Ana Navarro isn’t holding back when it comes to Donald Trump’s latest cash grab. On Tuesday night’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip, the CNN political commentator lit into the president over reports that he’s seeking a staggering $230 million payout from the Department of Justice as restitution for his previous prosecutions.
“This is just one more stripe on the tiger,” Navarro said, calling out the sheer audacity of it all. “You’ve got the crypto grift. You’ve got Melania getting paid $40 million from Amazon for a documentary. You’ve got Melania selling Christmas ornaments. You’ve got Trump hawking watches. You’ve got the $400 million jet from Qatar. I mean, the list is long and with no oversight.”
She’s not wrong. Trumpworld has long blurred the lines between public service and personal profit. But a sitting presidential candidate asking the DOJ—the very agency prosecuting him—for a nine-figure payout? That’s a new level.
And it doesn’t stop there. According to reports, the two lawyers who would be tasked with greenlighting the payment both have direct ties to Trump or his allies. Neither has said whether they would recuse themselves if the request officially lands on their desks.
Navarro wasn’t just mad—she was furious about what this says to everyday Americans.
“This is tone-deaf,” she said. “Given that so many Americans are unable to pay for rent and groceries.”
She went on: “The tone deafness here is disgusting. But at the same time, it is the level of corruption that has almost become normal because of the lack of Republican willingness to be the oversight on what is happening.”
It’s yet another grift in a long list. But Navarro’s point is clear—what’s perhaps more disturbing than the corruption itself is how routine it has become. The silence from the GOP? Deafening.
This isn’t politics as usual. This is pay-to-play on a scale that, if it were happening anywhere else in the world, the U.S. would be issuing statements condemning it. Instead, here we are. Again.
And if Trump gets his way, the American people could end up footing a $230 million bill—just to make one man feel like a victim.
Watch the full segment below.
