'BradCast' 8/7/2026 (Encore: This is What Kleptocracy Looks Like)

From Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast. As heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, and on dozens of other excellent affiliate stations over both the public airwaves and the internets around the country and the world, blanketing planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker. And all around, swell fellow says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. And welcome to the broadcast. We have got a lot to get to today. For a change. Yes. Hi, Desi Doyen. Hi. But as longtime broadcast and or green news report listeners know, we both pride ourselves on getting stuff right around here. And. Putting corrections right up front when and if we need to. To both ends, we received this email on Wednesday from longtime listener and supporter Norm, who happens to live in St. Louis, Missouri, following our coverage this week on both broadcast and green news report of the heat index, the so-called feels-like temperature hitting a sweltering, unthinkable. all-time high of 130 degrees this week near my old hometown of St. Louis. As Norm writes, hi guys. Hi, Norm. He writes, still appreciating and supporting Bradcast and GNR since 2019, but almost choked on my dinner when hearing on yesterday's GNR that the heat index here had reached 130. No, he writes in all caps. It's been sauna like lately, but maybe you heard Heat Index 113 and it sounded like 130. Please correct for your listeners, the range for July 26 to July 28 was between 110 and 115 on the heat index or feels like. He says, we get enough bad press for our summer temperatures here in St. Louis, but we are no worse than much of the Midwest. The average high temperature for a few days in July is 89 degrees. Best regards norm. Well, thank you, Norm. As noted, we pride ourselves in getting it right, especially errors that might call for a correction. So I went back and I checked my sourcing for that original report that I had found and shared with Desi Doyen for her Green News report on Tuesday this week, I think, before I mentioned it as well then on the broadcast that same day as part of a roundup of sort of apocalyptic signs of climate change. that really seems to be coming due of late with raging wildfires and, in fact, a firestorm above one of them, as never seen before in France, something called a pyro-cumulonimbus.

I said it right that time. Yes, you did. Or fire cloud, essentially. The largest peacetime evacuations in France's history in the bargains, similar raging fires and sweltering temperatures in neighboring Spain, record temperatures across much of... The country back here at home with wildfires breaking out also in Washington State and Oregon, along with fires raging up in Minnesota's Superior National Forest, where a $10 million shovel-ready project was... Good to go to create fire breaks in that forest before Trump and the Doge Bros came to office and canceled the project, which might have prevented the fires that are now raging in the Superior National Forest and, of course, much more related, including record rainfall and flooding and droughts across the country in recent weeks. So yes, I mentioned the record 130 degrees heat index near St. Louis, which also caught my eye when I saw it because, of course, I'm from St. Louis originally, so it really stood out. So, yeah, I went back and double-checked my source on that, which was a chart of hourly temperatures published by the National Weather Service on July 26 from Scott Air Force Base and Mid-America Airport, which is near St. Louis, as I believe Desi mentioned, either in the Green News report or in our discussion on the broadcast. Yes, it's just over the river actually in Illinois, but it's considered part of the St. Louis metropolitan area. It's over the Mississippi. It's in Belleville, Illinois, specifically. It's about 20 minutes over the bridge from downtown St. Louis. So I suppose it is not St. Louis. per se, but it's pretty close. And rechecking the National Weather Service chart with all those temperatures and other information on an hourly basis, we find that, yep, on July 26 at 1355, that's 155 in military time, 155 p.m. The temperature at the air temperature was 95.5 degrees Fahrenheit at the Scott Air Force Base with relative humidity of 72 degrees of 72 percent for a heat index of at 155 it was 127 degrees Fahrenheit and then the next hour

1455, which is 255 p.m. The temperature ticked up to a little bit over 98 degrees with a relative humidity at 65 percent, having dropped a little bit from the previous hour. But there, in fact, the heat index is listed at a suffocating record 130 degrees. Now, by the next hour, it would drop to a relatively chilly, feels-like temp of only 126 degrees. But for the record, it was a diarist over a daily coast who goes by the name of Weave, who brought this to my attention. They apparently live near the area as well and wrote Scott Air Force Base is surrounded by corn and soybean fields, which adds to the humidity. However, they wrote, I live about 10 miles west of the base in a developed suburban area, and my weather station was reporting similar numbers as the official reading at Scott. St. Louis Downtown Airport was a little cooler, reporting the highest heat index of 118 degrees at 2 p.m., which is a bit more like the 110 to 115 number that Norm had referenced after he stopped choking on his dinner, apparently. about that, Norm. And to be fair, I might have short-handed it once or twice as the heat index in my old hometown of St. Louis when it was actually, you know, slightly outside of St. Louis at that nearby air base in Illinois. But other than that, I don't believe this one at least actually merits a correction. Unfortunately, I wish it did, Norm. Yeah. I even checked with a few veteran meteorologists around the country and they could find No problem with these numbers, unfortunately. Though I do remain a grateful, Norm, both for your support and the email seeking a correction, which sadly we do not get to offer in this case. But I was glad to give it a second look. It is, however, unfortunately, yet another reminder of how bad this is getting. That in more and more cases... Numbers like these do seem to defy reality. So I understand why it might make someone choke on their dinner. And, of course, that often makes it easier for denialists to sort of poo-poo the whole thing. Oh, that's ridiculous. These, you know, people who are going to extremes. Well, these are the real extremes measured by things like thermometers and stuff, unless... They're part of the whole phony, the hoax climate change movement. So, yes, these numbers are very real, and yes, they are very scary, and they are getting more so by the day. Yes, they are. And it is something that there was a study a couple of years ago about St. Louis and how St. Louis is taking action in order to, the city itself is taking action in order to make sure residents are protected from extreme heat and this suffocating humidity. which is projected sadly to get much worse with man-made climate change.

And it's good news that St. Louis is doing that, but St. Louis also needs to do a lot more. And that's what this study projects, is that we're all going to have to spend a lot more money wherever we live in the United States or elsewhere, a lot more money to make sure that our communities are adapted to these temperatures that are coming. What was that story you told me about someone who had, what was that they said? There's a post on social media that climate change will manifest as... a series of disasters viewed through your phone with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it. That's kind of a creepy way to put it, isn't it? Yes. For the record, after I pointed out my sourcing here, et cetera, Norm, he wrote back to say thanks and that he had, quote, just hoped that I had misheard. I wish I had as well. He notes that the official St. Louis temperatures are actually recorded. Even farther west of downtown than Scott Air Force Base is to the east. They're recorded officially in St. Charles for people who know the area. He notes that with the Air Force Base surrounded by farm fields, they, quote, generate more moisture for the atmosphere and the more rain that falls and saturates the ground. The more water there is to evaporate for longer periods, resulting in higher humidity and feels like temps. He's exactly right on that. a phenomenon known as corn sweat that we've talked about on this show. No, not David Corn Sweat. The actor. He plays Superman, but actual corn sweat. You want to explain that very quickly? Well, yeah. I mean, corn, basically, it is a plant that releases a ton of moisture through its pores, kind of like people do, and that when you have large corn fields, those raise the local humidity of the area around them. And, of course, on top of that, we have climate change. warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. The actual atmosphere actually draws the moisture out of plants, and that makes humidity in the area much more intense. Norm worries again in that follow-up note about the effects of news like this on a, quote, community that is struggling to stop the outflow of population and businesses and does not need more bad publicity. Well, I got some good news there for you, Norm. It ain't... Any better, really, anywhere else these days? Yes. Other than maybe Minnesota, but they too are now choking on smoke from those wildfires that Donald Trump made much worse this year. Norm adds in closing. Otherwise, here's to Desi and the magnificent GNR. It should be required listening for those poor kids in high school science classes who can expect to be paying the price of the folly of their elders. Indeed. Well writ, Norm, thank you again for that note. And Desi will have another magnificent GNR for us later in today's hour. And I'm putting the words magnificent there in quotes because although there is some encouraging news near the end of today's report, if you are able to wait it out. All of which makes this story, you're welcome, not seem nearly as bad by way of comparison. The U.S. economy expanded at a...

sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports mid-Trump's war in the Middle East weighed on growth. On the other hand, inflation grew more slowly last month. So there's that. And to be clear, since Donald Trump will not be, he keeps reporting numbers like this as prices falling way down. No, they are not falling way down. They're not falling at all. They are just rising. a little bit slower than they were previously, as the inflation rate remains above the Federal Reserve's 2% target at a time when Americans are frustrated about the high costs of living ahead of the midterm elections now less than 100 days away. When I really hope some of those Americans, some of those voters, may remember today's program. We've got a lot to get to a lot worth remembering somehow this November because, yes, words and accuracy matter. Unless, of course, you're Donald Trump and you're trying to hoax and fleece the nation while you are at it. To that end, we discussed on our roundtable on yesterday's brandcast with the great Heather Digby Parton and Drift Glass, this kabuki theater that has been playing out in the U.S. Senate. over the past 24 hours or so regarding the nomination of Donald Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is currently working as the acting AG and has been nominated to become the permanent AG by Donald Trump, though Todd Blanche's confirmation is still pending at least at this hour in the U.S. Senate. So I forgot to mention it yesterday when we talked about all of this, but it's worth knowing up front that Todd Blanche... Having been Senate confirmed already previously as Deputy AG, he may, therefore, by law, serve out the rest of Donald Trump's term as the acting AG if he and Trump like. So this whole confirmation process you probably heard about is really a bit of theater. The only real change that would happen if he was confirmed if his nomination moves out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then is passed on the floor. out of the committee where it's currently being held up by two Republican senators. The only thing that would change is that he would get the official title of Attorney General instead of acting Attorney General, but he would have really all of the same responsibilities and powers and ability to abuse the rule of law that he is already exercising as the nation's current top law enforcement official.

corrupting the Department of Justice in a way that has never been seen before. On behalf, of course, of Donald Trump. The two Republican senators currently holding up the nomination in the committee are four-term Texas Senator John Cornyn. whose career in the Senate was ended earlier this year when Trump endorsed John Cornyn's primary challenger, the wildly corrupt Texas AG, Ken Paxton. And the other one is North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. He chose to retire at the end of this year instead of run for re-election rather than face a challenge from a more MAGA opponent. So those two Republicans are currently holding up Todd Blanche's nomination to become the permanent AG. And as it's being widely reported, their problems are with Todd Blanche's refusal to put in writing that the so-called 1776 fund. That $1.8 billion slush fund created as a supposed settlement agreement between Trump and his own DOJ and his own IRS, who he sued. to be used then pretty much any way that Donald Trump wants to, including to payoffs, all of his 1,500 supporters who were charged with and convicted of crimes in attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6th to try and help him steal the 2020 election. And yes, as I read the bogus so-called settlement, even pay himself off with any or all of that $1.8 billion in taxpayer-funded slush fund. Now, Todd Blanche has claimed that the slush fund is dead during congressional testimony. He said that several times, but he has so far refused to put that in writing. Under that same fraudulent so-called settlement agreement to a lawsuit in which Trump himself was on both sides of the case, he was suing his own IRS, which he controls, an addendum was signed by Todd Blanche giving unprecedented. lifelong immunity from tax penalties and IRS investigations, audits, to Donald Trump and his two eldest sons and the Trump organization itself for any and all tax crimes that they may have committed up until the deal was officially posted and signed, by the way, by only acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who I will remind you is still Donald Trump's criminal defense attorney.

And he posted it to the DOJ website on behalf of, yes, Donald Trump's DOJ. You can likely already see how wildly corrupt all of that is, as is, and probably appreciate the fact that John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are holding up Todd Blanche's nomination over it. Well, don't appreciate it too much. Because words and accuracy matter. And if you look below the headlines on this, you'll see that these objections from John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are actually much less than they are being made to appear right now. We discussed all of this a little bit with Digby and Drift Glass yesterday, and we all concurred that both John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, despite how they've been treated by Trump, are likely to fold at some point, likely to cave, even if right now the confirmation of Todd Blanche can't seem to get out of the Judiciary Committee. at least as long as either of those two senators refused to vote for Todd Blanche to get him out. And shortly after air yesterday, in advance of today's planned committee vote, well, the New York Times reported Republicans on Wednesday night postponed a critical vote on Todd Blanche's nomination as Attorney General. After two key, GOP senators threatened to derail it over a deal that he cut to settle President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS. The senators... John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who are not returning to Congress next year, accused Todd Blanche of refusing to put on paper his promise to kill aspects of the deal. In June, Todd Blanche said that he would drop a proposed $1.8 billion fund to compensate purported victims of Biden-era actions by the Justice Department, but said a provision shielding Trump and his family from tax investigations that would remain in place. Now, on the slush fund that Todd Blanche claims is dead, but he won't put it in writing, the reason that needs to be put in writing is because that agreement is signed by officials at the DOJ, at the IRS, along with Donald Trump's current attorneys on his bogus lawsuit against the IRS, that a federal court has in fact found to be a fraud, but... Because the agreement was not made in court, it was just made between the parties on their own. There is essentially nothing that the court can do, as far as I can tell, to stop that slush fund deal from moving forward. Though the judge did send her findings in this case to the New York State Bar suggesting that they review the case and Todd Blanche's behavior in the matter.

as part of an ongoing bar complaint right now that is in the process against Todd Blanche in New York, which could result in him eventually losing his license to practice law in the state. That's the guy that Donald Trump wants to be the top law enforcement official in the United States. Unbelievable. But because there are multiple signes onto that slush fund agreement, it is not enough for Todd Blanche to just say, oh, yeah, that's dead. We won't use it to pay off anyone. Because if the other signatories to that agreement... For example, Trump's personal lawyers who also signed it, if they want to demand that it be honored, if they want to sue later on to demand that the DOJ keep their side of the bargain, well, they, of course, can do so unless somehow the agreement is amended and signed by all the parties to do it. That's why this needs to be on paper. It's not enough just for Todd Blanche to say unilaterally on his own. Oh, yeah, that's dead. The Times continues. The tax provision, that's the immunity from penalties or audit by the IRS for Trump and his sons and his company. According to the New York Times emerged as the biggest sticking point on the eve of the scheduled Judiciary Committee vote. Mr. John Cornyn, a former state judge who lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger, Ken Paxton, said he received no written assurances from Todd Blanche that the audit shield would not apply to future tax liabilities to be extended to a wider circle of people. You may not have gotten that. John Cornyn is not looking to kill the IRS audit and penalty immunity part of the agreement. He is only asking for a commitment that it will apply only to previous taxes before the agreement was posted to the DOJ website and that it won't be extended to even more people. And Todd Blanche, apparently, will not even do that. John Cornyn is saying, we're going to limit it to what it is right now. Just don't make it worse. And Todd Blanche will not agree to do that. I think that that is a huge red flag that everyone should be talking about. Yes, I think so, too. I mean, it shows you just how committed they are to these corrupt schemes and stealing taxpayer money. Even if Todd Blanche agreed. To make those changes that John Cornyn is seeking that Trump and his sons and his company would still be receiving a gift directly from taxpayers of about $100 million because that is the number believed to be owed by Donald Trump and his sons and his company for cheating on their taxes. And this agreement, if it's allowed to stand.

would waive those fees and penalties, even if Todd Blanche agreed to only that, that would not be enough, apparently. And that's the holdup, a $100 million gift from taxpayers, from you to Trump and his family and his company. Which, if it weren't for the $1.8 billion slash fund that Trump is still fighting to keep intact, well, that would almost, you know, certainly be the largest personal theft, $100 million, the largest personal theft of funds from the U.S. government by a U.S. president in history. And apparently, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis would be just fine with that. They'll be fine if we only keep it to $100 million. Here's how ABC News reports John Cornyn's direct quote on this on Monday, quote, What I want is the written document to say the same thing Todd Blanche did in his sworn testimony in front of the Judiciary Committee. And as you recall, what he said is the so-called weaponization fund is dead. That's the $1.8 billion slush fund. And here's the important part. Quote, he said the audit immunity, the IRS audit immunity, basically he wants to make sure it doesn't extend to parties beyond. the lawsuit and it doesn't also extend to future actions by federal agencies other than the IRS. In other words, John Cornyn wants Todd Blanche to put his pen to a document that says the IRS audit immunity won't be extended to others and that it won't be extended to apply to future actions, future crimes. by federal agencies other than the IRS. So those words, if they were actually reported correctly, is John Cornyn saying that he might even be just fine if the IRS action. also applied to future taxes for Trump, but not immunity from actions by other federal agencies. So he might even allow further action, further immunity from the IRS for future taxes. On Tuesday, John Cornyn said almost the exact same thing, according to the Wall Street Journal. They wrote, quote, to earn his vote, John Cornyn said the simplest fix would be for the parties to the settlement. The Justice Department, IRS, and Trump to revise it to conform to Todd Blanche's testimony at his confirmation hearing. The weaponization fund is dead. The audit protection doesn't apply to people beyond the parties to the lawsuit, and it only applies to the IRS, not other agencies.

The journal doesn't cite John Cornyn insisting that it won't also be applied to future audits and penalties. For example, lifetime immunity from the same. So it's possible John Cornyn has already caved on that point. He's fine. Just don't let it. It's fine even for future penalties as long as it's only the IRS. Back to the times here. After a day of muddled wrangling, Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the committee announced late Wednesday that the vote on Thursday had been postponed to allow negotiations to continue and, quote, to secure sufficient support. for Mr. Todd Blanche's uncertain nomination. The fate of an attorney general would be jeopardized by the administration's parent determination to keep in place a tax deal offering a sitting president enormous financial advantages illustrated a defining characteristic of Trump's second term. A president's personal interest along with public interest is now a factor in governing the Times observes. You think? Chuck Grassley, a loyal White House wingman, did not explain why Todd Blanche has thus far refused to comply with what many Republicans see as a reasonable request to formally remove provisions that critics point to as corrupt self-dealing. But, as you know, because I made it clear, where the Times has not necessarily, even if Todd Blanche goes along... With what John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are seeking, the corrupt self-dealing would still be in place on the unprecedented IRS immunity deal worth $100 million to Donald Trump. John Cornyn repeatedly expressed astonishment on Wednesday that the administration did not simply comply with what he regarded as a narrow request to place limits on a deal. With no sign that Todd Blanche was willing or empowered, to trade a concession to secure his own elevation as the Senate-confirmed leader of the Justice Department. Well, he's already the leader of the Justice Department. He's already been Senate-confirmed as Deputy AG, and he can therefore remain as acting AG as long as Trump wants him to. Though the Times choice of words there that Todd Blanche was not, quote, willing or empowered to trade a concession means that the only higher ranking official than him in the U.S. government is Donald Trump, and he has not empowered Todd Blanche to make these simple concessions. Trump wants his $100 million in taxpayer-funded IRS immunity. He possibly wants it to continue into the future. And he wants his $1.8 billion slush fund that, yes, can even be kept by him in what is far and away the greatest theft.

ever perpetrated by a U.S. president on the American people and the American taxpayers in U.S. history. It's not even close, at least as far as we know of right now. And I'll get to some worse stuff in a little bit. But Thom Tillis expressed solidarity with John Cornyn here appear to be considerably more sanguine that the two sides would reach an agreement that would clear a path for a floor vote on confirmation. As Digby and Drift Glass and I all agreed yesterday, this is going to happen. Don't fall for these pretend objections by John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, even though they have nothing to lose if they held their ground because, frankly, their Senate careers have already been ended by Donald Trump. And yet they appear still ready to roll over for him, which is, in a word, pathetic. Quote, we're trying to work just to get the language, Thom Tillis told reporters, I really do believe it's just a drafting exercise. I don't believe that we're a part in terms of the objective. Right. There you go. It's all for show. Justice Department officials have been in communication with John Cornyn's staff over the past week to try to win him over the Times reports. An administration official with knowledge of those exchanges was under the impression that Todd Blanche had addressed many of John Cornyn's concerns about the IRS exemption, which could result in the $100 million windfall for Trump and his family, writes the Times. Quote, I can see why he wants it, John Cornyn said, because it provides immunity from audits that no other taxpayer would get. Right. And by all available readings of what is going on, he is still going to get that immunity. Do not be fooled. That immunity that no other taxpayer would get. At the very least for all of his tax crimes and those of his sons and his companies up until now. To the tune of $100 million from the taxpayers straight into their pockets. Don't believe me, here's a John Cornyn comment today just about an hour or so before airtime. Have you talked to the president? No. Would a call from him help? Yeah, he could fix this in a minute. But I don't know whether who he's listening to or whether he's motivated to do that. So we'll see what happens. He was saying he thinks that this might be because you don't like him. You know, I voted with him 99.3% of the time. That has nothing to do with it. This is about making sure that... Even if you're the President of the United States, you don't get favorable terms from the government in a settlement of a lawsuit that ordinary citizens would not get, like protection from audits by the IRS into the foreseeable future. Right. Key word there. Into the foreseeable future. Everything up to now is just fine. Even if Corning gets his way, Trump will still get $100 million of your money.

Quote, locking that in, observes TPM's David Kurtz today. Also, quote, has the political, though not legal effect, of Senate Republicans publicly ratifying the corrupt bargain by voting to confirm Todd Blanche. This is what kleptocracy looks like. Sorry to over explain, but I think you need to understand what's going on here because it is not being made clear to the American people. Even if Donald Trump, quote, unquote, loses this fight, he still wins $100 million. On Thursday, Trump said that he may pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination for the full-time post to avoid conceding to Senate Republicans demanding limits to a sweeping tax audit. immunity deal benefiting the president and members of his family that Trump negotiated with his own DOJ reports AP today going on to say, to quote Trump saying, quote, I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name if they do not do the right thing and putting him back after John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are out of office. Well, that's risky, if only because Democrats may control the Senate after John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are gone next year. Or at least the Republican margin in the Senate may be even smaller, making it more difficult to get. Todd Blanche through, but A, Todd Blanche can remain acting AG forever. As I said at the top, at least until Trump is out of office, which means these bogus agreements never need to be amended, as is. And B, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are already signaling that they're ready to fold on this and see, even if they don't, the concessions that they were demanding would still result in at least a $100 million payday for Donald Trump. Our friend Marcy Wheeler over at Empty Wheel headlines her coverage of this late today on the presumption that Trump will forego a formal confirmation of Todd Blanche. Quote, Trump decides he'd rather have tax crimes and rewards for terrorists than a Todd Blanche confirmation. But again, don't worry. I suspect Trump knows that John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are probably going to find a way to fold anyway because this is what kleptocracy looks like.

You are being fleeced by the president of the United States, the Republicans are allowing it to happen, and the media are characterizing it all as a political kerfuffle, when in fact, it is nothing but a financial one, a financial scam, a financial theft that Trump is winning. I do hope I'm wrong. I bet I'm not, but we will see. Let's take a quick break as the kleptocracy continues on today's Bradcast. I'm Brad Friedman. You're listening to the Bradcast. We are 100% listener supported thanks to listeners like you who drop by Bradblog.com slash donate. Hey, this is Brad. You're listening to an encore presentation of the Bradcast. Welcome back. Bradcast. Bradcast, I'm Bradfredman from Bradblog. All right. Speaking of kleptocracy. A couple of stories that I've been trying to get to in one case for more than a week now, and one of which, frankly, makes Trump's $100 million taxpayer-funded theft via the IRS and the DOJ and the Republicans in Congress who are likely to allow it makes that seem like peanuts, frankly. I'll get to that in a moment. But three congressional Democrats said the week before last that as much as $21.5 million paid by ABC and META, that's Facebook, Paramount and X, that's Elon Musk's Twitter, to settle bogus lawsuits brought by Donald Trump, that $21.5 million is missing. At least part of it, or it has been spent without explanation, and they have requested a full accounting from the foundation building his presidential library. I think they'll get that explanation? Hmm. In a letter to the treasurer of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Senators Elizabeth Warren. Richard Blumenthal, Melanie Stansbury, all Democrats cited discrepancies between Trump's newly released financial disclosures showing, among other things, that he netted $2.2 billion last year during the first year of his second presidency more than he's ever made in any single year in his life. discrepancies between those financial disclosures and the library foundations own filings with Florida charity regulators. The letter asks the treasurer of the foundation to explain the discrepancies, which the lawmakers discovered after Trump released his annual financial disclosure forms earlier this month.

Trump's disclosure form filed in late June with the Office of Government Ethics indicates that Meta, ABC, and Paramount pay to combine $56.5 million in settlements, bogus settlements, but whatever, with net proceeds going to the Foundation, XX. Twitter paid an additional $8 million, but the disclosure does not say where that money went. The four settlements total $64.5 million supposed to go to the president's library fund. The Trump Library Foundation, however, listed... $50 million in revenue in a financial reporting form submitted to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in October of 2025. The lawmakers said the difference leaves at least $6.5 million and as much as $14.5 million with the X settlement included unaccounted for based on public records. You didn't think Trump was going to just allow that money to sit in his charity account and not steal from it, did you? There's a reason that Trump Foundation. was shut down years ago after being successfully sued for fraud in New York State. All four of the companies confirmed lawmakers that they paid ABC as early as December 2024, just days after the settlement. When the network told lawmakers, the IRS recognized the Foundation's tax-exempt status and Trump's attorneys ask for the money to be released. The letter also questioned nearly $7 million in expenditures listed in the Foundation's Florida filing. $400,000 in compensation to officers, $490,000 in legal fees, $130,000 for conferences and meetings, $15,000 in travel, and $50,000 for insurance. Mind you, all for a library that does not even exist yet. The filing does not explain the expenses beyond those categories, the lawmakers said, nor does it disclose who was paid with those funds. But roughly $6 million is listed in expenses under a category called, quote, other. Six million dollars. Other. No itemization.

You try to do that on your taxes, by the way. The lawmakers letter also noted the Foundation's registration application states that none of its listed personnel, including Eric Trump, the president's son, are compensated and asks the treasurer to identify who received the $400,000 in salaries. And this is fun. Last September, apparently the original recipient of the settlement payments was the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, Inc. Well, that was administratively dissolved by Florida's Department of State because it failed to file a mandatory annual report. Such a super basic piece of filing that you have to do. But in May of 2025, a second entity, the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc. Totally different from the fund, Inc. was incorporated in Florida with nearly an identical mission, but whether it received the settlement money, whether they moved it from one... organization to the other, that has not been publicly documented. In March, the lawmakers wrote to executives at the four companies that paid those settlements to Trump to ask what happened to their money after the original fund's dissolution. According to the letter, the companies indicated they had no idea, no information, at least that they were willing to share publicly about where most of these settlement money had actually gone. The lawmakers cited reports that put Paramount settlement at... $20 million against just $16 million that is mentioned in the disclosure. What happened to the other $4 million? Also, X's settlement was cited as $10 million, but just $8 million is reported by the foundation in its disclosure. Where is that extra $2 million? This is what kleptocracy looks like. But all of that. All of that, the money that someone may be stealing, I don't know, may be stealing from Trump's library fund and the at least $100 million that he is trying to gift himself by giving himself immunity from tax penalties as discussed in the previous segment and even the $1.8 billion slush fund that he would find a way to award most of to himself. I'll betcha. All of that may end up being peanuts compared to this one. As reported by the new republic last week, the Trump administration has raked in about 13.

billion after taking over Venezuela's oil exports in the wake of its kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro, according to a Financial Times analysis. But six months later and one month after two devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, that money, that $13 billion is apparently nowhere to be found. $13 billion. That Trump used the military to essentially take from Venezuela. It's just gone? $13 billion? When Trump first seized the, quote, millions of barrels, as he described it, of oil back in January, he assumed complete control. his administration eventually proclaimed that it would use any profit from the sales of those millions of barrels for quote the benefit of the american people and the venezuelan people unquote i guess he just didn't say which american people maybe that's how he gets out there The State Department has since claimed that, quote, billions of dollars have been dispersed to the Venezuelan economy, unquote, and that, quote, financial monitoring is underway to ensure funds benefit the Venezuelan people. But none of that has proven to be true. The Financial Times reported last week that there has been no evidence of oil money going back into the hands of the Venezuelans that Trump had claimed to care for, and that Venezuela's first quarter gross domestic product was the lowest it has been in five years. So now that Trump has made them over to make, taking them over to make Venezuela great again, well, for some reason, their gross domestic product is way down. Is that because they can't move oil out of there anymore? Is it because someone is stealing that money? Democratic rep Joaquin Castro told the Financial Times, quote, Trump's invasion of Venezuela has been about oil, power, and graft from the very beginning with billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue being controlled by the Trump administration without any transparency or safeguards. Castro added that all of Congress had been, quote, kept in the dark by the Trump administration. We're talking about billions of dollars here, that nobody knows where it is. Even Republican representative Maria Alvira Salazar last week called on Trump to make the transactions known, citing, quote, the importance of transparency over where the money is going.

As New Republic observes, quote, it seems clear that the most corrupt president in history is withholding oil revenue from Venezuelans, at the very least, who badly need it, as oil makes up nearly a quarter of the entire country's GDP. In January, semaphore reported that Trump would be keeping proceeds from the first $500 million sale of Venezuela oil in an offshore bank account based in Qatar. Really? Why would he do that? Is the U.S. Treasury not secure enough for that $500 million? Or is it too secure? Is that the problem? It is not easy enough to steal from? As the New Republic reports, it might be worth checking up on that account in Qatar. Yep. This is what kleptocracy looks like. Green News Report is next. I'm Brad Friedman. This is the broadcast.

Hey, this is Brad. Please consider supporting whichever progressive media outlet is serving you. Most, just like us, do not receive corporate or political support. We all need your support to counter the powerful corporate media echo chamber. From Desi Doyen and myself, thank you. You're listening to an encore presentation of the broadcast. And really, that's not the only kleptocracy and graft we have for you today. I mean, this guy makes, you know, some of these disgraced, you know, Eastern European dictators, the Chowchescus and the Vladimir Putin's of the world. I mean, this guy makes some of these folks seem like a Hasan Piker, it seems to me. With so much graft and so much, so much theft, it's just unbelievable, as also discussed in today's Green News report. We can hit them very hard. You know, we got to smack them a little bit. Trump's war on Iran pulls in more countries further imperiling global energy supplies. And as Oregon deals with what will likely be a record-breaking year for fires, the state was dealt another blow. Federal grants for two of the largest fires were just denied. Trump overrode FEMA to deny disaster aid to blue states. Plus, Germany and California hit new records for cheap, clean, renewable energy. So there's that. All of those stories and more straight ahead from bradblog.com. I'm Bradfrewd. And I'm Desi Doyen. Stand by for six minutes of independent green news, politics, analysis, and snarky comment. I don't think we ought to just cut and run. If we can stand the pain of the rising costs of energy, we need to stay the course. What do you mean we, white man? I mean, Senator John Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of Louisiana? This is your Green News Report.

Okay, Desi Noi and at this point we're on the verge of becoming the war news report. But what do you got for us today? Well, first, Donald Trump's war on Iran expanded this week to include Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea, and the Caspian Sea, as oil and gas tankers remain parked in the Strait of Hormuz. Also this week, another hit to global diesel fuel supplies after Ukrainian forces struck two of Russia's biggest oil refineries significantly disrupting. Russia's exporting capacity. On a side note, a new study warns that ships stuck in the strait of Hormuz could potentially trigger a global super spreader event of invasive species. Oh, great. Because of marine organisms attached to the idle vessels that will eventually get transported to other ecosystems around the world. Oh, good Lord. In other news, as France and Spain battle historic out-of-control climate-intensifying wildfires fueled by extreme heat and drought, officials are working on a massive economic aid package to help hundreds of thousands of people and businesses recover. The European Union's crisis commissioner told Reuters that the EU's wildfire response must, quote, evolve to keep up with accelerating climate change. Some economists are warning European leaders that they can no longer afford to ignore the economic impact. of human-caused global warming that repetitive extreme heat waves have exposed major shortcomings in Europe's infrastructure. Yeah. And governments will need to invest billions of euros overcoming years to protect the public from increasingly dangerous, deadly heat that is already hurting multiple economic sectors. Not that anyone's been trying to warn them for decades at this point. The economists also warned that investors must wake up to the threat that climate... change poses to asset values. Yeah, the investors were warned too. But in the U.S., as the costs of climate supercharged weather disasters pile up, Politico has obtained internal administration documents showing that Donald Trump intervened to deny $227 million in disaster funding to five Democratic-run states, rejecting eligible disaster requests after FEMA approved the funding. What? A pathetic. Jirk. Overall, Trump has approved less than a quarter of blue state disaster requests, but approved 90% for red states, an unprecedented rate since FEMA's creation in 1979. Twisted. Relatedly, a coalition of 25 states sued the Trump administration this week, accusing FEMA and DHS of endangering public safety by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in already approved federal grants for... disaster preparedness in an attempt to coerce those states to comply with Trump's unrelated election and immigration policies. The lawsuit also challenges a provision permitting FEMA to cancel grants any time to punish states. Here's New Jersey's Democratic Attorney General Jennifer Davenport. None of this is legal.

Congress never authorized FEMA to rewrite state election laws to force states into participating in federal immigration enforcement or to terminate funding on a whim. These conditions violate the Administrative Procedure Act, ignore the Constitution, and threaten the safety and security of all Americans. Oh, now we're going to start worrying about what's legal? Finally, some better news in Germany. For the first time ever, wind and solar power together have generated more electricity than fossil fuels. According to the UK's carbon brief, the success of renewables in Germany mirrors the European Union as a whole. In June, clean solar energy became the EU's largest single source of electricity, generating more power than nuclear, natural gas, and wind energy. And California just became the first. major electric grid system on the planet to generate more than 50% of its electricity from solar across the entire month. Yes, it can be done. Let's say we do it. For much more on all of these reports and the ones we couldn't get to today, check out our website at greennews.brad blog.com. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. And this has been your Green News Report. Let's get it on. Let's get it on. It can be done. Let's do it. Hey, by the way, that your story there on the FEMA funds that he's withholding, the disaster assistance, so forth from the so-called blue states. Yeah, that he's overturning, actually approved, already approved disaster relief. Right. And just to be clear, we talked about it before on this show many times, but I think I can't say it enough. More Republicans live in California in so-called Blue California than in any other state in the Union. He is not just screwing over, you know, what he perceives as Democrats, Democratic states. He is screwing over Republicans. If you are listening to the show and you are a Republican living in a blue state, Trump is screwing you over. Get it yet? All right. That's it. Anything else? No. Getting out. Thanks to our producer, Desi Doyen. Thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. If you missed any portion of today's show or any other, you can download all of them for free and listen to them online, share them with someone you know, love, or hate, all for free at brandblog.com. Though, please do consider hit one of those donate buttons. It's really easy to throw a few dollars into the tip jar and help us continue. to elucidate the electorate, if you don't mind, over your public airwaves. Drop me email if you like. I'm Bradcast at Bradblog.com. Desi Doyen is on the social medias at... Green News Report. You'll find me at Same, where I am... The Brad Blog. We will see you there. Until we see her next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world.

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