it there, that is the DOJ readout on the tax settlement. The fact that a European official is sending this to me without any explanation just dropped it into my inbox. I thought was interesting in itself. This is how this is being perceived around the world. It's the degradation again of the rule of law in America. And I think that's one of the things that you and I have spoken about continuously since Donald Trump came back into office. When we're looking at the signal and noise factor, there is so much noise around this administration, the ballroom, the reflecting pool, the endorsements that he's doing around the country, whatever it is. But the signal is this, I think one of the most important signals is this breakdown of the firewall between the justice department and the White House, where as you've described it, the justice department becomes the Trump family law firm. And now all of the implements of government are there to do Trump's bidding, which in this case is to reward the people who have been loyal to him. I would add one more thing to your list, which is you punish your enemies, but you reward the loyalists and you make it clear to the loyalists that you will reward them. And that's what this money is doing, right? I was thinking about this last night, Anthony, take us back to January the 7th, 2021. Remember that day? I'd sat on TV for four hours broadcasting about something. Everybody saw in front of their eyes. We all saw it. We saw the 140 cops who were beaten up that day, one of whom died the next day. We saw them being pulled out into the crowd by their shoulder straps and having their heads beaten. The American people, the world knows what happened on January the 6th. But what President Trump did yesterday is his attempt to rewrite history, to say actually the victims in this case were the people who were defecating in the capital, the people who were storming into Nancy Pelosi's offices, the people who were attacking cops. They are the victims is what he's trying to make the American people believe with this fund. And I think as well as the corruption, it is that ability that Trump has, that attempt that Trump is doing to say history is my version of history. And I don't know how many Americans will buy this. I don't know how many Americans will stand there and say, Oh, actually he's right. They were the victims of too much law enforcement on that day. Well, I mean, this is one of the ways that they can parry back at him. So the people that were attacked by the assailants, they have a cause of action. So the moment one of those people, the J6ers are paid, the assailants, the capital police can file a lawsuit and a grievance to try to stop the action. Okay, so if I were the Democrats, I would try to get as many of those people in place as possible. The thing that is so scary about this, though, is that it collapses the line between the public treasury and the private grievances. So just think about it. They set up a slush fund effectively. There's no neutral orbiter. It is Todd Blanche, the president's former personal attorney that is going to be at the switch galley that making the decision of where the capital is going to be allocated. So the fox is in guarding the head house. The fox is actually sitting out there writing the checks. But your last point is the one I want to emphasize. It retroactively delegitimizes every prior prosecution, and it does it without due process. And so it's just literally the president is waving a magic wand and saying, yeah, everything that you just said, Kati K, yeah, that didn't happen the way you just said it. And oh, by the way, to further enforce that, I'm going to land $1.7, $1.8 billion into the hands of people that I have declared victims, even though you, Kati K, and me, Anthony Scaramucci, know that they are the assailant. So I don't know how much more or well in can you get than what we just described. This is what Trump said about this yesterday. These were the people who were treated brutally by a system that was so corrupt. I don't know if that's projection or confession. But right there, you have the whole narrative being flipped on its head. And I do think that is part of the tradition of authoritarian governments. And I'm not going to use your favorite F word, but it is the tradition of authoritarian governments to say we are going to rewrite history to make the victims, the oppressors and the oppressors, the victims. No, stop. I can see you grinning. I can see you feel like, okay, I, my favorite F word that you use way more than me, everybody, everybody lost the calcium prediction market bet that I would curse more than you on this podcast. Everyone lost. Okay, keep going. Just on the IRS side of this, because that's there are two bits to this story. One is the slush fund and the rewarding of the Jan Sixers, which already you've got the police officers from that day. People like Dan Hodges, the family of Brian Sysnik, who died, Aquilina Gunnell, who was, you know, one of the people who was dragged out into the crowd and still, by the way, has injuries to his shoulder and his foot because of what happened in that day. They are speaking up. They are trying to say, this is not what happened and trying to remind the American public. But I've interviewed some of those police officers from that day. And they say to me, Anthony, look, the injury was twofold. It was what happened to us on that day and the lack of preparation and equipment that we didn't have that day. Subsequently, it was exactly this ignoring by the Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives who they were risking their lives to defend. The plaque honoring those police officers has been made. But we don't know where it is. It hasn't been brought out and put up. So they say that is as injurious to them as what happened on that day that these people they were fighting to defend have now basically washed their hands of them. And you've got a few mutterings from Capitol Hill. You've got John Thune saying, this is already getting backlash. I don't love the idea of this slush fund. You've got Susan Collins. She is very concerned. Anthony, she's very concerned about this. She is very concerned about the slush one. You'll be relieved to hear that Susan Collins is very concerned about Bill Cassidy getting ousted is what she's really concerned about. But go ahead. So you've got, you know, a little bit of mutterings, but this will probably run its course. But the other side of this and I want you to put back on grab that hat again because you're going to be law professor again. The IRS side of this and the dropping the settlement. But in that document that was sent to me by from the DOJ, how can the IRS say or the justice department say it's dropping all suits against Trump and his kids and it looks like this is there's some debate about it. But it looks like it's in perpetuity. How is that possible? Can't I get that deal? Can I just never be investigated by the tax authorities in perpetuity? I want to deal like that. Is there a deal for them and a different deal for us? So the DOJ did issue a clarification. It basically said that this is what respect to existing audit. Existing. But there's been questions about that already about whether that's really the case. Yeah. So the DOJ Caddy did issue a clarification. They basically said, and I'll read the quote, this is only with respect to existing audits, not future. It does sound like a guard rail until you remember what was actually pending. They've got audits related to their charity expenses. They took a $100 million dollar. What the IRS said was an improper depreciation deduction on the Chicago tower. There's a lot of different things in there, many millions of dollars, a hundred plus millions of dollars that would, you know, the IRS is basically seeding to the Trump family. Now, I think the existing audits only in my opinion is a dodged, by the way. I think it's a meaningless clarification. I think these people are going to be more or less bored from auditing the Trump family. I mean, that's what it said. That's what the Addendum signed by Todd Blanch said the government will be forever barred and precluded. After everybody in the media protest at that, the DOJ issued that statement. But if you actually read the language, the language from the IRS looks like this is a permanent conclusion. And, you know, I don't even know if that's constitutional, by the way, because that would really separate. Remember, under the due process of law, we're all to be treated equally. And so that would create a monarchial status, you know, from the 1600s, frankly, for the Trump family. And so, where they're above the law. So I think this is incredibly dangerous. And, but, you know, listen, you know, audit immunity. I want you to imagine that because, you know, when I was looking through the Putin or band corruption book, I didn't see audit immunity in there. I think this is something. Trump has got to call his buddies and say, Hey, you gave me some great ideas. It had to rip off the government and rip off the American people. But let me give you another one. But let me give you one. I got audit immunity going for me. I really see he's like an innovator on the side of corrupt. He's like in the corruption laboratory, you know? Yeah, that's very good. Anyway, look, here's what a lawyer sent me this morning. It's horrifying. It's corrupt to the core. This is from a lawyer, a conservative lawyer who sent me this. It might be one of these things where Trump is exploiting legal loopholes to do something. No one thought any president would do. And it might be illegal. I think it's again, no one really thinks he's that he has the shamelessness to do this stuff. And then he does it. Okay. I think this is a very important moment. I think it's one of those moments we're going to look back at and think this redefined the nature of the Trump presidency and what Trump tried to do to government and why how he tried to rewrite history. And just remember that day on January the 7th, when Lindsey Graham, now the president's most stalwart ally, said I'm getting off the Trump train. It's been a great ride. but enough is enough. That was unforgivable. And then a few days later, Kevin McCarthy flies down to Mar-a-Lago and welcomes him back into the Republican family history in the making. So that is one thing that happens to the Republicans, is they grow spine and testicles after they get defeated. So Bill Cassidy is out there hammering away on the slush fund, and he's also flipped to the other side on the vote related to the Iranian war. Okay, so the minute they get defeated or they get knocked out, we're going to go to Thomas Masi after the break, but you see they get their will and courage back. And the question is whether we're going to see the same from Senator John Cohnen. We'll talk about him after the break. This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. You know, Caddy, Alistair Campbell taught me how to use NordVPN on a train from Glasgow to London. I love this product. I want to be connected as soon as I sit down, but speed can come at a cost of security. Most of the time cyber attacks are not Hollywood style. They're disguised as a fake link, a fishing email or a public network that looks normal and NordVPN protection from all of that. I didn't have my NordVPNs switched on recently and I was the subject of a hacking attack. I got an email that I thought was legitimate, I opened it and now I'm very careful about having my NordVPN switched on. Using NordVPN helps protect my privacy and sensitive data, especially as we're often working on the move or using public Wi-Fi's. With Threat Protection Pro, malicious websites, ads and trackers and fishing attempts are all blocked before they even reach us. To get the best discount on your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpm.com/tripus. You'll get four extra months free on the two-year plan plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. The links in the episode description. And Russia. We assess Prime Minister. With high confidence it was Russian. Holding the Russians accountable is world war. They took down a British passenger jerk containing 350 people. Man in the Kremlin is playing Alex. Go to ask yourself if you want to play. What not? You're the Prime Minister. If done, nothing! We would need to understand the policy context. All the relevant context will be structured as a framework today. And disseminated into an operation order. Or frago. And a frago that says to kill the president of Russia. Yes. New from Goldhanger. Who is going to be able to pull this off? Duffy. An audio-drama journey like no other. Men like Duffy. They are our most valuable weapons. Devised as a technically rigorous geopolitical action forever. We've got to take friendly care of you. Where Britain plays its strongest arm. He's the best. Against its strongest foe. Bear hunt. I'm available now wherever you get your podcasts. [Music] Welcome back to the rest is politics US. So, Anthony, I felt very sorry for J.D. Vance yesterday. Because J.D. Vance had his starring moment in the White House press briefing room, taking it from Caroline Levit, who is on maternity leave, and trying to catch up with Marco Rubio, who did the same role to great success a couple of weeks ago. And there he is. He's in the press briefing room and guess what happens. Just before it, Donald Trump gives a ballroom tour with all of the White House press call, which actually turns into a long press conference and sucks all of the oxygen out of the room. And just after it, Donald Trump endorses Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state senate Republican primary runoff, which was the big political news that everyone have been waiting for, thereby squeezing poor or J.D. out of his starring moment. It was so Donald Trump. It was like, J.D. is going to have a moment in the sun. I'm going to have two moments in the sun. But the snub to Senator John Cornyn. This has been a race we've talked about this before. Texas is now a race that is potentially in play for the senate. The Republican runoff was between sitting Senator John Cornyn, who has served for more than two decades, who is popular in his party. But who has had run-ins with Donald Trump and Donald Trump does not like him. And between Ken Paxton, who is the Attorney General, who is a man with about four or five different scandals and previous lawsuits against him, including accusations of adultery and financial misappropriations. So Donald Trump has now endorsed Ken Paxton, saying entirely it's because he is loyal to me. Not making any pretence that this is about the good of the party. We know it's not about the good of the party because this is a nightmare for majority leader John Thun who wanted to have John Cornyn in there because he thinks John Cornyn got elected. But for Trump, it's another chance to show he controls the Republican party. And what do you reckon can Ken Paxton now beat James Taloriko in the runoff of the senate? I think he's going to. And I think James Taloriko is a formidable politician. He's more formidable than Beto O'Rourke. I think he has a broader coalition, but I think the machinery is in place that will prevent him from winning. Karen Daskadi is an example. He's going to win Los Angeles, no matter what mistakes she made during the wildfires. She just has that machinery behind her. You could be failed policies, questionable policies. You could have issues, but the turnout machinery is what usually produces the victory. This is what happened to Thomas Massey in his home state. You know, 32 million dollars was spent on a Kentucky representative race. Could you imagine that? I mean, it's ridiculous. And that's just sends out a signal. We're going to pour money into these things. So yes, he's going to win. That's my prediction. But he then enters the senate caddy. Like I said earlier in the week as a junior senator from the state of Texas and all of that majority, seniority rankings and all that of the stuff go away. And Trump doesn't care, of course. But that's what's going to happen ultimately. I want to ask you this question, though, because you've been observing this for longer than me, frankly. Have you in your lifetime seen a president, a political leader, senior, senior majority leader, speaker of the house, go this viciously after their own parties and have this level of a purity test related to the people that are in the party. Look, you're talking about president Trump, right? And he made it very clear in the truth, social posts that he sent out that this was all about because John Cornyn had not been loyal enough to Trump. He didn't pretend that he was endorsing Ken Paxton for the good of the Republican Party. He didn't even try to pretend that. He just said this was about the fact that John Cornyn had not supported me. He had not been close enough to me. So it's very much about him personally. And I think that's the problem, Anthony, is that he's done this before when he endorsed candidates who were very loyal to him, but were totally unelectable. Herschel Walker down in Georgia, Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, Masteriano, also in Pennsylvania. And it came back to hurt the party, which is why the Republican operatives, like John Thuner saying, this is actually not helpful to us. And I don't know whether this is going to be a rerun of 2020. Maybe the party is more in line with Donald Trump now, but independent voters aren't and swing voters aren't. And his risk is that he's proposing these people. And Ken Paxton has been kind of a joke in mainstream Republican politics for the last 10 years, because of this constant scandals against him and accusations of financial fraud against him and, you know, accusations of having affairs against him. And he really has been kind of a joke. So can Republican voters, who are not diehard maggot, overlook his baggage and still vote for him because Donald Trump has endorsed him? I think there is a chance they will. I think the Republicans will still win. And one Republican strategist said to me last night, that an endorsement by Trump moves you up in the rankings in your race by 50 points. He says, there's nothing like it in Republican primary politics at the moment to boost your fortunes that compares remotely with an endorsement by Donald Trump. You can have all of these standard conservative moves and issues that will move you up by 20 points, but nothing's going to move you up right 50 points apart from Donald Trump. So he still does have a huge amount of sway, but it is very much a test of loyalty to him. It's not about the party or about what you would call conservatism, yeah. I think this is the message. So if you wanna go against Donald Trump, you're gonna be in trouble because one, to your point, he controls the primary voters. That's 15 to 20% of the registered Republicans. They're super trouble oilists. They're the ones that gonna oust you. Number two, he's got the MAGA Inc. money infrastructure in place to make America a great again pack. The other aligned super packs. On a moments notice, Cassidy, they can drop 20 to $30 million into a single house race with a phone call, again, $32 million into the massive race. So no incumbent can out raise that. They just don't have the facility in place to do that. This is the byproduct of Citizens United, right? And then he's got Fox News, Newsmax, and the podcast, ecosystem that he works very hard. And Cassidy, there's no institutional resistance inside the conference. The Republican caucus is like, no problem. Do whatever you want. You read a quote before this half of the show started from Lindsey Graham, where he was done with Trump. Is he done with Trump? I mean, my God, you can't even see Lindsey so far inside Trump's, you know what? So I mean, come on, so. And this is the most important thing, Cassidy. The base genuinely likes the scrum. They genuinely like the tax, Cassidy. They like seeing Trump take on the party. They like the way he attacks them. Yeah, they do. They like it. They like it because remember, inherent in all this is anti establishment, anti-incumbency, throw the bums out. Trump, please light those people up. Here's what he said on Truth Social about John Cornyn, just to underscore that point. John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a historic run for the Republican nomination and then the presidency itself, both of which were landslide victories. I mean, I don't think you need to read much further, right? To find out why he actually doesn't like John Cornyn. He was too late. Sorry, you were too late backing me. Anyway, it's going to be interesting now. Political scientist down in Texas, who I spoke to late last night said, Texas is the Democrats' white whale. They keep hoping they're going to win it and they won't win it until they do. And that will be having a very good Democratic candidate, a very weak Republican candidate, and enough Democratic money and funds being invested in the state of Texas. This is their closest chance since better or more came close to defeating Ted Cruz. Let's see how well they do. It's going to be very interesting to see how well Democrats do in November and state of Texas. I want to make sure people know this. Paxen did out hustle, Cornyn, okay? And I want to explain to people what he actually did. One of the first things he did is he ran ads in the Mar-a-Lago media market on Fox News that were pro-him and bashing the living daylights out of Cornyn, okay? As it was right in Trump's ear, he met with him numerous times on the sidelines of gallows. He appeared at Trump-aligned events that Cornyn skipped, including a Dallas CPAC gathering. Where Cornyn decided not to go to it, Paxen went, okay? And he wanted to rename the Texas Highway, ready, interstate 47 in honor of Donald Trump. And Cornyn didn't want anything to do with that, okay? And you have to understand Trump. So in addition to Cornyn 35 years, I'm the incumbent, I should win. I'm going to be on my heels. Okay, this guy went to work. Okay, so I just wanted to say, oh, Trump endorsed them. And so therefore, he won. - He fought for you. - This guy put the knee pads on his elbows and he went to work. He worked on Trump and he was out there campaigning very, very aggressively for the spot that he's in. - And the way you campaign aggressively is you get in Trump's face with lots of flattery about him. - 100%. - You propose changing the names of highways, which does slightly beg the question, how easy is it to play Donald Trump? Not just if you're an American politician, but if you're a leader around the world, they all know this now. Everybody watches what happens. Everybody watches who gets rewards and they watch the playbook. And there's got enough experience now to look at the playbook and learn how to play it themselves. I think we saw that play out by the way in China last week. - Mark Cuban, who pummeling Trump during the 2024 election, he's standing at the podium with him for Trump Rx, Rapproach Mont. So what does that tell you? You can always as a revolving door, Caddy. You can always go through the turn style back into Trump's orbit. And that is one of the insanity things about Trump because when you're peeing on him, he doesn't like it and he wants to be loved. And what, was that a bit metaphor? - I think that was unnecessary. I mean, some people might be listening to this over breakfast. - Okay, all right, I'll take it back, okay. - Especially in the light of the PP tape. No, too many images. - Okay, when you're the lamb-based thing Trump, he doesn't like it. - Better. - You can go through the revolving door back in, which is a little bit more revolting than it seems on first glance. - In our bonus episode this week, we dived into the ballroom. I have a few theories about that for our founding members. Take a quick listen. - Caddy, I don't live in Washington. You live in Washington. It doesn't look like a lot of work is getting done on the ballroom right now. - Well, that is a very good point. So I guess my follow-up question to Tom's question, is it going to be built before Trump leaves office? - That's the question. So there's been, I was just on set this morning with a whole bunch of people, and we were raising this same question. Is the ballroom actually going to be built because the speculation around Washington at the moment is that it may not get done before Trump leaves office. And the Senate rulekeeper, Elizabeth McDonough, has actually ruled against the use of taxpayer funds in the bill on Saturday after Democrats argued that security money doesn't belong in it for this ballroom. So I think the financing is still up in the air. He's getting quite a lot of blowback, both for the amount of money that initially the ballroom was going to cost 200 million. Then it was going to cost 300 million. Then it was going to cost 400 million. But now Republicans are proposing this $1 billion, as Anthony says, by layering a whole load of other things that's going to be an underground bunker and it's going to be for security provisions. Donald Trump did come back from China, saying China has a ballroom, and so we should have a ballroom too. It clearly clocked that China had a big ballroom. So two things are in question. As we, the financing is in question, where is it actually going to come from? And I don't think anyone would argue that security provisions for government buildings, particularly for the White House, are something that everybody should look at and they should be financed, but they have to be appropriate security provisions. But I think it's your question is the bigger one right now. Anthony, are we going to be there with some kind of great big hole in the ground until Trump leaves office at the moment? Donald Trump seems as focused on the reflecting pool and painting that American flag blue. And there are already questions about that because some of the blue shades are different from some of the other blue shades and our workers getting kind of noxious fumes. That seems to be the focus of his attention. If you look at his feed, that is what he's sending out pictures of at the moment, because I guess he thinks that's getting done. But I wouldn't be totally surprised if this whole ballroom project gets so caught up in financing issues and legal issues because should he have actually pulled down the East Wing, which was a historic part of the White House? And then what happens? Let's do some role play. Mr. 48th president of the United States, Anthony Scaramucci, what would you like to do with the East Wing? The erstwhile East Wing, which is now actually a big hole in the ground. - Okay, so I'm president. - Your president. - Deirdre has not been told about this, but you are now president. - Yeah, so I'm rebuilding the East Wing identical to what it was. And I'm adding a 20,000 square foot ballroom. 'Cause I do think he is right. - And you're putting what the ballroom underneath the East Wing, or you're putting in the East Wing? - No, I'm adding the East Wing, but you could see the thing is he's got 90,000 square feet. The East Wing is exactly the way it was. And you attach a 20,000, 25,000 square foot ballroom to it, which is modest and looks like the rest of the White House. And if you want to put that underground facility together for the president and his staff in the event of an emergency, I'm actually okay with that. - Yeah, 'cause actually the over-office area, the West Wing is very cramped. And everybody knows that. - Yeah, and I lived in there for a very short period of time, but my office is like a phone booth. - You can become a founding member and get those bonus episodes every week if you'd like to, including our series and early access to all of our live shows. You can sign up at therestispoliticsus.com. We'd love to have you with us. Thanks for listening, guys. We will see you next week. - See you next week, guys. (upbeat music) (dramatic music) - Hello, the rest is football. This is Richard Osman and Marina Hyde from The Rest Is Entertainment. Now I know you all had your World Cup this summer in America, but for Teddy fans, the new celebrity traitors series is our World Cup. - Yes, every Thursday and Friday, we are reacting to the pop culture phenomenon that is the celebrity traitors. On YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts, Richard and I will be sharing our opinion on every banishment, murder and insane fan theory. - Who do you think out of the three Rest his foot will host with last the longest in the Traitor's Castle. Ooh, I think it will. would be Micah. Of course it would be. Why are we even asking the question? People they vote out Gary immediately. Yeah. Micah would just stay in like all the way to the end just just laugh in his head. Laughing is yeah. And then right at the last minute goes I was a traitor. Yeah. So if you're watching the celebrity traitors, don't forget to tune into our reaction episodes every Thursday and Friday night at 10pm. Find us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.