he was on the way back from saudi arabia and steven mnuchin was on the way to saudi arabia and mnuchin cut his trip short because of the capitol attack and he did extend it a couple of days to try to squeeze in one more meeting with the leader of saudi arabia. here is the thing. all of these meetings were supposedly about the u.s.-backed investment fund. the times describes it as quote little more than talk with no accounts, no employees, no income and no projects, the fund vanished when mr. trump left office. except kushner and mnuchin did later raise billions from all of those countries they were scrambling to visit in their last months in government. and they didn't raise it for any u.s. government fund and which appears to never really existed, they raised it for themselves. three weeks after leaving office, mnuchin was talking about a plan he had, a few weeks later, he had detailed investment plans on half a billion from the emiratis, and kuwaitis and a half billion and the billions from saudi arabia, mnuchin and kushner both took the government officials who had ostensibly been w

and steven mnuchin, the former treasury secretary.work in office, both alaunching separate private equity funds, all while that government project disappeared when former president trump came out of office. joining us now is one of the reporters behind that scoop, david kirkpatrick. thank you very much for being with us this afternoon. >> no problem. >> so you make the point in your piece that the path from sort of public office to private investing work is a well trod path if you will. but ethics experts say they stand out because of the speed of their pivots and for the sums of money they had raised with foreign rulers they had dealt with. explain some of that. >> well, it's different questions with each of them. with kushner, we reported previously that six months after leaving the administration, his new firm received a $2 billion investment commitment from saudi arabia, despite the advice of their own panel of experts that this was a bad idea. so as we reported then, there are significant doubts over whether or not this investmen

haslinda: steven mnuchin just yesterday urging the eu to ban russian oil.s it an important psychological move. still to come, china has been doubling down its strict covid zero policy. henry wang joins us next. keep it here with us. this is bloomberg. ♪ haslinda: welcome back. china strong defense of covid zero policy have brought the lives of millions to a standstill. harsh lockdowns are taking an increasing economic and social toll. rishaad: let's discuss all this with henry wang, an advisor to the chinese government. thank you so much for joining us. well, what are these covid lockdowns doing in terms of societal pressure, in terms of the way people are viewing authorities? we can talk about the economic damage as well here. does this have long-standing problems? henry: thank you. covid-19 [inaudible] china so far has been quite successful. [inaudible] they have come up with a solution to tackle that. [inaudible] beijing hasn't. beijing has been testing people on a regular basis. [inaudible] rishaad: we have to stop here for a second. we have audio greml

decisions were being considered, it was vice president pence, bill barr, mike pompeo, robert o'brien, steven mnuchinresent in the oval office in the situation room. you were rarely around. why was that? >> i don't know. what mark meadows writes to me is considered historical fiction. i was in every situation room meeting. if milley was there, i was there. unless for some reason i was on overseas trip. >> bret: were you at all trying to limit your facetime with the president? >> no, not at all. i thought it was important to engage with the president to give him my best advice and recommendations. >> bret: you were very critical to former ambassador to germany ric grenell. he tweets that mark he is officer is one of the most duplicitous people i ever met in politics. he comfortably lies anyone hiring him should know this. one example he told me to my face multiple times moving 10,000 troops out of germany and puttings some in poland and other places was a good idea. true? >> i do believe we should put more troops in poland. i do not believe in the precipitous withdrawal in the way its ha handled movin

what did go somewhere, right after government, was jared kushner private equity fund and steven mnuchin not an expert in this, somebody is just a lay observer, it seems like the kind of dictionary definition of somebody using their public position, their access to public resources. potentially, even their actions as government officials to set themselves up for private gain. is that fair in terms of the layman's understanding of that? , and as an extension of, that is this potentially illegal behavior? >> well, that was obviously one of the top questions that we were asking ourselves, rachel, as david and patrick and i reported on this. as we were talking to ethics experts, this is quite legal. if we as americans want to see this kind of activity ceased in the future, we need to probably codify some new rules and regulations that prevent one from seeking outside investments from foreign government counterparts once they leave office. in this case, the executive branch. but right, now this is quite legal. self feeling is a little bit more of a term of art. but, sure. i mean, depending on

i have one question -- what happened to the $500 billion that donald trump and steven mnuchin took backmay 2020 during the first round of cobit relief checks -- covid relief checks go? you can get an invasion of ukraine for a lot less than $500 billion. host: david in virginia, republican, good morning. caller: form. i -- good morning. caller: i watch the real anthony fauci book and i watched the five hour hearing. i doctors. i am really disgusted by what i learned. in india, there is a province, 230 million people have gotten rid of covid by taking ivermectin. it is a poor country. that is all they can afford. there a doctor in southern california, brian tyson, has treated 10,000 patients, not one of them has died. host: brad, independent, ohio. one minute left. caller: on the enhanced unemployment benefits -- [indiscernible] onto my general point, we are in debt. we cannot afford sending $33 billion to ukraine. you have to pay for that many times over when you compound interest. world war i, world war ii, the cold war -- [indiscernible] after world war ii. that is a european issue. we