--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, February 7th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, why Venezuelans once loyal to Trump are feeling betrayed, the Big Easy gets ready for the weekend's big game, and how police are trying to crack the case of 100,000 stolen eggs. But first, a look at how President Trump's potential for conflicts of interest has changed and expanded since his first term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 2020, a New York Times investigation found over 200 companies, interest groups and governments patronized Trump businesses while reaping benefits from Trump's administration or Trump personally.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post reported one example. T-Mobile spent $195,000 at Trump's D.C. hotel while seeking federal approval of a merger with Sprint. The merger was ultimately approved, and the Justice Department and FCC declined to comment on it to the Post.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Critics argue that Trump's refusal to disentangle himself from his businesses while president not only creates ethical murkiness, but in cases involving foreign governments as clients, violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits government officials from accepting money from foreign entities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, in his second term, Trump's money-making ventures have only expanded. In fact, Bloomberg reports that Trump returned to the White House more than twice as rich as he was before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bloomberg reporter Annie Massa told us that ethics experts are even more concerned this time around.
--:-- Annie Massa: While there have absolutely been presidents with business interests before, the types of businesses, the regulatory flux that some of those businesses are under right now, and the scope, the actual dollar value of the assets in question are unmatched in any other historical context.
--:-- Annie Massa: For example, Trump now has a massive stake in a media company, Trump Media, which owns Truth Social. It's a huge part of his net worth worth billions of dollars, and it's a publicly traded company.
--:-- Annie Massa: But the reason that we're paying such close attention to that company is because it does absolutely have a huge impact on the personal wealth, personal net worth of the president.
--:-- Annie Massa: Trump and his family also have multiple cryptocurrency ventures. This is super important because crypto, even though it's been around for a while now, there are still many regulations related to it that are up in the air.
--:-- Annie Massa: Trump has vowed to be a, quote, crypto president. And just this week, according to The New York Times, there were major staffing changes ordered at the SEC that signal a possible rollback in crypto regulations.
--:-- Annie Massa: Just before the inauguration, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump launched their own crypto tokens, whose market valuations skyrocketed, generating potentially billions of dollars for the family and their affiliates.
--:-- Annie Massa: And even though the price of those coins has since crashed, losing money for the average unsophisticated trader, Trump is continuing to make money off of transaction fees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Further complicating matters are the people in Trump's inner circle. To name a few, his right-hand man, Elon Musk, owns six companies and has business contracts with the federal government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The White House says Musk will be responsible for self-managing those conflicts of interest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump daughter Laura Trump just landed a job hosting her own show for Fox News And the president nominee to lead the FBI Kash Patel has a side hustle selling Trump t-shirts and children's books.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But that's not all. Mr. Patel has been sitting on the board of Trump's media company, and he is actually not the only Trump nominee who has been on that board.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Linda McMahon, Trump's pick for education secretary, is also on that board. She and Patel were recently gifted thousands of shares of Trump media stock at a paper value of around $800,000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Patel's role with Trump media is particularly concerning because he has vowed in the past to go after media companies if confirmed as FBI director.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That could pose a potential big problem because it would align almost his financial incentives with the president of the United States, hypothetically.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the reason that would be a problem is potentially that could alter the course of what this agency would be willing to investigate or not.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A spokesperson for Patel did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just before Trump was sworn in for the second time, the Trump organization said he would be putting his investments and assets in a trust managed by his children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Massa told us Trump's critics say that's not enough.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And their critique is that there are absolutely not enough guardrails in place.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, a foreign actor or a special interest could easily enrich him much more directly than even last time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump's lawyers have argued that what he's doing is not unprecedented.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They point to George Washington, who ran a business while he was president, and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in the 1970s, who kept his stake in Standard Oil during his term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And while all of that is true, in the last 50 years or so, nearly all presidents have taken steps to walk away from business deals that could create the perception that they are compromised.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Not only has Trump bucked this norm, but in his case, the conflicts are so vast and touch so many people in his family and his administration, ethics experts say it's going to be extremely challenging to keep up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During the Biden administration, Venezuelans, along with immigrants from more than a dozen other countries, were granted temporary protections because conditions in their homelands had deteriorated so much it was deemed unsafe for them to return.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the Trump administration is reversing that decision.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Starting in April, more than 300,000 Venezuelans will lose their temporary protected status, or TPS.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another 250,000 or so with protections through September are waiting to see whether their status will get revoked too.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans live in Florida.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR spoke with Adeliz Faro, director of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, who said this community is feeling betrayed by Trump.
--:-- Adeliz Faro: We are human beings who work here, who are small business owners, who are people that actually believe that the TPS was the right way to get legal in the United States, to have a work permit, to have a social security number, to be able to buy a house.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Greg Allen, a Miami correspondent for NPR, told us this is a community that has largely supported Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump won Miami-Dade County, the first Republican to win the county in two decades or more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And many of those votes came from Hispanics, the Cuban-American community, but also the Venezuelan-American community.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's why they feel that a person they voted for now is turning around and actually deporting or threatening to deport many of their countrymen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Venezuelans in part threw their support behind Trump because they saw him as someone who would stand up to Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But last week Venezuelans questioned whether they had been wrong in that assumption.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Trump administration sent an official to Venezuela to meet with Maduro and successfully negotiated the release of several American hostages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: While a lot of people saw that as an early diplomatic win for Trump and for Americans, some Venezuelans took away a different message.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When he came out and got the release of the six hostages, which was a great achievement, there began to be some suspicion that a deal was made because that was right around the same time that TPS was lifted.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So the idea is, is Trump going soft on Maduro, going soft on Venezuela?
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Trump administration has defended their decision to revoke TPS status for this group.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on NBC's Meet the press last weekend.
--:-- Kristi Noem: Remember, Venezuela purposely emptied out their prisons, emptied out their mental health facilities and sent them to the United States of America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Farrow, the director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, told NPR that's just not true, that by and large, most Venezuelans in this country are law-abiding and hardworking.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, she says, the community is scrambling and fearful of what comes next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And some Republican lawmakers in Florida are urging Trump to move carefully, reminding the administration that this is a community that's been key to their recent election victories.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Super Bowl weekend is upon us.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles take on the two-time defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Apple News' Shakra Siman has been in the Big Easy all week, talking with players ahead of the big game, and he asked a few of them, Kingsley Suamata'ia with the Chiefs, and Eagles players Tristan McCollum and Elias Ricks, to recall some of their favorite Super Bowl moments over the years.
--:-- Kingsley Suamata'ia: Probably when Cole Hartman caught the winning touchdown, and he didn't even know he caught the touchdown. Obviously the helmet catch by the Giants, the crazy catch by Edelman also.
--:-- Elias Ricks: I'd probably say the catch from San Antonio Holmes, the Steelers and Cardinals. That's probably I had a first kind of core memory where I was like, wow, in the Super Bowl.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now these players will get to have their own potential wow moments this weekend in what is expected to be a pretty close matchup.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Both sides feature quarterbacks in their prime with plenty of offensive and defensive power behind them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Saman caught up with The Athletic's Nate Taylor to talk about the outlook of the game for both teams.
--:-- Nate Taylor: For the Chiefs, who are going for the three-peat, it's a classic combo mixed with a little defense. It's pretty simple. It's can Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey continue to connect because they are the greatest passing receiving duo in NFL history.
--:-- Nate Taylor: I think they've had 19 touchdowns together. It's absurd. And then can Chris Jones, the Chiefs Hall of Fame pass rusher, can he get pressure on quarterback Jalen Hurts? Can he sack him a couple times?
--:-- Nate Taylor: For the Eagles, it's a straightforward play. Give the ball to star running back Saquon Barkley. He's kind of a throwback to an older version of football where the running back really did control the tempo of the game.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This year will be a record-tying 11th time the Super Bowl is being hosted in New Orleans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the traveling from out of town fans are clearly having a blast.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here are a few talking to the local NBC affiliate.
--:-- Fan 1: It out of this world the excitement the fun
--:-- Fan 2: It was very cool Like I had an awesome experience going next to the marching band
--:-- Fan 3: Yeah, it was awesome. This is crazy. The amount of people here just to come out, see some players, see some interviews. It's great.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I actually tried gumbo for the first time ever yesterday. It was delicious.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But I love it. There's so much happiness here. There's so much energy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Super Bowl kicks off at 6.30 p.m. Eastern Time this Sunday, and we'll be covering all the action in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday was supposed to be the deadline for federal employees to decide whether or not to accept Elon Musk's buyout.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But a federal judge in Massachusetts paused the offer at the request of unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A hearing is set for Monday afternoon for both sides to argue their case.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from moving full steam ahead with their plans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sources told The Washington Post that officials in the administration believe agencies can continue to process resignations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to The Post, 50,000 people had accepted the deferred resignation as of Thursday afternoon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Separately, Reuters reports that the Trump administration plans to keep fewer than 300 of the more than 10,000 employees at USAID.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, you're used to hearing about the cost of eggs on the news or bird flu affecting poultry farms, but here's one you didn't see coming.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Authorities in Pennsylvania are investigating the theft of 100,000 eggs just north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The eggs were stolen from a trailer that belonged to a company called Pete and Jerry's Organics on Saturday night.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Pennsylvania State Police say a theft of this caliber involving food is very rare.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Egg prices have skyrocketed recently due to the bird flu outbreak.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Prices are expected to go up another 20 percent this year, according to the Agriculture Department.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The eggs that were stolen were worth an estimated $40,000. dollars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, let's pivot to talk about an entirely different kind of egg, the human egg, and its role in fertility treatment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's the topic of this week's episode of Apple News In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I speak with reporters from Bloomberg Businessweek about their deep dive into the global market for human eggs, one of the most precious resources on Earth.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I actually have no idea how many eggs they extracted from me. I only have the word of a doctor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I was like the amount of trust that we put in an industry that is in many ways self-regulated and that there is not a lot of transparency and the repercussions of some of the bad things that can happen reverberate across the world and in some cases across decades.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reporters Natalie Obiko Pearson and Susan Burfield tell me the stories of some of the women they met while reporting this piece, including an IVF patient in Greece whose eggs were sold without her consent, a child in India who was coerced to pose as an adult to sell her eggs, and young women from Taiwan who are making a living off selling their eggs to the highest bidder.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, that episode is queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, just search Apple News in Conversation to find it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And as always, you can find all the stories we talked about today in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
