Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and New York Times columnist David Brooks assembled for their weekly airing of grievances on Friday night’s PBS News Hour as they discussed the news that the Trump Administration has reached deals with five top law firms to provide $600 million in pro bono work. Capehart ignored vital details of the deals to claim Trump was going after his enemies, while Brooks claimed we no longer live in a democracy, and both men accused Trump of acting like the Mafia.
Host Amna Nawaz recalled a Thursday report from Laura Barron-Lopez, “She reported on this larger pattern of him using his executive power, using the DOJ to go after perceived political enemies and institutions, even law firms in some cases, who we have now seen actually cutting deals with the president, right? The president just said today that some — a number of law firms have reached deals committing some $600 million in legal work for his administration.”
She then asked Capehart, “What do you make when you look at this bigger picture and what's the impact of those kinds of deals?”
Capehart declared that, “When it comes to the law firms, what's so — among the many things that's so troubling about all of this, the $600 million that you just mentioned, that's $600 million in pro bono work that those law firms would have used, could have used for all the other causes and people who can't afford legal representation to help them hold the government accountable in one way or another.”
By contrast, “what the Trump administration has done has been able to work up a $600 million legal slush fund, if you will, to have the administration go after in another way his enemies. Remember, Donald Trump ran for another term in the White House saying, ‘I will be your retribution,’ and then on the campaign trail talking about going after his political enemies, seeking vengeance. This is what we're seeing. This is the result. And it should trouble everyone.
Neither Nawaz nor Brooks nor Capehart at any point cited a Trump Truth Social post that explained what this $600 million would be spent on, “President Trump and the Law Firms both support and agree to work on, including in the following areas: Assisting Veterans and other Public Servants, including, among others, members of the Military, Gold Star families, Law Enforcement, and First Responders; ensuring fairness in our Justice System; and combatting Antisemitism.”
As for Brooks, he claimed, “I benefited a lot from a piece Jonathan Rauch wrote in The Atlantic a couple — maybe a month ago a couple weeks ago, saying there are certain systems — people say Donald Trump is quite verging on authoritarianism, but the real thing he's verging on is patrimonialism.”
According to Brooks, patrimonialism is a “sort of a premodern form of government, if you go back before democracy, before the Treaty of Westphalia and all that kind of stuff. It was — it was run by families. And the family enriched itself. And they took after anybody who threatened the family. It's a little like mafioso.”
Capehart jumped in to agree, “I was going to say, it sounds like the mafia.”
Before anyone could say "That sounds like the Bidens," Brooks then continued, “And so Trump is treating the justice system the way the head — the father of this patrimonialistic system would treat it. And he's going after things that are just personal. And so that's the erosion of democracy, which is supposed to be about clear laws that apply to everybody. And we no longer live in that system.”
It should also be noted that the Trump Administration views certain DEI initiatives—such as “financial awards and employment opportunities only to ‘students of color’”—from big law firms as “unlawful discrimination,” but again, PBS didn’t think that was noteworthy enough to include.
Sign the petition to help us defund another MSNBC in PBS and NPR at defundpbsnpr.org.
Here is a transcript from the April 11 show:
PBS News Hour
4/11/2025
7:42 PM ET
AMNA NAWAZ: And also she reported on this larger pattern of him using his executive power, using the DOJ to go after perceived political enemies and institutions, even law firms in some cases, who we have now seen actually cutting deals with the president, right? The president just said today that some — a number of law firms have reached deals committing some $600 million in legal work for his administration.What do you make when you look at this bigger picture and what's the impact of those kinds of deals?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, first on Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, let's not lose sight of the fact that, even though they are former Trump administration officials in the first term, they are now private citizens. The president of the United States is now targeting private citizens for things that they have done that he thinks have wronged him.
When it comes to the law firms, what's so — among the many things that's so troubling about all of this, the $600 million that you just mentioned, that's $600 million in pro bono work that those law firms would have used, could have used for all the other causes and people who can't afford legal representation to help them hold the government accountable in one way or another.
And instead what the Trump administration has done has been able to work up a $600 million legal slush fund, if you will, to have the administration go after in another way his enemies. Remember, Donald Trump ran for another term in the White House saying, "I will be your retribution," and then on the campaign trail talking about going after his political enemies, seeking vengeance.
This is what we're seeing. This is the result. And it should trouble everyone.
NAWAZ: David?
DAVID BROOKS: I took a lot of — I benefited a lot from a piece Jonathan Rauch wrote in The Atlantic a couple — maybe a month ago a couple weeks ago, saying there are certain systems — people say Donald Trump is quite verging on authoritarianism, but the real thing he's verging on is patrimonialism.
And patrimonialism — authoritarianism is based on institutions and a set of laws and — but patrimonialism is the attempt to turn the government into a family business. And it's sort of a premodern form of government, if you go back before democracy, before the Treaty of Westphalia and all that kind of stuff.
It was — it was run by families. And the family enriched itself. And they took after anybody who threatened the family. It's a little like mafioso.
CAPEHART: I was going to say, it sounds like the mafia.
BROOKS: It's like, you're making an offer you can't refuse. And so Trump is treating the justice system the way the head — the father of this patrimonialistic system would treat it.
And he's going after things that are just personal. And so that's the erosion of democracy, which is supposed to be about clear laws that apply to everybody. And we no longer live in that system.
