Valuetainment - June 04, 2026


“Dead…For Now” - Trump ABANDONS $1B Weaponization Fund Plan


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

169.79031

Word count

2,135

Sentence count

138

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Trump abandons the $1.8 billion slush fund in a humiliating U-turn as his own party turns against him. The fund was created as part of a settlement of Trump s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over a leak in the 2019 tax return to the media.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Trump abandons the $1.8 billion slush fund in humiliating U-turn as his own party turns against him.
00:00:06.920 Of course, that's Daily Mail.
00:00:08.400 I'll read this to you.
00:00:09.200 Donald Trump abandons the $1.8 billion.
00:00:11.780 The fund was created as part of a settlement of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over a leak in the 2019 tax return to the media.
00:00:20.820 Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the president and labeled it slush fund.
00:00:24.600 It's now being killed after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson raised objections to the White House fund.
00:00:30.000 During a private meeting with the president on Monday afternoon, it's dead for now.
00:00:33.620 One senior administration told Axios Republicans have opposed the fund over fears it would provide monetary compensation to J6 Capital rioters who assaulted police.
00:00:45.140 John Thune is holding hostage a bill Trump wanted to fund immigration enforcement.
00:00:51.260 The GOP leader said he would not advance the legislation until Republicans received assurance that the fund would not be used to pay the president's allies.
00:00:59.680 Tom. So two things going on in this thing. First of all, there are people that didn't like it because they don't like who's getting paid, because if the J6 people, Pat, let's say some person, J6, is given $200,000 to help cancel out all those legal bills that they had, that they were illicitly, you know, illegitimately prosecuted.
00:01:20.540 Okay, fine. But what's deeper in there is the enemies of this bill, and I think John Thune is one of them, which is why he's holding hostage immigration bill. 0.87
00:01:30.340 They didn't like the fact that they claim inside this bill is also a Trump amnesty clause on taxes and tax-related matters.
00:01:40.840 So as it goes in Washington, if you don't have a single-purpose bill, you never know exactly what everybody's upset with.
00:01:48.800 Remember where we covered the Biden inflation bill and we peeled that back and we proved there was money going to Ukraine and other things.
00:01:57.080 We're like, wait a minute, the Inflation Reduction Act domestic, more than half of the dollars in it were going internationally, specifically to the Ukraine war.
00:02:06.480 Stop. And there's an example of the other side.
00:02:09.680 People didn't like that Biden bill because they said, no, no, no, there's a bunch of bad stuff in it.
00:02:13.920 So here what you have is this isn't just a single purpose bill.
00:02:17.960 and it's got the amnesty thing in there allegedly and people are concerned that it's only going to
00:02:24.920 go to friends of the president if this was an independent commission like the as um you and i
00:02:31.540 talked about this six months ago the asbestos decision commission where we were trying to find
00:02:36.960 all of the victims that legitimately suffered from invest asbestos from u.s navy shipyards
00:02:44.100 find the legitimate victims
00:02:45.980 and let's see that their families are paid
00:02:48.200 this people thought
00:02:50.100 this was a little one sided and that's why
00:02:52.040 they were all flipping out and even John
00:02:54.020 Thune said stop it I'm 1.00
00:02:55.980 holding this immigration hostage 0.91
00:02:57.740 unless you Mr. President drop that 1.00
00:02:59.760 Berto 0.86
00:03:00.780 I mean we can't forget what's behind
00:03:04.100 this right these people
00:03:05.800 that when they literally
00:03:07.960 thought that the vote was stolen
00:03:09.540 and not all of them some of them committed
00:03:12.120 crime they were treated unfairly
00:03:14.080 Like we saw lawfare. I agree. We saw lawfare against the president, against Americans.
00:03:19.360 You know, they were sitting there and they have the constitutional right of freedom of speech.
00:03:24.840 So this is a shame. And then again, this goes into a deeper problem, Pat, that needs to be fixed immediately.
00:03:30.060 I mean, not immediately, but we need to start thinking about it.
00:03:32.940 Bills are getting too big. Like nobody knows what these packages mean anymore.
00:03:37.300 right like nobody reads them they come in they put they put in a hundred issues on these bills
00:03:44.960 nobody's fully happy with them they negotiate like okay i get this you get that i get this you get
00:03:50.360 that and uh and and and and these things happen like some people get treated unfairly some things
00:03:55.400 that the american public doesn't want it gets passed under a bill so i don't know i think i'm
00:04:00.440 a single subject bill guy and and and it will fix a lot of problems in in america if we had like
00:04:07.140 clear bills right yeah you know i i get i'm kind of glad this thing is gone because it was such a
00:04:14.720 hot button issue i mean giving money to people that potentially beat up cops on on january 6th
00:04:21.520 i do not believe everybody there was was wrong and i and i believe many of those people were
00:04:28.000 wrongly imprisoned not taken care of well that i they deserve compensation somehow i i don't know
00:04:36.240 what to do but but here's the problem to government it doesn't matter it's just another i mean it's
00:04:43.620 they have a seven and a half trillion dollar budget 1.8 billion dollars is a is is a it's it's
00:04:49.820 a rounding error it's not even a rounding error it's less than a rounding error and and and so
00:04:54.820 they're just kind of getting away you pay them some money and you get away with wronging people
00:05:00.800 And the thing that bothers me the most about lawfare and people breaking the law in government is that most of them go scot-free.
00:05:11.720 And it seems like Trump and his first term staffers, and I can think of a bunch of them, who have massive legal bills, were thrown in jail.
00:05:25.080 Steve Bannon, like, and that should have never happened.
00:05:28.660 And whoever did that to him, they need to be punished.
00:05:32.900 And so Trump, for some reason, they're not getting punished.
00:05:37.800 So we came up with this idea of, well, let's pay him.
00:05:41.040 And I think what we need to do is punish the wrongdoers and the people who use lawfare rather than just compensating people who have been wronged.
00:05:51.580 Yeah. And I mean, that was the thing I was most upset about when he first got into office because he had maximum political capital.
00:05:58.300 like probably the most political capital I've ever seen in my life of somebody coming into office
00:06:01.420 and just having the backing of the public to do whatever he wanted, right?
00:06:04.840 You know, he had enough of that to really go extreme and root all of that stuff out,
00:06:10.200 the people that did what you're describing there.
00:06:12.840 And rather than that, yeah, like a little bit of a payoff.
00:06:15.280 And at this time, like timing's everything.
00:06:17.300 And with the Iran war stuff going on, with inflation going on,
00:06:21.320 it's not a politically palatable time to try to push this down the public's throat. 0.96
00:06:25.980 So I wish he came out, like, hot and heavy, clearing all those people out in the first place.
00:06:30.740 Because that's something that's going to persist.
00:06:32.680 You know, now that the precedent's been set, if he hasn't rooted it out,
00:06:35.920 then it's going to, like, keep going on for anybody who tries to run the same way that he ran.
00:06:40.000 Rob, do you have that story, Rob?
00:06:41.880 You were talking about where he is talking to an ABC reporter.
00:06:45.700 And do you have that?
00:06:46.720 Yep, that's it.
00:06:47.620 Go ahead, Rob.
00:06:48.320 Trump told ABC News he will abide by recent court rulings temporarily blocking his $1.8 billion weaponization fund.
00:06:57.840 We are subject to the courts, the president said.
00:07:00.360 At this moment, that's what it is.
00:07:02.740 Trump said the fund, which could grant payments to people...
00:07:05.420 It's disappointing because isn't he trying to be a king?
00:07:06.980 Like, Rob, you made a point earlier.
00:07:09.680 Would a king be okay with the court not saying yes to him?
00:07:14.060 I mean, just that statement alone destroyed an entire march that people are doing that's devastating to a community, Rob.
00:07:20.820 This is horrible news to the No Kings protesters.
00:07:25.560 Did this man that's trying to be a king just say, well, if the court says, no, we can't do nothing?
00:07:30.460 Tom, how do you feel about that?
00:07:31.580 I know you're deeply concerned about the No Kings protest.
00:07:35.040 I think you're absolutely correct.
00:07:36.860 And I like what Brandon just said. 0.52
00:07:39.700 With all the political capital on day one, you should have said, I am appointing a 9-11 commission for J-6, and I'm going to have a commission.
00:07:49.040 I want to know, did Pelosi call down the Capitol Police?
00:07:54.180 Did she back them off?
00:07:55.580 Did she refuse them?
00:07:56.980 And for all the people that were incarcerated, let's re-review the cases one by one.
00:08:03.220 And so you could have had a commission that did both.
00:08:05.740 You're guilty.
00:08:07.040 You're guilty. 1.00
00:08:08.060 You're corrupt. 0.99
00:08:08.880 And you five guys were sorry you had to spend time. 0.98
00:08:12.020 Here is a settlement from the United States of America.
00:08:14.960 And you could have put the whole thing in a commission that looks even-handed on both sides.
00:08:19.040 Because I wanted justice.
00:08:21.080 I didn't like just the sweeping pardons.
00:08:23.980 I wanted to see both sides brought to it so that we could say as a country, okay, bad day, bad people, bad decisions, corrupt motives.
00:08:34.600 Here they are, bright light of day.
00:08:36.500 Here's the commission.
00:08:37.320 This is what we're doing.
00:08:37.840 I wanted to see that. And then to do it this way. And also you've got the the immunity thing in there, Pat.
00:08:45.560 Then that that just becomes just another Washington bill where you're packing stuff in there that people didn't know about.
00:08:52.300 And then people point it out and then it looks bad. You know what?
00:08:56.240 It's a perfect point, because if they would have done it individually, how many cities have given money to the families of victims of the police?
00:09:07.440 or that we're wrongly committed.
00:09:09.920 So why wouldn't that be okay?
00:09:11.180 So do it individually instead of like collective everybody together.
00:09:13.760 That's a good point.
00:09:14.600 You do $1.8 billion, you sound like that's too far.
00:09:19.020 Yeah.
00:09:19.800 Can they not go back and readjust or it's too late?
00:09:23.180 Can they readjust?
00:09:25.160 I think with this money?
00:09:26.320 Yeah.
00:09:26.780 I think they have to do a whole new process.
00:09:28.700 For sure.
00:09:29.140 But some of these individuals, dude, they went to jail for no reason.
00:09:31.640 They're sitting there with families like, what are you talking about?
00:09:32.980 Imagine husband and wife.
00:09:34.380 Kids don't see the father for a couple years, you're away.
00:09:38.000 Yeah, because he was standing next to the building.
00:09:39.800 Yeah, because he was standing there.
00:09:40.920 So can they go back and individually go through each one of these or no?
00:09:45.200 They could do a commission right now, Pat.
00:09:47.000 They could restart right now.
00:09:48.800 My point about Brandon was on day one with all that political capital,
00:09:52.880 you could have got it done in a heartbeat.
00:09:54.300 What I'm saying is that was a screw-up.
00:09:56.380 Let's just say that's a fumble that they made.
00:09:58.060 Now, what do you do now?
00:09:59.800 I'm not doing this less fun.
00:10:01.120 I want to appoint a commission, and I want to know the people that were corrupt, the cops, I want to do everything.
00:10:07.320 He could turn that and do it right now.
00:10:09.260 I hope he does that.
00:10:10.220 I hope he does that because there were some people that were unfairly accused of things,
00:10:14.260 and it disrupted their lives in a major way.
00:10:17.320 The big game is around the corner.
00:10:18.920 They're already talking about the matchups, who's playing against who.
00:10:23.360 Different people are representing different countries.
00:10:25.800 Obviously, I live in an interesting community where a lot of soccer players live.
00:10:30.220 We knew when they left to go off to Kansas City, Messi's in Kansas City.
00:10:35.220 This is going to be the most amazing thing.
00:10:37.440 Everyone's looked.
00:10:38.040 There were so many interesting stats.
00:10:39.740 The most ever players above 40 years old playing in the World Cup.
00:10:43.200 The youngest player is a 17-year-old kid from, I think, from Mexico,
00:10:48.420 if I'm not mistaken.
00:10:49.220 There's going to be some interesting stories.
00:10:51.000 But we had these hats that we made representing different countries.
00:10:55.020 And believe it or not, for Iran, we had the old Shahan Shahi,
00:11:00.220 Mohammed Reza Shah Palavi's flag right here, which is sick.
00:11:04.220 And I think there's a couple of those hats left. 1.00
00:11:06.240 Rob, if you want to play this clip, go for it.
00:11:25.020 Down, down, down, down, down.
00:11:55.020 All right, you can pause it right there, Rob.
00:12:10.860 Whether it's Argentina, whether it's Brazil, whether it's U.S., 0.67
00:12:14.240 which the U.S. hats look ridiculous, or whether it's Iran, any of them,
00:12:18.040 go to vtmerch.com, place your order, get the hat, get it for yourself,
00:12:21.540 Get it for your friends, but go to vtmerch.com to place your order and represent your country for this summer.
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