Donald Trump will be president again by tomorrow, and he says “everybody” wants to be his friend. And while it might not be everybody, plenty do.
Trump’s broken the record for the amount of money that’s been donated to a US presidential inauguration fund, with $US200 million coming in from billionaires and companies all wanting time with him.
These funds are not just for throwing a party. The money can also be used in secretive ways and aren't subject to the same rules as campaign funds.
Today, Public Citizen’s lobbyist on ethics and campaign finance, Craig Holman, on who is giving Trump money, and what they’re getting out of it.
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Guest: Public Citizen's Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics, lobbying and campaign finance rules Craig Holman.
The first term, everybody was fading me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't my personality changed or something.
Donald Trump will be president again by tomorrow, and while it might not be everybody, he wants to be his friend, plenty do. He's broken the record for the amount of money that's been donated to his inauguration fund, with two hundred million dollars coming in from billionaires and companies all wanting time with you.
The great executives coming in, the top executives that out bankers. They're all colleague and honestly, in the first time, I don't know what it was.
And these funds they're not just for throwing a party. They can be used in secretive ways and are not subject to the same rules as campaign funds. From Schwartz Media, I'm Daniel James. This is seven.
AM today, Public Citizens lobbyist on ethics and campaign finance, Craig Holman on who is giving Trump money and what they're getting out of it.
It's Monday, January twenty Craig, you've been tracking the money going into Trump's inauguration fund. We know it's record breaking. Hey, let's cold pay to past funds.
This is an all time record breaking inauguration. I mean literally, we're expecting about two hundred million dollars in private money to be raised to pay for the party for Donald Trump to celebrate his victory. The previous record was the Trump administration, the first Trump administration in twenty seventeen, which was one hundred and seven million, and that broke all time records. With Obama and Biden, it got up to fifty and sixty million. But we've never hit these one hundred million marks until Donald Trump. And now, I mean, the two hundred billion just blows everything out of the water.
So what kind of rules is there around the expenditure of this money?
Is it? That's the problem. There are only two rules in place. One is foreign nationals cannot contribute to an inauguration, and the second is ninety days after the inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Committee will release the disclosure report of donors of two hundred dollars or more. And those disclosure reports do not include any records of how the money was handled, how the money was spent, and if there's a surplus funds, how those surplus funds are being disposed of. So it's pretty much a wild West when it comes to financing the inaugural activities.
Okay, what are the inaugural activities and what are we about to see?
The only one event that really is open to the American public or no fee whatsoever is the victory rally. Hundreds of thousands of people show up to you know, celebrate Trump selection. But after that it all turns into like exclusive parties and exclusive dinners for the very very wealthy donors to the inauguration. Trump has set up a series of tiers of donors. So, for instance, we're seeing a cabinet reception for Tier one donors, and that means donors who gave them million dollars or more get to actually meet all the different cabinet nominees, shake hands, visit with them, talk to them, lobby them, you know, try to convince them to carry through in certain policy matters. There's the Vice President's Dinner, where Tier one donors get to sit down with the Vice president and other cabinet officials and have a very intimate dinner with them, you know, rub shoulders get to know them. Then there's a candlelight dinner in which donors of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more get to have dinner with Donald Trump. And then what's really breathtaking for the first time ever is an event called One America One Light Sunday Service, where donors of one hundred thousand dollars or more get the privilege to pray with Donald Trump. So those are the types of events that these people are paying for. The public is only invited to the major victory rally. Beyond that, it's all just a playground for the very wealthy.
And so you've spoken about the various tears to the people paying for these dinners and access to Donald Trump in his administration. Do we know that?
So Public Citizen has been tracking everyone who's made a pledge, a public pledge to help finance the inauguration, and we found thirty one people or companies or businesses or government contractors who have now pledged money to finance the inauguration. All of them have pledged one million dollars or more, and all of them, every single one of these donors has business pending before the next administration. So the big group of donors cryptocurrency. They really want deregulation of the cryptocurrency industry So we've got companies like Ripple that have given five million, Robinhood that's given two million, Coinbase, moon Pack, Cracking all have given a million dollars each. They're the number one industry right now. They're closely followed by big tech. So you got said Google, Microsoft, made Amazon, Open Ai, all giving a million dollars each to the inauguration. And they're followed by Wall Street where you've got Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Hedge Fund CEO Ken Griffin each giving one million dollars. So these are all companies and individuals that actually want something out of the Trump administration.
So does PINNA get time with the president payoff? Have we sent examples of these types of diners getting fireable treatment out of having Trump's ear in the past?
Oh? Yes, indeed, we've seen various concrete examples. Back in the twenty sixteen election. For instance, Miriam and Schell and Adelson, who are very concerned about Israeli interest, gave twenty million dollars to the Trump superpack and they were asking for Trump to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Avision to Jerusalem. As soon as Trump won the election, sure enough, he moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. You got the whole crypto currency industry. I mean they want to be fully deregulated. Trump is now saying, yes, let's get rid of any kind of regulations of cryptocurrency. Yes said by spevers, especially to a president who just worships money.
Coming up after the break Trump's transition to the White House and the security clearances he wanted to avoid. Craig, We've been talking about the unprecedented amount of money flowing into Trump's inauguration fund, but Donald Trump has also been receiving huge donations towards his transition into the White House. So tell me about how presidential transitions typically work and while they cost so much money.
Back in the nineteen sixties, we passed legislation to make it a publicly financed effort to smooth the old transition process. And in that effort, the incoming president simply signs a memorandum of understanding and that commits the incoming president to a certain amount of public funds, office base, security clearances, access to all the different agencies in exchange for limiting any private contributions to no more than five thousand dollars. Every president since the nineteen sixties law has complied with that sort of smooth transition process until Donald Trump that he just did not want to participate in any of this. He didn't want his cabinet nominees to be scrutinized for security breaches, and he did not want to limit contributions from private sources, and he especially did not want to tell the American public who his private donors are. So he was just bucking the entire process until it became very clear that he's going to have a problem moving his new administration into office because they're not getting security clearances. So Trump eventually made his own memorandum of understanding saying, Okay, I'll allow the FBI to do security clearances, but he's not going to give up private financing of his transition team and he's not going to disclose where the money's coming from.
So he's dodged having any limits on how much people candynite to his transition fund. And he also doesn't have to say where the money is coming from. So what can he use this money on? Can it just be used to line Trump's pockets for instance.
Well, it's a nonprofit organization. The money is supposed to be used for this stated specific purpose of the nonprofit organization. But you know that stated purpose of both the transition team and the Inaugural Committee are very very ambiguous in general. I mean, basically, for the inaugural it's to pay for a party. So what does that mean? What limits go with that? With the transition team, it's basically whatever Trump says he needs to do to make the transition. Trump historically, in the last inauguration, for instance, used the money to pay for Trump services. So he rented up Trump Hotel both in New York and DC, paid for various Trump products and services. With all these funds, that money goes into Trump's pocket. He's known for routing the money, campaign money, public funds into his own business empire to enrich.
And so so Trump has written the book when it comes to transition finance and the inauguration. Could this change the way future transfers of power are handled.
We'll see. Legislation has just been introduced in the House of Representatives to set up various regulations of how inaugural funds are used, not transition funds, but inaugural funds. And I'm contacting Senators trying to get a companion bill introduced in the Senate. This legislation would basically close all the loopholes that Donald Trump is exploiting. It would first of all, prohibit donations to the inauguration from corporations and that includes government contractors. It would limit contributions from individuals to fifty thousand dollars, so you don't have someone like Zuckerberg and others throwing out millions to buy influence. It would require disclosure of how the money is handled and spent, so regulation is afoot these bills. By the way, similar bills have been introduced earlier and they haven't gone anywhere. However, what makes the legislation more likely this time around is the extent of the Trump abuses. I mean, two hundred million dollars for a party. Wow. I mean that's got to get even a lot of Republicans in Congress saying, you know, this is getting a little out of control. We better rein this back.
Craig, I've got to say, I really admire your optimism given that Trump has so much control. Why are you optimistic.
Because reform has always come on the heels of scandal. I mean, you know, we're seeing millionaires and billionaires buying immediate direct access to Donald Trump sides of the fact that they financed his campaign. I mean they're rampant throughout his transition team, and now they have taken over his inauguration. We're going to see a federal government here in the United States almost entirely dominated by the very wealthy special interests. And you know, Trump is just bringing in billionaires and millionaires into his administration, most of whom have very little experience with the roles they are being asked to be put in. And when you get that kind of moneyed operation, special interest going full fledged as we're seeing now, there's going to be scandaled after scandal.
Well, I have a feeling that we'll be speaking to you from ton to ton out of the next full years, Craig, but Finea, thank you so much for your ton.
Sure, it's a pleasure, glad to talk to you, Denny.
Also in the years today, a Motor Attach executive with the backing of Deputy Liberal Leader Susan Lay and former New South Wales Premier Claudyspiagiclian has one pre selection in the Sydney seat of Bradfield Salesforce executives to sale Capterian be prominent no vote campaign of Warra Mundine, who had the backing of key Conservative figures, including Tony Abbott. The seat is being vacated by a retiring senior motor at Paul Fletcher, who has been closely watched as an early indicator of how the Liberal Party plans to approach city seats which deserted them in favor of the Teals at the last election and incoming US President Donald Trump and said he would probably hit pause on a law that would ban TikTok. The law, which was passed last year, would ban the app until it cuts ties with its China based parent, Byte Dance due to national security concerns. Donald Trump was indicator he's looking at an day extension for the company. One hundred and seventy million Americans, almost half the population, used TikTok. I'm Daniel James. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.