President Donald Trump's newest defense of his family's self-enriching cryptocurrency deals didn't go over well with MS NOW's "The Weeknight" gang on Monday evening.
"Tonight, folks, we're on the corruption watch as Donald Trump prepares to leave for Turkey aboard his brand-new Qatari-gifted jet to attend this year's NATO summit," said anchor and former GOP chairman Michael Steele, who added that Trump "continues to remake every aspect of the presidency to serve his interests."
Just hours before, for example, he said, Trump "rang the stock market's opening bell from the Oval Office, just days after his financial disclosures revealed more than 20,000 stock trades made on his behalf last year. That's a busy broker, indeed."
At this point, co-host Luke Russert chimed in.
"The disclosures also show earnings of $1.4 billion just from crypto alone," said Russert, although, he noted, the president "tried to downplay that all this morning."
In the clip Russert played, Trump said he is "very much for crypto" and that "I let my kids do whatever the hell they do, they can do. I don't talk to them, ever talk to them about it. I'm allowed to. I think I'm allowed to, but I don't bother because this is a much higher. This office is a much higher calling." He went on to add that "I waive my salary."
Unfortunately, said Russert, "Trump's not the saint he makes himself out to be. Go figure."
The simple math, he continued, is that as president he earns "about $400,000 a year" in salary to waive, whereas he "raked in $2.2 billion, with a B, according to his financial disclosures. And yet the White House insists, quote, 'there are no conflicts of interest.'"
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