Sunny Hostin on Wednesday urged her fellow co-hosts on “The View” to “speak plainly” about President Donald Trump demanding $230 million from the U.S. Department of Justice — for the expenses he incurred defending himself against federal criminal investigations.
“I think we need to speak plainly to people, and I think we need to call it what it is: This is giving mob boss,” Hostin said. “Right? That’s what this is. He is extorting and looting the federal government.”
Trump has filed two complaints against the DOJ: one for its investigation of his 2016 presidential campaign for alleged collusion with Russia to interfere in that election, and another for searching Mar-a-Lago for classified documents he allegedly mishandled from his first presidential term.
Trump reportedly said Tuesday he would donate “any money I would get” from the DOJ to charity.
The president is “extorting and looting the federal government that he’s already extorting and looting, because, as you mentioned, since 2017, his family has made $3.4 billion,” Hostin said Wednesday, crediting her co-host Joy Behar for bringing up the exorbitant figure earlier.
The president has certainly made a fortune while in office: The $3.4 billion figure stems from an analysis published by The New Yorker in August, which factored in all of Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, real estate deals and seemingly endless licensing agreements.
Trump himself recently bragged that he had “raised” more than $1.5 billion “in various forms” since the 2024 election alone.
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Hostin noted Wednesday that Trump also received a $400 million luxury jet from the oil-rich autocracy of Qatar, then granted Qatar a U.S. military defense guarantee in September.
Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, also pointed out that Trump was caught on a hot mic last week telling Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto that he would have his son Eric Trump call him at Subianto’s request. Hostin surmised that the exchange was “probably about a business deal.”
“This is about a mob boss extorting the government for his own personal … gratitude and enrichment,” Hostin fumed.
Not even the “View’s” resident right-winger, Alyssa Farah Griffin — who was in the Trump administration during his first term — could find a silver lining.
“It’s not giving America First, and I’m honestly just frustrated at this point,” she said. “I find the whole thing exhausting.”
Griffin added about Trump, “You’re using taxpayer dollars to enrich yourself, or maybe you’re giving it to charity or the White House? Focus on the people. It’s never been harder to get ahead than it is right now, and it just feels completely out of touch.”
You can watch the full exchange starting at the 5:29 minute mark below.
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