Trump BURNS Through Tax Payer Dollars Voters REBUKE HIM!!!

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Hey everyone, this is Lisa Graves with Court Accountably Action here on Legal AF, part of the Midas Touch Network. And I am joined today by one of my friends and a real hero, Rob Weissman. He's the co-president of Public Citizen and he's here today to talk about some exciting, horrifying, you know, um, outrageous developments. I think you'll find them both illuminating and entertaining. and also he's going to share some of the work of public citizen to really shine a light on the bad actors um bad people who are up to no good in this administration and also what people can do about it how we can help fight back.

[00:00:34]So Rob, thank you so much for coming back on.

[00:00:38]>> Hey Lisa, it's always a joy to be with you. And look, I want to jump right into the most important thing that picks up on your theme of both exciting and horrifying. And I want to direct those who are watching this podcast to look over your right shoulder at that book without precedent. They can't see above the words without precedent. It says Lisa Graves. This is the new Lisa Graves book. It is exciting and is about something horrifying. The Robert's Court. Go out and buy it right now. And with that, we're done with this conversation.

[00:01:12]>> Well, that was so generous of you.

[00:01:14]>> Topics. I'm here for you and everybody else.

[00:01:17]>> All right. Well, there are other things that are without precedent, and that includes this outrageous, ridiculous advertisement that we, the taxpayers, apparently paid for that features Kid Rock and other other figures, doing what seems like album promotion at our expense. And I'm not even going to say it would be worth it if it were a good album, but I'm pretty sure it's not a good album. So tell us what happened and what public citizens doing about it.

[00:01:46]>> Well, you know, Kid Rock is a supporter of Trump and so become like, you know, they don't have a lot of traditional Hollywood music types. So they grab it for whoever they can get. So he's Trump's best buddy and he's Pete Hexat's best buddy. and Pexus have been organizing like flyovers over Kid Rock's house and reportedly has taken Kid Rock on Army helicopter joy rides which there's a lot of things that the Pentagon wastes money on but this is pretty high up. So we filed a Freedom of Information Act request to try to get to the bottom of exactly what's going on, what the cost is. Of course, it is illegal to use government property, let alone the Pentagon's military technology for fun and games.

[00:02:37]>> Yeah. I mean, and not war games, but games games. This is this is almost like >> it's almost like some, you know, college kid got a hold of the >> Franc Hexath and Patel and the others.

[00:02:52]>> Yeah. It's absurd. And and you know, I was horrified to see uh Kidrock addressing the press at the Pentagon, too, as if he has any any actual relevant experience for um the our defense, you know, the our defense system in America. And this is not the first Kid Rock appearance in this administration. You also had the insane, like I honestly I think it was like an insane video with Kid Rock and RFK Jr.

[00:03:22]like in a hot tub drinking milk and getting into water or saunas in their jeans like it. What has happened? Rob, can you explain what's happening?

[00:03:33]Because I >> No.

[00:03:37]>> No.

[00:03:38]>> That's why we're filing this information to get to the bottom of exactly what's happening.

[00:03:44]>> Yeah.

[00:03:44]>> I mean, it's obviously it's not a serious administration, so they do unserious things.

[00:03:49]>> Yeah. Um, of course, this is not the most uh deadly or harmful of them.

[00:03:55]>> Yeah.

[00:03:56]>> But but it is symbolic of the uh unseriousness of the administration, the selfishness and uh rampant waste of the administration, which incidentally claims to be cracking down on fraud, right? They say there, oh, there's all this fraud, all this waste. That's why Doge came in and Musk fired everybody.

[00:04:16]That's why they're going after recipients of what remains of our welfare system because they allegedly say there's fraud and waste all over the place. Lies.

[00:04:25]>> But of course, they are the biggest propagators of fraud and waste >> really in American history.

[00:04:31]>> Yeah. It I mean it is just extraordinary. And you know those flyovers are not just the cost of like someone driving a car in front of someone else's house and doing doing a wave. Those uh th those are flyovers by our military, people who are trained to defend America, who we we've spent millions, you know, cumulatively, I'm sure, training the individuals who are flying those um you know, flying the the craft that are, you know, doing flybys for Kid Rock, but also the advertising like the use of our our tax dollars for advertising. This is also not the first instance where we al we also saw with Christine Gnome and DHS this spending of extraordinary sums to put her face out there as as the face of DHS and and make these appeals that that were given to sort of in the ad contract was given to apparently a a recently formed uh entity that took in millions in a no bid no bid contracts. And so, like you point out, this is not just a one-off. This is a pattern. And I'm sure there's more to find. And and as you know well, and Public Citizen has documented over the years, the P the the Pentagon has uh you know, a history of waste. I I remember way way way back when when there were stories about um you know, hundred hundreds of dollars on a toilet seat or you know, bolts for um bolts that were being charged at an exorbitant rate. So, this is the biggest part of the budget, the actual budget that's driving the the cost of our budget. And it comes at a time when Trump, as you pointed out in a previous interview we had, is is demanding that Congress supersize the Pentagon's budget even more than it is already disproportionately large compared to all the things that Americans actually need. So what else is public citizen doing in terms of this effort to expose the the fraud and the um and the and the waste that is rampant in this administration?

[00:06:28]>> Um well we are doing a lot on that and just to say on the Pentagon side um today the day we're talking which is what May 7th Pete Hagath has just put out a new video claiming that he's cracking down on fraud at the Pentagon.

[00:06:43]So, of course, we have the counter example of this waste on Kid Rock, but also as you referenced, they're seeking what's been called 500 billion, but it's really more like six or 700 billion increase in the Pentagon budget. It's almost a doubling proposed for the Pentagon budget, which not only has a history of waste and fraud as a present of waste and fraud. Um, it's built into the military-industrial complex model.

[00:07:10]The Pentagon itself a few years ago identified a hundred billion dollars in fraud that it could be eliminated but never has been.

[00:07:18]>> So that's just at the Pentagon side. The other thing I think that's really important, um, which I had alluded to, but it's worth building out, is the premise for the ICE invasion of Minnesota was alleged rampant fraud and social service programs in Minnesota run by ethnic Somali, Somali Americans, um, daycare centers and other kind of social service agencies. And although there was some modest fraud like there is in every program that's relies on outside contractors, there was nothing like what was purported. And the specific example of daycare fraud was publicized in a right by a right-wing influencer's video that um deceptively claimed to show that there were 10 daycare centers that he visited that were fake. Turns out none of them were fake. They were all operational. They just didn't want to open their doors to some weird white guy coming in saying, "I want to see your people."

[00:08:26]>> Yeah.

[00:08:28]>> That that that allegation of fraud was the predicate for the ICE invasion in Minnesota. And the Republicans and the Trump administration are building out that fraud narrative to say they need to go after so-called healthc care fraud, so-called um food stamp fraud, so-called other social service fraud in other states across the country, all Democratic and their remedy is they're going to cut off all the funding for those programs even though the claims of fraud either are completely manufactured or just the normal fraud that exists. Of course, that should be dealt with, but it doesn't go after the fraudsters, not the not without punishing the poor people who are benefiting from these programs. So, that's why fraud is such an important topic besides the fact that we don't want fraud in government.

[00:09:16]Against that backdrop, this is by far the most pro- fraud administration in American history. So the Trump administration, Trump himself has overseen an aggressive pardon program.

[00:09:29]I'm for using the pardon power more than presidents normally do. But if you leave aside the January 6 pardons, onethird of the pardons he's granted in his first term, in his first year of the second administration, went to people who were convicted of fraud or fraud related crimes, including largecale ripoffs of Medicare.

[00:09:49]>> Wow.

[00:09:49]>> If you say what is what's the what how does the government deal with the problem of fraud? as as you know better even than me. What the government does is it has something called inspector's general in every agency designed to be available to receive whistleblower complaints and to affirmatively investigate fraud within agencies or committed against agencies. Well, Trump has fired 85% of the inspectors general that are susceptible to being fired.

[00:10:16]He's left many of those positions open altogether. They've massively downsized the staff in these inspector general offices which are these are large staff.

[00:10:25]So the cuts have been 12 to up to 30% across the different IG offices. So the offices designed to crack on fraud.

[00:10:35]They're eviscerated. What has he done?

[00:10:37]What has he done at the IRS? Well, they've driven out a quarter of the agents at the IRS. The Yale University Budget Lab says, "What does it mean if you slash a quarter of the staff at the IRS?" Well, it means there's going to be more tax fraud. Who commits tax fraud?

[00:10:52]Not regular people, super rich people because they're the ones with the complex tax reforms tax returns. So, that cut of 25% is going to cost the government $200 billion over 10 years.

[00:11:04]They've gone they've gone out of their way to drop investigations of fraud committed by large corporations. The president himself is running all kinds of scams. His family is based in is pursuing numerous scam businesses, many of all of which basically trade on the reality of Trump being the president.

[00:11:24]Yeah, >> that's just the light skim of it. But it is the most pro- fraud administration in American history. At the same time, they're trying to weaponize the idea of fraud to cut programs that benefit poor people, including people who are immigrants in the United States lawfully. So, >> wow. It is just it's just mind-blowing every time you hear or someone gives you the recitation and that's just a partial part of it. I mean that was extraordinary, outrageous, outlandish and like you said just the surface of what we can see and what's been documented in recent you know recent months and this comes as there are other reports for example showing that that ICE enforcement was targeting blue states you know on the predicate of fraud but just on vindic you know basically for vindicate you know to to vindicate the president or target his enemies. There was a Rice University study that showed sort of a heat map of where those sieges were happening in cities that were putting people at grave risk, seizing Americans and immigrants, people who had committed no crimes but were being harassed and targeted um by uh by DHS. And and the correlation was not crime, not fraud, not immigration issues or the like. It was purely it, you know, the correlation was basically political. Which states does Donald Trump want to harass? And no president in our history I think has ever behaved that way has ever treated states other than you know basically as equals. I suppose there could be some bias toward a home state of a president you know from time to time but I can't even remember or in any such incident presidents have ruled and you know acted to execute the laws passed by Congress on behalf of all Americans. And this president is acting as though he's only the president of MAGA. He's only the president of his loyalists and he's treating Americans and our cities and our states like trash cans that he could just kick over because he doesn't like people who didn't vote for him.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah, 100%. I mean, you have him trashing metaphorically, but trashing cities and states like no president speaks badly of any part of the United States, but Donald Trump does. If you think about the Biden administration with the funding that was available under the COVID bills and then under the inflation reduction act, they went out of their way to overspend in so-called red state states that had majority Republican support um to avoid any charges that they were unfairly um sharing out the federal money.

[00:14:00]>> Yeah, it it really it really is amazing.

[00:14:02]And then speaking of federal money, let's talk a bit about this ICE budget and this the so-called breakthrough in essence in the House um on uh the ICE bill where just to refresh people's recollections of things, we've had this impass in response to the violent um lack of training, you know, poor training and also aggressive assertion of and and insertion of some of these agents into cities where they're not cooperating with law enforcement, where people they where they their agents have killed people and harmed people severely. Um, and where they have refused to cooperate with local investigations into the harassment and in in a couple of instances the murders, the killings of Americans and immigrants. It's not just Alex Prey and Renee Good in Minnesota, but AC across the board where there have been these deaths, the there's not been cooperation by this administration. And so Congress and what and Democrats in Congress were trying to get some protections, some limits on ICE to prevent this sort of deployment because the president's job is to execute the laws passed by Congress, not just to weaponize our agencies against the American people.

[00:15:16]And so there was a period where Donald Trump was willing to basically let the airline shut down uh due to lack of um funding for example for TSA agents and let and and make travelers suffer and you know cut off you know different programs for security clearances for example. Um and and then when there was some backlash to that, then he decided that he could just reallocate funds unilaterally to support TSA and and he also deployed ICE agents who were depicted in airport after airport not actually doing anything in terms of TSA screening, but wandering around with their weapons and hanging out on little clicks, looking over the shoulders of of TSA agents who were just trying to do their job of clearing passengers safely.

[00:16:04]you know, for safe flights. So, this impass has gone on for weeks and weeks because there's been a a refusal to compromise on those issues of standards and limits of ICE and now there there's reporting of a breakthrough on some of those matters. Um, if I got anything wrong, please correct me, but also could you please explain, Rob, what's happening? What is the status quo right now?

[00:16:28]>> Yeah. Well, it's a good news, bad news story. So exactly as you're saying this is the issue is about the funding for the Department of Homeland Security. So Congress ultimately passed funding for all the government except for the Department of Homeland Security. The the Democrats hadn't prepared to do that.

[00:16:45]But after things heated up and in Minnesota and the murders there and then most importantly the push back on the ground and just the heroic effort of people in Minnesota as well as others around the country to to protect communities and protect neighbors against ICE. Democrats spines got stiff.

[00:17:05]They say, "Well, we're not we're not going to fund ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, CPB, um, unless there are fundamental reforms made." And the Republicans refused to make serious reforms. And the good news is the rep the Democrats stuck to it and they said, "Well, we're just not going to go for funding unless there was reforms. We will support funding for the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, but we're not funding ICE and Customs and Border Patrol unless there are reforms. And the Republicans weren't interested in really negotiating on that. Republicans said, "No way. We're going to stare you down.

[00:17:47]We're not going to let there be funding for Homeland Security," which is why those lines got long at the airport because TSA is part of the department.

[00:17:54]Um, Democrats did not give in. Then Republicans, as you say, in the Trump administration figured out a way they could just make money available temporarily, which no one was pro arguably not legal, but no one was really going to argue with. And then eventually Republicans just gave in and said, "Fine, we'll let we'll we'll we'll move forward a bill that funds DHS without support for the the mass detention and anti-immigrant program agencies." And Democrats supported that.

[00:18:23]And that was a win. And that was an example of the Democrats holding strong in one of these funding fights in ways they had not done. So they we got progressively better. People might remember back in March of 20 uh 25, Democrats had leverage over this but just caved in and got nothing. Then in the fall they prioritize an issue around health care. They held out for maybe a couple months. didn't win reforms, but at least were able to elevate the issue and have a fight. And then this time they actually stuck to it and they succeeded without giving it. That's the good part of the story. The bad part of the story is Republicans have another tool available which is called reconciliation which lets them push through funding bill funding legislation with without being subject to the filibuster in the Senate. So they've now come up with a proposal to provide 7580 billion to ICE and Customs Border Patrol for the next several years.

[00:19:26]>> They will be able to move that uh unilaterally without any Democratic support if they maintain unanimous Democrat Republican support which is not guaranteed.

[00:19:38]>> Wow.

[00:19:40]And the other piece of it is part of the thing they had to negotiate among themselves is would they throw anything else in there because they got a lot of things they want and the they fended off the people who wanted to add anything and they said no we're just going to focus only on ICE and customs and border control with one exception which is they said we will also provide $1 billion to fund the president's ballro. So that's the legislation that's going to move forward when they get back from their recess, from their break, and we'll see. They have the power to do it on their own, to move unilaterally, but I think there's going to be massive grassroots push against that. Uh, and it's possible because the margins are so close, particularly in the House, that it fails. I mean, marrying that bill without the chance for compromise, you know, without the possibility of the filibuster with a billion dollars for this debacle of this White House ballroom, a ballroom that we already had a ballroom in the White House that had been there for years that was beautiful.

[00:20:46]There's no need for this spinning. I I the the arrogance or hubris that these Republicans must be feeling based in part on the Supreme Court's ruling in Klay allowing this massive redistricting to happen, these maps to be drawn to try to favor Republicans at every turn.

[00:21:04]Perhaps that's emboldening them to think that they can just walt in or waltz back into their districts and somehow justify not just the spending this expan this expansive spending on uh DHS which has already been wellunded well funded and in in my view overfunded already before this >> but to add to that the the the funding of a ballroom that first of all we didn't need no one authorized no one wanted besides Trump and his ego then Trump claimed claimed his buddies were going to pay for it in a scheme that you and I have discussed that is simply outrageous and beyond the pale in terms of how the law is supposed to work, how American buildings are supposed to be funded in ways that you know creates the appearance at a minimum and probably the reality in certain instances.

[00:21:51]>> Okay. Right. That basically getting favors for giving donations or pledging donations to this ballroom in order to get benefits of non- enforcement. the same kind of non-inforcement you were talking about earlier in terms of Justice Department investigations or or the like and then to claim no no we're gonna we're gonna fund it. It's like the wall. You know, everything is this sort of bait and switch shell game. I cannot believe that these Republicans are willing to go back to their states and campaign for office after what they have allowed to transpire in terms of this cabinet, this administration, and the debacle of this ballroom. While Americans are suffering from enorm, you know, high gas prices, inflation of all sorts of basic goods, people are having trouble deciding on medicine versus gas for their car. And yet these Republicans think that that Yeah, there they can sell this billion dollar ballroom thing.

[00:22:47]What What are your thoughts on this, Rob? It is out.

[00:22:50]>> Well, I think it's I mean, there's so many layers to it. One, they're not giving up on the private funding. So, this is an addition. That's a really interesting thing. If they don't actually need all that private money that's been raised, then they can use it for anything that Trump wants.

[00:23:03]Interesting. Anyway, >> I I think the answer to this is they're just part of the cult and they know that Trump is obsessed with the ballroom.

[00:23:11]There's been analysis that he's talking about the ballroom literally more than any other topic. Brings it up constantly when it's completely irrelevant. And as members of the cult or just people who are constantly trying um to be sickantic, they decide, hey, we'll just throw a billion dollars at him and obviously >> he's going to he's going to take it.

[00:23:32]>> Well, we're going to have you back on to talk about Klay. It's an ongoing struggle and fight with what's happening in the states, this effort to bleach out the uh black caucus, uh you know, out of Congress, uh not just Congress, too, but also in the states or state legislatores. this this issue is going to be ongoing. Um, and it it has an effect on what uh what people are going to be campaigning on, who they're gonna who they're going to be campaigning to in terms of who their voters are as these maps are redrawn to basically try to give Republicans an advantage. Even though in a number of the special election elections so far this year and last year in Republican strongholds, Democrats have won some of those, but not all of those, but some of those seats. So, it is a heck of a battle uh that's underway and I feel like every time we talk, Rob, I come away more informed, better informed. Um even though the topics are hard topics, I feel lighter knowing that you're in the battle and your great team along with your co-president there, Lisa Gilbert, are at work trying to protect the interests of the American people. So, thank you so much for joining us here, joining me here on Legal AF. I'm Lisa Graves. This has been Rob Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. And uh don't give in uh don't give up. I know Rob isn't. We are in this for the long haul and the near term. And uh look forward to having you back on soon, my friend.

[00:24:58]>> It's great to be with you. Buy that book.

[00:25:02]>> You're so good to me. Thanks everyone.

[00:25:05]Thanks Rob.

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