'Off the Richter scale': Presidential historian raises red flags about Trump mining deal

A presidential historian is sounding the alarm about a recent mining deal that's expected to enrich the Trump family.

"The audacity is so off the Richter scale," Douglas Brinkley said about a deal between the Trump administration and Kazakhstan to access one of the world's largest untapped reserves of tungsten.

The New York Times reported on the $1.6 billion tungsten mining deal with the Central Asian country. The Times noted that the sons of both Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stand to benefit. Tungsten is used in "missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips, and other critical goods," the Times noted.

Brinkley reacted to details of the deal as reported by the NY Times during an appearance on The Jim Acosta Show on Tuesday.

"People aren't sure what's even going on," Brinkley said. "You have to hope the law will eventually hold President Trump accountable if he did some things that are illegal and illicit, but the law moves slowly."

Brinkley agreed with host Jim Acosta's assessment that Trump's self-enrichment during his second term is unprecedented.

"Just think, not that long ago, there was a scandal because Jimmy Carter's brother Billy had a beer, or you know, Neil Bush got involved with a bit of a hedge fund banking thing run a little bit amok," Brinkley said. "They're so small, and then this is such a huge wake-up call, people."

The way Brinkley sees it, "you're having a president of the United States using the White House for personal self-enrichment of a kind of mind-boggling audacity," adding that "it's a crisis, but we've got to get through it."