"It is hard, dear viewer, to keep track of the very, very long list of shady deals and no-bid contracts and outright corrupt crypto schemes that have been the hallmark of the presidency of Donald Trump, particularly this second version of it," said Hayes. "But I ask you tonight to pay attention to the one that he appears to be about to pull off, because it's got to be the greatest heist in American history, a direct transfer of billions of your taxpayer dollars directly into the bank account, and the pockets of Donald Trump, all dressed up as a settlement of a lawsuit in which Donald Trump is both the plaintiff and also the defendant. It would be a maneuver that could nearly triple his net worth."
"All of this happening as the Trump administration is literally making your life harder and more expensive with wars and tariffs," said Hayes. "None of that has stopped Trump from trying to get his hands on more of your money."
"The president, in effect, sued himself for more than $10 billion, or he sued the government he controls," said Hayes. "$10 billion, by the way, is nearly the entire annual IRS budget. And those dollars have paid out would come from the U.S. Treasury, which he also oversees. Now, this is so novel, I don't really know how you characterize it legally, like we're out past the frontier, whether legal or not. I am of the strong opinion, and I think many would be also that this is an attempt at the largest theft ever by an American politician, plainly, flagrantly. Blatantly, in plain daylight. It is a conflict of interest so enormous the term itself, conflict of interest hardly begins to capture what's happening."
"In fact, get this: last month, a federal judge in the case ... gave them until May 20th to come back and explain how the case isn't a scam to enrich Trump," said Hayes. "She's like, wait a second, wait a second. The constitution requires cases or controversies, but I don't see one here, she writes. 'Although President Trump avers he is bringing this lawsuit in his personal capacity, he is a sitting president and is named adversaries or entities whose decisions are subject to his direction,' she added ... What the judge is saying is, like, I don't think this is actually a real case. It can't be. You're on both sides."
"So the lawyers have one more week to file briefs that would convince the judge to let Trump's $10 billion lawsuit continue," said Hayes. And this, he said, is why the Justice Department is considering settlement talks now, before that deadline: to "shovel tons of cash over to him in return for him dropping the suit. The mob has a word for that: shakedown."
"Think of it again," Hayes continued. "Your taxes may come out of your paycheck every week. Or you wrote a check April 15th. Some part of that is going to end up in Donald Trump's bank account. No one has ever taken as much money in the history of the nation as Donald Trump is attempting to hoover up from the federal government right now, I don't think there's ever been a $10 billion theft, $10 billion. That's the same amount in child care subsidies that Trump froze last year. $10 billion is almost enough to fund federal disaster relief for a year. It is enough to fund the entire National Park Service, one of the great jewels of this nation, for five years. You could fund the Peace Corps for 20 years. It could all go straight into the Trump family coffers."
"I am telling you, there is no scale or precedent for corruption like this in the United States," he added. "It would put every other Trump grift to shame."
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