We Can Do Hard Things
Inside Trump’s Personal Profits: His Abuse of Power for Private Deals & Who is Paying the Price | Jessica Yellin & Amanda
Thu, 15 May 2025
411. Inside Trump’s Personal Profits: His Abuse of Power for Private Deals & Who is Paying the Price | Jessica Yellin & Amanda Award-winning journalist Jessica Yellin joins Amanda to expose how Trump’s personal profit, political power grabs, and selective immigration policies are reshaping American democracy—and what we can do about it. From the scandal behind Trump’s “free” plane to the foreign “investments” flooding his businesses, Jessica and Amanda connect the dots between foreign entanglements, mass deportations, and economic cruelty disguised as policy. -How Trump is using public office for private gain—and what it signals about self-enrichment at the highest levels;-The alarming surge in ICE raids and what your local law enforcement may have to do with it;-The Afrikaner refugee scam—and what it reveals about race, privilege, and the weaponization of asylum; -How cuts to Medicaid are funding tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy;-And the concrete actions you can take—locally and federally—to disrupt the dangerous normalization of these policies. Jessica Yellin is the founder of News Not Noise, a pioneering Webby award-winning independent news brand -- dedicated to helping you manage your “information overload.” She is the former chief White House correspondent for CNN and an Emmy, Peabody and Gracie Award-winning political correspondent. You can follow her on Instagram at Jessica Yellin. And also, to get real time, clear and brilliant reporting, go to substack.com and search for her page newsnotnoise and subscribe there. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is the premise of the podcast?
Hey everybody, welcome back to We Can Do Hard Things. I for one am very grateful to be back with you. I have missed you dearly and missed the opportunity to know what we need to know over the last week when Glenn and Abby and I have been on the road. And so I'm so grateful to be back here with you and with Jessica, whom I also missed very much, Jessica Yellen. I really did.
I was like, I don't know if I'm missing my hour of rage and clarity or clarity rage and missing you.
How are you doing? So sweet. I felt the same way. I don't know. I feel like this is cathartic. And so last week I kind of had this pent up thing. I was like, I need to talk to Amanda. Yes. Tell me before we get into the news, how's your tour? I can't tell you how many people have said to me, oh my God, I can't wait. I'm flying to go see them on tour. You all are like rock stars.
Oh my gosh. We must be the most... disappointing rock stars, but we are not disappointing talkers. It's been so great. I think there's something, it feels similar to how I felt about like the news. It feels like all of this stuff is flooding my head all the time. But then when we talk, it kind of puts it in order. It gathers it up and puts it in the right order.
And then I can kind of metabolize it better. That's what I feel like being with people has done. It's like, oh, wait, all of these people are out here and we want the same things for ourselves and our people. And there's a lot of power in that. And there's a lot of solidarity in that. And there's a lot of solutions in being together. And it just feels, it feels really good, actually.
It feels really, I feel very thankful for everyone who's coming out and devoting the time to be together. And it's been a great experience. I'm very thankful.
I love that. And it so resonates with what I keep hearing from people in general, which is, I mean, it sounds obvious, but we so rarely have these communal in-person experiences anymore. And every time I'm at some group get together, I went to Denver and I told Denver folks in the News Not Noise audience, if you want to do a meetup, come meet me for dinner at this place. And Oh, that's so cool.
And we had the nicest conversation. And what came out was how many people want to be together with other like valued people. They don't know how to initiate it. They sometimes want it to be strangers. Like there is something satisfying in finding strangers who are as concerned, as engaged, as caring as you.
And people even said they want to have conversations with folks who don't agree with them on all the things because when they do, it reminds them how much we do have in common and how we're not quite as polarized as like the news makes it seem.
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Chapter 2: What insights do Jessica and Amanda share about communal gatherings?
You can also ask the person taking them for their name and get their badge and license. Never be aggressive. Never interfere. Follow their instructions if they ask you to step away, etc. Those are a couple of steps that immigrant advocates say are helpful to take. If you feel safe doing it. And maybe if you don't.
And get people into a home. Like if you can make sure that they're in a home, the reason why they're trolling the streets and following people is because they don't need a warrant if they're on the street. But if people are in their homes, they have to have a warrant. they can't legally enter a home and apprehend someone.
Now, I'm not saying they're not doing this illegally, but they can't legally enter a home without permission if they don't have a warrant. So whatever you can do to get people, if you know ICE is coming, to get them into homes and then not open the door. You do not have to open the door if they do not present a warrant. And in so many of these cases, they do not have one.
One other thing is you can call your member of Congress and ask them to get a tour of detention facilities in your state or in your area because one of the biggest unknowns is, you know, what are the conditions? How are people being held? In some cases, they've reopened facilities that were closed. And for all we know, are they up to, you know, inspection? Has anybody checked them out?
We don't have a lot of information on what's going on inside.
I'm going to call my local law enforcement today and make sure that I know whether they are colluding with ICE. And I think that's important for all of us to know what's happening with our local dollars and resources. Yeah.
Even if you're a sanctuary place, state, city, ICE has the right to operate there, but your local law enforcement does not have to participate with that. And that's the thing you can call your members and ask.
It's very shocking to me that we are having this conversation about the violence and dehumanization of brown immigrants in our country at the exact same week that the United States has chartered a private plane to fly to South Africa. to personally escort white South Africans and invite them to be members of the United States community.
It is so clearly not about protecting our borders or reducing immigration. It is so clearly about protecting whiteness, this entire conspiracy that is happening right now. the juxtaposition should alarm everyone. And it's based on complete bullshit. I mean, Donald Trump is surrounded by so many South Africans. This is the home of apartheid.
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