
Well, we've got two scandals that are apparently brewing right now. One is, where is the 17 trillion dollars that Donald Trump keeps bragging to the American people that he has brought in to America? Where is it stashed? On what quote unquote shelf is it located? And why isn't it being spent? Who's administrating it? Where does it go? Where's the rebate checks to the American people? Where's the money to the farmers? As Donald Trump tries to get away with freeloading and free riding with making stupid comments about $17 trillion in business commitment from around the world in America, which is twice
the gross domestic product of the United States and more than 10 times, no more than 100 times the amount of money he's brought in with tariffs. All he's shown with his public statements is that he knows how to mismanage money. I mean maybe that's the reason he's just fired the jobs report, closed down the government so we didn't get bad jobs numbers to show how anemic his Trump economy is. But where's the 17 trillion dollars? It's not my number, it's his number, it's Donald Trump's number. He brags
about it all the time. Here's him bragging about it at the UN.
In just eight months since I took office, we have secured commitments and money already paid for $17 trillion. Think of it. Four years, less than a trillion. Eight months, much more than $17 trillion is being invested in the United States. And it's now pouring in from all parts of the world.
We've implemented the largest tax cuts in American history and the largest regulation cuts in American history, making this once and again the best country on earth to do business.
Well, you don't get away with bragging about money that you that you say comes into the Treasury and then be able to use that against the American people or as part of your propaganda and not have the Democrats wake up and say, hey, where is the trillions of dollars? And losing money seems to be a theme
within the Trump administration. Before we get to the Democrat response, here's a clip of Donald Trump rambling on at that cosplay military general presentation review of the troops where in the middle of him again getting fatigued, getting tired, rambling on. He talked about billions of dollars 31 billion dollars that his own people
didn't know where the money came from. And then he had to remember which pocket he put it in. And then it's all a mad scramble. They just can't keep proper accounting over there of money. 31 billion, 17 trillion. Let's play the clip of him talking about billions of dollars
that his Trump administration can't keep track of. Let's play that clip. But it is, I mean, when you look at we've taken in
trillions of dollars, we're rich, rich again, and they'll never be when we finish this out, there'll never be any wealth like what we have. Other countries were taking advantage of us for years and years, you know that better than anybody and now we're Treating them fairly, but the money coming in is we've never seen anything like it the other day They had 31 billion that they found 31 billion dollars So we found 31 billion dollars and we're not sure from where it came
The gentleman came in a financial guy. I said, well, what does that mean? He said, we don't know where it came. I said, check the tariff shelf. No, sir, the tariffs haven't started in that sector yet. I said, yes, they have. They started seven weeks ago. Check it. Comes back 20 minutes later. Sir, you're right. It came from tariffs. 31 billion. That's enough to buy a lot of battleships, Admiral.
So the Democrats are firing back. You don't get to lie to the American people without any type of punishment. And the punishment is going to be we're going to open up an investigation. Tell us where the 17 trillion is. Which shelf is it on? What are on? Who's administering it? Where is it going? And if it doesn't exist, then stop talking about it and stop lying to
the American people. In fact, we had a leading Democrat on our sister channel, Midas Touch, gave an interview with my podcast partner, Ben Micealis. Let's play that clip. This is, I think, a serious oversight issue. $17 trillion is apparently missing right now, and we're in a government shutdown.
Trump keeps saying he's got 17 trillion.
Where did it go?
Who the hell knows? I mean, first of all, Donald Trump is living in a fantasy land. And if there is $17 trillion somewhere, the government doesn't know about it. No, none of our committees have access to it.
Treasury has no idea what the hell he's talking about. And so you're absolutely right, we're in a government shutdown right now. Donald Trump could actually reopen the government back up, extend healthcare subsidies, fix America's public schools, provide some subsidies to actually lower the cost of goods
across this country. But we know that Donald Trump is a liar. He's either a liar or he stashed away some money somewhere in some magical way, and there's even more corruption happening. And so look, the media needs to also get on the game here.
Donald Trump is claiming that there's $17 trillion somewhere. Why isn't he being asked the question of where that money is every single minute of the day? And so this man is the most corrupt person to obviously ever be president.
He lies, he steals, he cheats. Now there's apparently $17 trillion somewhere that nobody knows about. And so we've got to ask the questions. And I think that's at this moment, during the shutdown, the fact that Donald Trump wants to claim
that things are getting better for the American public is a joke. Costs are going up. Healthcare costs are going up. The grocery bill is going up. So that's why we're in this fight, because we are saying,
hell no to more tax cuts for billionaires. And let's actually lower the cost of healthcare, which if we stay strong as Democrats, we can actually hopefully negotiate and get done.
So if there's $17 trillion though, you now have the money. What I saw was that we ran a $2 trillion deficit the last fiscal year. And last month we ran a 345 billion deficit. But actually we're in a surplus situation and all of this gets the farmers, right, construction work, manufacturing, everybody, and like this could be a great
opportunity. So I'm shocked that James Comer, your buddy who chairs the House Oversight Committee, doesn't he want to know where the $17 trillion is because it solves everything. What else would oversight be doing other than oversight of 65% of our GDP?
Look, I mean, yeah, and it looks like if this keeps going, we're gonna have to investigate where the hell these $17 trillion are. No question, because this is ridiculous that Republicans are the hypocrisy, right? I mean, the Republicans are saying on one hand,
oh, there's not enough money for health care subsidies. And then the other and the other hand, they are stashing away money, giving it to their billionaire friends, doing all these tax breaks, the increasing
exponentially the national debt so that they could really care less about working people.
It's a good question. You know, every time they respond to something like they asked the spokesperson for the, I don't know, Commerce Department or the White House about why aren't you releasing the jobs report? We know why. We've got private sector job data that says that we lost 32,000 jobs in the private sector last month. We lost 32,000. Even when the Bureau of Labor Statistics
and its survey of companies comes out, when it ever comes out after a month late, and it's not going to be of any use to the Fed when they're setting interest rates, which is probably Donald Trump's desire, don't give them the data, make them cut the interest rate again.
That's the upside here. Even there, we think at best, job creation is 50,000 in an economy of 330 million or so. That's beyond anemic. It's not existent. It's imaginary. And so you got that going on. And then at the same time, Donald Trump is telling people, don't worry. And I'm sorry, when they asked the White House about the jobs numbers and if they're going to be released, they said, he's brought in trillions of dollars. This is like this palm card talking point of the Trump administration. Well, then fine. Then you live by the 17 trillion, you die by the 17 trillion. Where is it? Such a weird number, too. It's literally double
the gross domestic product of the United States. And the tariffs, which are perhaps doomed to failure at the United States Supreme Court and the Trump administration will have to repay all the tariffs that are struck down, is sitting at about 160 billion with a B. Apparently, as you heard, 34 billion of which the Trump administration can't keep track of. They had to leave it to the boss to come up with, no, that's the 34 billion from the tariffs that came in from that sector.
Check on it. Go check it. What kind of incompetence does he have within his own administration that the people responsible for budget and numbers and revenue collection can't have to be corrected by Donald Trump? And if you're going to be corrected on accounting, business records, funding, numbers by Donald Trump, then if that's the answer, you're asking the wrong question,
you know, without any doubt whatsoever. So I think it's, I think it's, part of it is trolling, right? Do we really think $17 trillion is missing from the treasury? No, but that puts Donald Trump back on his heels, right?
Because he keeps telling the people, I brought in $17 trillion, I brought it in, maybe we'll buy some battleships, or maybe you won't, because that money's not coming in. If he's talking about, let's put on my economic hat for a moment. If what he's talking about is the investment promises, commitments that he extracted in negotiations over the tariffs with our allies. I'm not sure any of that is
happening. Because it's not we're not talking about sovereign wealth funds, where the governments of those countries like South Korea, and India, and Europe and Europe, Europe, EU, where they're taking sovereign wealth money that they have their own slush fund and they're investing it in America.
That would be one thing. But they're relying on private enterprise and private business in their countries doesn't invest capital because the president of the United States demands by fiat that they do it. They invest capital based on a lots of factors
where they'll get the highest return on their investment, where they can get the cheapest money, where they think the growth of that country or investment is the best, the job growth. Now, that's why so much money is flooding into Latin America, Central America, South America, and away from the United States.
The United States is becoming on investable with global dollars. Canada has rightly so turned its back on America from an economic standpoint, it's had to in order in order to thrive itself. It's had to become Canada first or anywhere in the globe, but America first, I guess that's the better way to put it.
So you got that going on. And so for South Korea to say, yes, we'll, South Korea already pushed back and said, how are we expected to put this much money into the American economy? We don't even have this much money
based on our own gross domestic product. And we don't control, it's not communism, it's not dictatorship, we don't control. It's not communism, it's not dictatorship. We don't control how our private enterprises invest in America. That's up to whether they see America as investable.
So I think the Democrats are right to both troll and open up an investigation as to the missing 17 trillion. And if it's not missing, then just level with the American people and say it's a fantasy number
you've come up on the campaign trail. That's a lie. That's not helping America at all. We're helping America. You're right here on Legal AF. Hit the free subscribe button.
If you really want to become a paid member of the Legal AF community, a paid, like a card-carrying member, I guess is the right way to put it, come over and become a paid subscriber, is what I was trying to say, on Legal AF Substack. So much great content there, including live reporting. In the meantime, you're here, I'm glad you're here, I appreciate each and one of you. Happy Friday, I'm Michael Popek. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF sub stack. Every time we mention something in a hot take,
whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the sub stack, you'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else?
All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on some stack. Come over now to free subscribe.
Get ultra fast and accurate AI transcription with Cockatoo
Get started free →
