The grift goes on. And on. And on…
The most corrupt presidency in modern history finds a new way to profit.
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THREE STORIES. ONE BIG RACKET. Donald Trump just keeps on finding innovative new ways to profit shamelessly off the public trust. This week, he started selling Wall Street traders paid early access to his Truth Social posts—up to $100,000 a month for a peek at market-moving announcements before the rest of the country sees them. (The rest of the country would call that insider trading and get arrested for it.) Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Trump directly runs the money side of his presidency, with nightly call time with his fundraiser, nicknamed the “princess of darkness,” to check which companies have “cut checks and which haven’t” for various Trump vanity projects, including his ballroom, his library, and his political committees.
And everyone in Trump World benefits from its culture of corruption. While Trump is charging companies for access to him, his regulators are taking gifts from companies that need something from them. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty accepted tens of thousands of dollars in luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets from Paramount, including a $125,000-a-seat skybox, while the agency was reviewing Paramount’s mega-mergers. And what a surprise: Carr endorsed Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery deal publicly on CNBC within months of that gala. Two watchdog groups have now filed ethics complaints asking that he be disqualified from voting on the merger at all.
TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH. Apparently, all those corrupt gains just aren’t enough to satisfy Trump, who is calling for “reparations” (yes, reparations) for himself. While defending his now-defunct-but-is-it-really $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, Trump co-opted the term typically reserved for descendants of Black slaves and demanded “reparations” for himself and others who “were treated horribly” by the government (read: forced to face the consequences of their criminal actions). He then accused former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden of being “corrupt,” because he’s cornered the market on projection.
FROM HEROES TO ZEROES. Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis were looking like maybe they grew some spine on their way out the door of the Senate. Alas, that was far too hopeful a view. The two caved on the Todd Blanche AG confirmation after striking a deal with Blanche on the aforementioned “anti-weaponization” fund that’s thinner than the paper it’s written on. Blanche’s nomination is expected to advance out of committee this week. But he will reportedly face headwinds from some Republicans in the wider Senate as well. Potential holdouts include some of the usual suspects: namely, Senators Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski. Another Republican who hasn’t yet committed is Senator John Curtis, who met with Blanche last week but hasn’t weighed in since Sunday night’s agreement. We’re not holding our breath.
JUDGE JEANINE, MEET THE BUS. Is Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, late of Fox News, about to get tossed under the bus? It’s sure looking like it. Pirro met with Trump at the White House yesterday to discuss her dropping charges against those Trump accused of vandalizing his poorly painted Reflecting Pool. Trump said Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” for the heretical offense of expecting actual evidence of that claim in court, rather than just some all-caps Truth Social posts from a president trying desperately to save face—even if that means falsely imprisoning someone. If Trump does can Pirro, she’ll be the next in a long line of women he’s fired from his second administration, including, most notably, Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi.
SPEAK LOUDLY AND CARRY A SMALL STICK. Trump gave Iran yet another “last chance” for negotiations yesterday, saying, “I want to give them every last chance before decapitation.” This comes after he put the brakes on more military strikes over the weekend—“the biggest attack since World War II,” according to him—to give diplomacy another opportunity. But Iran’s Foreign Ministry continues to insist it is not actively negotiating with the U.S., so this smells like another TACO Trump moment to us. Trump also outlined a potential deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as early as today, while criticizing Exxon and Chevron for reaping huge profits during the crisis. Flashback: Republicans excoriated Joe Biden for a similar claim in 2022.
HOW LOW CAN THEY GO? The Iran quagmire is helping to sink Republicans’ poll numbers just three months out from the midterm elections. For the first time since May 2017, Americans now say Democrats are better stewards of the economy than Republicans are. It’s still very close: the Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 37% of registered voters feel the Democratic Party has a better approach vs. 36% for the Republican Party. Nevertheless, Republicans in the Senate are getting nervous. New polls show GOP candidates trailing their Democratic challengers in Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, as Trump is now being viewed as a growing political liability.
ICE VS. THE EMPIRE STATE. A New York state law prohibiting ICE agents from wearing masks and requiring them to display ID was blocked by a federal judge yesterday, who issued an injunction halting the measure. ICE agents weren’t necessarily complying with the ban anyway, as an incident that unfolded last Thursday demonstrated. While ICE agents were trying to get their disabled vehicle towed out of a NYC neighborhood, a group of demonstrators began shouting at them. Linda Wolff was among them, using her phone to film the agents, who were very clearly masked. She also captured an agent pepper-spraying her in the face at close range. But since you can’t keep a good New Yorker down, she is planning to file a lawsuit against the agency. Good for you, Ms. Wolff.
RANCHERS SAVE THEIR WATER SUPPLY. An example of defiance in New Mexico shows it pays to fight back. As construction of Trump’s border wall continues in the drought-stricken state, ranchers said pumping groundwater needed to make concrete for the wall would threaten their livelihoods. “It would put us in an immediate catastrophe and having to do something with our livestock. I mean, it could potentially put some people out of business, us included,” said Russell Johnson, a cattle rancher whose property runs along the border. After raising the issue at a public meeting in July, they successfully got the administration to order construction crews to stop drilling wells, which is quite a feat considering the wall remains one of Trump’s highest domestic priorities.
BONUS ACT OF DEFIANCE: BLUE STATE BRAWLERS. A coalition of Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration yesterday over his latest round of SCOTUS-skirting tariffs. The 25 blue states say Trump has “exceeded his authority” with the new tariffs—10% or 12.5% on goods from 60 U.S. trading partners—which together impact 99.4% of U.S. imports, according to the states. (Donald Trump? Exceeding his authority? Nah, can’t be.) This isn’t the first time states have banded together to fight back. Twenty-five states and Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration last month, accusing FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security of unlawfully withholding critical disaster and counterterrorism funding. And back in April, 23 states and Washington, D.C., sued to block Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting. Thank you for your show of defiance, blue states!
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