texas democrats bet they can outclass paxton’s corruption with a harvard degree
Ken Paxton, freshly laundered from his latest scandal cycle, practicing his "persecuted populist" face while consultants measure just how many Bitcoin slogans it takes to distract from an impeachment record.
Texas is allegedly on the brink of becoming a "hot battleground state" because Democrats have discovered a magical creature: James Talarico, a progressive Presbyterian seminarian with a Harvard degree and $27m to spend explaining to working-class Texans why they should absolutely trust the guy who sounds like he’s auditioning for Obama: The Sequel. His opponent? Trump’s favorite swamp ornament, Ken Paxton, a man so thoroughly marinated in corruption charges, impeachment hearings, and marital fallout that even Republicans whisper he’s "the worst possible" top-of-ticket. Naturally, that makes him the perfect standard-bearer for the party of law and order.
The polls say Talarico is ahead, but only if you pretend Texas is a state populated almost entirely by college grads who listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed. Among voters without degrees — you know, the majority of the electorate — he’s flailing, while Paxton waddles around posing as a wounded populist hero of the little guy, backed by billionaires and an economic plan that boils down to turning America into a deregulated crypto casino. Because nothing says "I care about your mortgage" like "empowering crypto innovators".
Talarico, meanwhile, is doing the Democratic classic: talking about inequality and cost of living in a dialect that sounds like it was workshopped at a foundation retreat in Aspen. He’s getting hammered for saying "God is nonbinary" — a quote that may or may not be out of context, but is absolutely in the sweet spot for GOP attack ads against a party already struggling with working-class voters who don’t spend their evenings reading Substack essays about gender theology. The article politely notes that this is less Talarico’s personal failing than a symptom of a party leadership pipeline that runs exclusively through white-collar law firms and grant-making foundations, then acts surprised when voters don’t swoon for manicured Ivy professionals.
So the 2026 Texas Senate race is shaping up like this: on one side, a scandal-drenched, Trump-aligned AG whose idea of economic policy is "let’s go full FTX" and whose campaign is still yelling about Joe Biden as if Trump didn’t already reclaim the Oval Office; on the other, a polished liberal preacher trying to convince a blue-collar state that the guy with the Harvard credential and the ed-tech background is actually the tribune of the working class. One of these men is openly corrupt and cosplaying as a martyr of the establishment; the other is trying to beat him with PowerPoint populism. What could possibly go wrong?
#corruption#crypto
two private clubs and a democracy walk into iowa
Rob Sand campaigns in Iowa, bravely attempting to fix a democracy currently leased out to Super PACs and two very exclusive private clubs.
Rob Sand, Iowa’s last surviving statewide Democrat, is running for governor by telling voters an awkward truth: American democracy is basically run by two private clubs that make you hate your uncle for $10 a pop. Naturally, this has made him the exciting new face of a party that absolutely depends on those same clubs and their billionaire bartenders. Sand opens rallies with "America the Beautiful" and talks about hunting, because nothing says "please don’t freak out, rural white voters" like a shotgun and a patriotic singalong.
Across the state, Republicans are suddenly shoveling $29m in Super PAC money into a place Trump won by 13 points, insisting there's nothing unusual about this at all, please ignore the panic in their eyes. Meanwhile, Democrats are fighting among themselves over who can appeal more to right-leaning voters while simultaneously accusing each other of being propped up by "millions of anonymous dark money dollars" and Chuck Schumer, who appears to be sponsoring more intraparty resentment than legislation these days.
So Iowa, once the launchpad for Barack Obama, is now a showcase for how thoroughly national politics has been captured by donors and outside money: Super PACs write the ads, party leaders pick the favorites, and voters are the extras in someone else’s very expensive drama. Sand calls the parties "private clubs"; the rest of the article is just 1,500 words of proof.
#corruption#oligarchy
nonpartisan maga rally now accepting secret donations
Doug Burgum carefully explaining that a MAGA rally with secret donors is actually just a completely neutral birthday party for America, please stop asking questions.
Doug Burgum went on CNN to explain that the Trump administration’s big, totally nonpartisan Freedom 250 concert is absolutely not political — except for the part where Donald Trump keeps publicly calling it a MAGA rally and threatening to replace the musicians with a campaign speech about how he’s bigger than Elvis. Apparently the real problem isn’t that the White House tried to turn a national 250th birthday celebration into a taxpayer-adjacent campaign event; it’s that some musicians “segmented their audiences” by not wanting to be props in a cult rally.
Pressed on who’s actually funding this patriotic karaoke night, Burgum bravely took a stand against transparency, saying donor disclosure isn’t important and we should focus on “celebrating the 250th anniversary.” Translation: the public gets the flag bunting, the undisclosed donors get the access, and everyone pretends this is just a neutral love-fest for America while the president screams MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN in all caps on Truth Social.
As artists flee the lineup after realizing they were misled about the event being apolitical, Trump has responded by calling them “third rate” and suggesting he’ll grace the stage himself, because nothing honors the founding more than a self-described “Number One Attraction” ranting about crowd sizes and how only “Happy, Smart, Successful People” are invited. Meanwhile, Burgum also defended the no-bid, high-profit contracts for sprucing up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — because if you’re going to wrap a partisan rally in the American flag, you might as well overpay your friends to polish the scenery.
Just to round out the civic vandalism, Burgum floated appealing a judge’s order to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. So the administration is: hiding donors, funneling money through no-bid contracts, converting a national celebration into a campaign rally, and trying to slap Trump’s name back on a major cultural institution. Truly a fitting tribute to 250 years of a republic that was absolutely not founded to worship a single guy in a red hat.
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump sues irs, wins $1.8bn gofundme for fascists
Trump, pondering which pardoned insurrectionist deserves the next multimillion-dollar "sorry you tried to overthrow democracy" payout from his taxpayer-funded anti-weaponization piggy bank.
Trump settled his $10bn lawsuit with the IRS and somehow walked away with a $1.776bn "anti-weaponization" fund that looks less like justice and more like a taxpayer-financed Patreon for his favorite felons. A bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges has now filed to reopen the case, politely describing the whole thing as "a product of collusion" and "a fraud on the Court"—which is judicial code for are you kidding me. They argue the case was yanked before the judge could even decide if there was a real legal dispute, then used as a pretext to loot the federal treasury.
Elsewhere in this constitutional crime spree, two officers injured on January 6—Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges—are suing Trump, calling the fund "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century" and pointing out that a giant pot of money for "politically persecuted" Trump loyalists tends to encourage more politically motivated violence. Even Senate Republicans have paused long enough between confirmation votes for lunatics to express "concern" that the cash might go to convicted felons, which is adorable given that Trump already pardoned the January 6 rioters and is now trying to pay them too.
The Justice Department, currently cosplaying as Trump's personal law firm under Acting AG Todd Blanche, insists the fund is just there to protect Americans from a "weaponized" government. Trump, less interested in maintaining the lie, went on Truth Social to clarify that the money is for people "so badly abused" by the "evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden administration"—you know, like Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who has already announced he expects tens of millions. When your alleged anti-weaponization program is literally being marketed to pardoned seditionists, you’re not fighting weaponization of government; you are the weapon.
#corruption#killing-democracy
pentagon loan office rebranded as trump family atm
The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, seen here in its new role as the Trump family’s rare-earth piggy bank.
The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital was supposedly created to reduce America’s dependence on China for critical minerals. Under Trump, it’s apparently been repurposed to reduce Donald Trump Jr.’s dependence on having marketable skills. ProPublica reports that a $620 million Defense Department loan — the biggest in the program’s history — went to Vulcan Elements, a tiny North Carolina rare-earth startup whose valuation magically exploded right after the deal. Also magically: Trump Jr.’s venture firm quietly took a stake in Vulcan about three months before the loan was announced. Pure coincidence, we’re told, by everyone with a financial interest in you believing that.
The key detail: of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering, Vulcan was the only one whose deal was personally initiated by a top White House aide — Peter Navarro, now Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing and, importantly, a close buddy of Trump Jr. Navarro, fresh off a stint in prison for defying a Jan. 6 subpoena, phoned in from his redemption tour to tell Pentagon staff this one had to be done, and fast. Officials were ordered to sprint through a weeks-long approval process at “Trump Speed,” which apparently means federal due diligence now works like a late-night infomercial: act now, supplies (of ethics) are limited.
Everyone involved is loudly insisting there was absolutely no favoritism. Trump Jr. swears he never discussed Vulcan with federal officials and has "no knowledge" of how the deal came together, a fascinating claim given his equity stake and his prison-visiting bromance with the guy who made the ask. The White House insists it’s all being done in “the best interest of the American people,” because nothing says public service like funneling hundreds of millions in taxpayer-backed loans to companies your family owns pieces of. The Pentagon helpfully adds that “outside affiliations, investors, or political connections play absolutely no role” in its funding decisions — a statement so aggressively unbelievable it should come with a laugh track.
Former Bush ethics lawyer Richard Painter calls this what it is: corruption the public is forced to bankroll. The Trump team calls it national security and slaps a flag on it. The Office of Strategic Capital was designed to methodically vet companies through an open process; the Trump administration supersized its authority from $1 billion to $200 billion and then treated it like a private-equity slush fund with missile decals. And lurking in the background? Another Trump Jr.–linked company — a drone parts manufacturer — also under Pentagon loan review. At this rate, the only real “strategic capital” being secured is the Trump family’s.
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
billionaires buy a kentucky house seat, trump sends the receipt
Thomas Massie stares into the middle distance, calculating how many billionaire dollars it now costs to express a mildly independent thought in the Republican Party.
Thomas Massie just lost his primary 55–45 to Trump’s hand-picked guy, Ed Gallrein, and has already filed to run again in 2028, because American politics is less "public service" and more "endless reboot with worse casting." Trump celebrated the purge of one of the few Republicans who occasionally remembered Congress is supposed to vote on things, declaring Massie "deserves to lose"—a touching moment of honesty from a president whose political operation now functions like a loyalty tribunal with super PACs.
The primary itself was a fun little experiment in post-democracy. It became the most expensive House primary in history, with more than 94% of the money coming from outside Kentucky. Billionaire donors and AIPAC-linked PACs poured in cash to get rid of the guy who wouldn’t play ball, then Trump slapped his gold-plated endorsement on the challenger. Massie’s summary: "They couldn’t buy my vote in 14 years, so they bought this seat." That’s not a complaint, that’s a mission statement for the modern GOP.
To really drive home the rot, the race featured AI-generated smears, including a hyper-realistic ad putting Massie in a hotel room with two Democratic women—a dystopian deepfake threesome brought to you by the future of campaign messaging. Massie, a Freedom Caucus stalwart who broke with Trump over tariffs, spending, and that One Big Beautiful Bill corporate giveaway, and who helped force out the Epstein Files, learned the hard way what happens when you cross the emperor and his donor class: the algorithm writes a new reality, the billionaires fund it, and your "conservative district" becomes their very expensive souvenir.
#corruption#oligarchy#killing-democracy
brennan center notices the looting spree, asks if anyone has a fire alarm
Michael Waldman, patiently explaining that 'epic corruption in plain sight' is not actually a constitutional form of government.
NPR sat down with Brennan Center for Justice president Michael Waldman, who politely described the Trump administration’s latest antics as "epic corruption in plain sight," which is a very lawyerly way of saying, "they’re looting the place with the lights on and the doors open." When the Brennan Center — the group that usually writes dense reports on campaign finance and voting rights — starts sounding like they’re live-tweeting a smash-and-grab, you know the situation has achieved advanced banana republic status.
Mary Louise Kelly asked the obvious question: what can be done about it? The depressing answer, as always, is some combo of "stronger laws," "independent institutions," and "voters giving a damn" — all of which Trump and his cronies have been methodically stripping for parts like a stolen Honda. The White House keeps testing how much open, unapologetic corruption the system can absorb, while the rule of law responds by scheduling another panel discussion on norms. Waldman is basically standing on the roof with a megaphone yelling "the house is on fire," while half of Washington debates whether it would be partisan to call the fire department.
#corruption#killing-democracy
thousands of 'blind trust' trades somehow see just fine
Wall Street traders bravely attempt to keep a straight face while explaining that thousands of Trump-linked trades are totally normal and not at all a giant, blinking conflict-of-interest sign.
The latest government filings reveal that in just three months, thousands of stock trades were executed on behalf of Donald Trump, covering some of America's biggest companies. Truly heartwarming to see the market thriving under the invisible hand of a president whose portfolio is apparently doing cardio.
A Trump Organization spokesperson insists that neither Trump, his family, nor the company "played any role" in choosing the investments. They swear they get no advance notice, no input, no nothing — just a magical money machine that happens to be wired directly to the most powerful office on Earth. What could possibly go wrong with the president effectively running the economy while the economy is also quietly working for him?
We're told this isn't a conflict of interest because, technically, he doesn't push the "buy" button himself. It's all handled by others, somewhere behind a curtain, in a structure that is definitely not a blind trust but is being sold like one on late-night infomercial terms. Call now and you too can get a president whose official decisions and personal wealth are perfectly aligned — for him.
#corruption#forever-grifting
trump’s big beautiful blank checks
Artist’s rendering of the border wall procurement process: a giant money hose pointed at whichever contractor smiled hardest at Trumpworld.
Tommy Fisher, the guy who helped build the privately funded border wall that started eroding faster than Trump’s legal defense fund, is back — and this time the federal government has handed his company over $9 billion in new wall contracts. This is the same Fisher whose earlier project was bankrolled by We Build the Wall, the MAGA nonprofit whose leaders kept confusing "border security" with "personal piggy bank" and wound up in prison. Even Trump publicly trashed that wall as a scam designed to make him look bad, which, to be fair, is a crowded field.
Now a New York contractor, Posillico Civil, has sued the administration, alleging that the supposedly competitive process was about as real as Trump University. Out of 11 prequalified vendors, Customs and Border Protection allegedly steered about $14 billion — roughly 73% of the money — to just two companies: Fisher Sand & Gravel and Montana-based Barnard Construction. Posillico says it spent serious time and money bidding on what turned out to be "not genuine competitive opportunities," which is a very polite way of saying the fix was in.
Contracting experts are openly saying the quiet part: DHS is allegedly picking contractors for loyalty and pliability, not best value, while the administration sprints through a $46.5 billion wall budget courtesy of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. We’ve got no-bid contracts, opaque awards, ballooning costs, and a secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, already under fire for steering a $220 million ad campaign to her buddies — but sure, CBP insists everything is totally fair and reasonable. They’re just writing huge checks as fast as possible to the same well-connected firms; what could possibly be suspicious about that?
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump invents $1.8 billion taxpayer gofundme for insurrection buddies
Trump, proudly announcing that he has discovered a new constitutional power: Article II, Section ‘Mine Now.’
Trump has apparently decided that if you’re going to run an authoritarian rewards program, you might as well do it with other people’s money. He’s struck a deal with his own subordinates to create an "anti-weaponization fund" that hands him personal control over $1.8 billion in taxpayer cash to shower on allies and supporters — a group that very much appears to include the people who tried to beat cops and hang his vice president on January 6.
Once upon a time, a "slush fund" was just extra ship grease sailors sold to buy books and instruments. Now it’s the White House’s preferred financial instrument for rewarding loyalists and undermining the rule of law. Instead of being a shady side account, this one comes pre-packaged with a patriotic label and the full blessing of the executive branch, because nothing says "checks and balances" like the president cutting himself a multi-billion-dollar loyalty stipend.
So while normal people argue over school budgets and health care, the federal government is calmly constructing a publicly funded legal comfort blanket for the MAGA enforcement class. Call it what you want — "anti-weaponization," "slush fund," or "Insurrectionist Relief Act" — the point is the same: Trump is converting the U.S. Treasury into a defense fund and prize pool for those willing to break democracy on his behalf.
#corruption#killing-democracy
trump administration discovers vapes cure $5 million deficits
FDA to Big Tobacco: after a brief pause, your regularly scheduled profit stream will now resume.
Reynolds American cut a tidy $5 million check to MAGA Inc., Trump’s favorite super PAC, on April 30. Within days, its executives were having a cozy lunch with Trump at his Jupiter golf club, alongside fellow nicotine enthusiasts from Altria. Because nothing says "public health policymaking" like a tobacco summit at a country club.
Mid-meal, Trump reportedly paused the industry gripe session about FDA vaping rules to speed-dial his own health officials like a mob boss checking on the status of a favor. First up: FDA commissioner Marty Makary. When he didn’t answer, Trump escalated to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS head Mehmet Oz, complaining about how mean the FDA was being to e-cigarettes. A week later, the administration rolled out new vape guidance that just happens to open the door for Big Tobacco to sell more flavored vapes.
Campaign finance reports now show Reynolds’ total giving to MAGA Inc. at $8 million, and the timeline reads less like coincidence and more like an itemized invoice. The White House line is surely that this is all perfectly legal, which is true in the same way that it’s perfectly legal to set democracy on fire as long as you file the paperwork on time. Regulatory capture has never been so on-the-nose.
#corruption#forever-grifting
get out of jail free, terms and conditions (and six-figure fees) apply
Trump’s face lovingly nestled inside handcuffs, like a Hallmark card from a kleptocracy: ‘Thanks for making crime profitable again.’
Welcome to Donald Trump’s Washington, where the Constitution’s pardon power has been lovingly repurposed into a boutique concierge service for white-collar felons with deep pockets and even deeper guilt. The New York Times profiles Josh Nass, a 34-year-old lawyer-lobbyist who has discovered that in MAGA America, the most lucrative real estate isn’t on Fifth Avenue, it’s in the space between your client’s prison bunk and Trump’s ear.
Nass, who helpfully markets himself as a connector to Orthodox Jews, evangelicals and Republican donors, hit the jackpot by helping nursing home magnate and $38 million tax fraudster Joseph Schwartz score a Trump pardon — for a tidy $100,000 fee. Word spread through the Otisville white-collar resort, and suddenly Nass was fielding offers like a million dollars in cash from a frantic Russian family who treated him like a human ATM for presidential mercy. He says he turned that one down, presumably because even this ecosystem of influence peddlers occasionally remembers what too on the nose looks like.
The larger picture is exactly what you’d expect from an administration that treats public office as a cross between a clearance sale and a protection racket. Desperate inmates and their families are easy prey for fast-talking “pardon brokers” promising access to Trump’s royal thumb. The upside is enormous: erase your federal crimes if you can just pay the toll to the right fixer. The downside is reserved for everyone who thought the justice system was supposed to be about law instead of proximity to a guy rage-posting on social media from the Oval Office.
So no, the pardon process is not dead — it’s just been privatized, stripped for parts, and resold as a luxury service for people whose crimes involve balance sheets instead of broken windows. The Founders imagined a sober, rare exercise of mercy; Trump imagined a loyalty program. And around him has grown a thriving ecosystem of lawyers and lobbyists who discovered that the real American dream is monetizing presidential impunity, one desperate felon at a time.
#corruption#forever-grifting
trump turns the reflecting pool into a family side hustle
Crews work to fix the Reflecting Pool while the Trump crew works to see how close they can get to the edge of open self-dealing without falling in.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a national symbol of democracy and sacrifice, is now apparently being renovated by… the guy who runs Trump’s Bedminster golf club. David Schutzenhofer, a Trump Organization employee with no known engineering or architecture credentials, “volunteered” his expertise to the Interior Department and helped connect them with one of the contractors that ultimately landed work on the project. Because when you think structural integrity and historic preservation, you obviously think “bedminster pool guy.”
Interior’s spokeswoman insists Schutzenhofer isn’t a government employee, which is extremely convenient, because that means no ethics training, no conflict-of-interest paperwork, and no pesky rules about the president’s private business quietly nudging federal contracts. He’s just an “American patriot” donating his time — and by sheer coincidence, his time involves steering taxpayer-funded work toward the same industry that services Trump’s own properties.
The White House, through spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, declared that “Thanks to President Trump, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to its proper glory!” which is a bold way to describe the president bragging that he picked a contractor because they worked on his golf club pool, then later claiming he didn’t actually know them. The Reflecting Pool has spent decades leaking water; the Trump administration has finally matched it with something that leaks ethics.
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump drops $10bn tantrum, gets $1.8bn taxpayer apology instead
John Thune, bravely opposing Trump's $1.8bn loyalty fund by saying he is "not a big fan," which in Senate Republican is basically a hunger strike.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new legal doctrine: if you don't like being investigated, you just sue the government for $10bn and then "settle" by creating a $1.776bn "Anti-Weaponization Fund" that you control. In this case, Trump drops his IRS lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns and, in return, the Justice Department conjures up a giant pot of taxpayer cash supposedly to compensate people "unfairly" investigated by past administrations — you know, like some of the folks charged or convicted for trying to overturn an election on 6 January.
Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune — a man whose job description is basically "nod along" — is saying he's "not a big fan" and doesn't see "a purpose" for the fund. Democrats are calling it what it looks like: a corruption-on-autopay "slush fund" for Trump and friends, conveniently run by a five-member commission where four members are picked by Trump’s handpicked acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche insists it's totally non-partisan and available to anyone, which is a very normal thing to say about a fund born from a hostage negotiation with the president's own lawsuit.
While Blanche was on the Hill explaining that this is "unusual" but "not unprecedented" — always a comforting phrase when you're talking about billion-dollar payouts to people who think consequences are unconstitutional — Treasury's general counsel Brian Morrissey abruptly resigned after just seven months. He hasn't said why, but "I didn't want my name on the $1.8bn MAGA restitution fund" feels like a strong contender. As Senator Patty Murray helpfully translated: the government writes the cheque, Trumpworld cashes it, and Americans already getting hammered by prices get to fund the great "Stop Calling Crimes Crimes" compensation project.
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump’s doj builds a victimhood slush fund, says 'anybody can apply'
Bill Blanche bravely explains that 'anybody can apply' to Trump’s new DOJ grievance fund, which is exactly the problem.
Sen. Bill Blanche showed up to a Senate budget hearing to defend Trump’s shiny new “anti-weaponization” compensation fund, and promptly demonstrated he has no idea who this taxpayer cash is actually for. Pressed on eligibility, Blanche kept insisting that 'anybody can apply,' like he was pitching a sweepstakes and not describing a federal program that’s supposed to compensate people genuinely harmed by government abuse. Specific criteria? Guardrails? Definitions of 'weaponization'? That’s for losers who read statutes.
So the Trump DOJ is building a grievance ATM where the only clear standard is 'feels persecuted by the deep state.' With no real explanation of how claims will be vetted, who decides what counts as 'weaponization,' or how they’ll keep it from becoming a rewards program for MAGA loyalists and indicted cronies, the whole thing looks less like justice reform and more like a federally subsidized pity fund for people mad that laws exist. Accountability for actual abuse of power remains theoretical; payouts for politically useful victimhood are very, very real.
#corruption#killing-democracy
billionaire fraud charges vanish after he hires trump’s lawyer, purely by coincidence
Gautam Adani and the ghost of Lady Justice, reviewing a 100-slide pitch deck titled ‘What If We Just Don’t Prosecute Billionaires?’
The Department of Justice, that plucky little agency formerly known for prosecuting crime, has reportedly decided to drop fraud charges against Gautam Adani – Asia’s richest man – right after he hired Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Robert Giuffra Jr. At a secret April meeting inside DOJ, Giuffra rolled in with a 100-slide presentation explaining why prosecutors supposedly had no case, and, as a helpful bonus, mentioned that Adani would invest $10bn in the US and create 15,000 jobs if the charges just happened to go away. Because when you’re totally innocent, you always sweeten your legal arguments with a multi-billion-dollar economic development package.
Prosecutors insisted the investment offer wouldn’t affect the outcome, but one senior DOJ official reportedly reacted warmly to the idea that justice might come bundled with a jobs program. This is the same case where Adani was accused of orchestrating $250m in bribes to Indian officials, lying to investors and banks to raise billions, and obstructing justice – conduct DOJ once described as major corruption at the expense of US investors. Now, post-Trump comeback and post-hiring-of-Trump’s-lawyer, that towering pile of alleged fraud appears to be melting away faster than ethics rules at Mar-a-Lago.
Adani, a close ally of Narendra Modi and the poster child for industrial-scale crony capitalism, has long faced accusations of favoritism, monopoly-building, and legal harassment of journalists who investigate his empire. Naturally, this makes him an ideal character in the Trump-era justice system, where powerful friends and well-connected attorneys can apparently turn a federal fraud indictment into a negotiation over how many jobs your get-out-of-jail-free card will create. Rule of law has now been rebranded as: how much can you invest, and do you have Trump’s guy on retainer?
#corruption#forever-grifting
trump taps don jr’s hunting buddy to guard the baby formula henhouse
Pictured: Don Jr’s favorite new public health expert, demonstrating his core qualification — knowing exactly which creatures in his sights are about to get killed.
Donald Trump has a new "very talented" acting FDA commissioner, which is MAGA for "my kid’s hunting buddy who used to defend a baby formula company accused of harming premature infants". Kyle Diamantas, a 38-year-old corporate lawyer with zero medical background, is now in charge of the agency that regulates drugs, food, and, apparently, the presidential vape flavor menu. He steps in after Trump moved to can Marty Makary for the unforgivable sin of not greenlighting fruit-flavored vapes fast enough for the nicotine freedom fighters in the West Wing.
Diamantas previously worked at Jones Day defending Abbott Laboratories against claims that its premature-infant formula increased the risk of a deadly gastrointestinal disease. Abbott lost, paid out $495m, and just had the verdict upheld on appeal — so naturally the guy who tried to save them in court now gets to "dive back into infant formula" from the regulator’s chair. He dutifully sat out a one-year recusal on formula issues and is now eager to ensure its safety, which is reassuring in the same way putting your arsonist neighbor in charge of the fire department is reassuring.
As deputy commissioner for food, Diamantas helped invert the classic food pyramid to match the MAHA agenda: meat and veggies on top, science and credibility somewhere underneath the rubble. RFK Jr gushes that he’s already delivered "remarkable wins" for that agenda, while Diamantas hits the Maha podcast circuit with carnivore-diet influencers and "biohackers" like he’s auditioning to regulate TikTok wellness trends instead of the nation’s food supply. Inside FDA, he’s seen as the non-controversial choice, which mostly means he didn’t fire everyone in sight and knows how to smile through the demolition.
And then there’s the family business angle: Diamantas is a close friend of Donald Trump Jr, proudly photographed together at a hunting club, each holding a dead bird like a campaign logo for this administration’s approach to regulatory oversight. The last FDA food chief resigned over Trump’s mass federal layoffs; his replacement is a corporate lawyer with a decade of experience helping food and drug companies navigate regulators who used to be independent. Now he is the regulator. Regulatory capture is no longer a warning — it’s the job description.
#corruption#forever-grifting
trump declares war on the war on corruption
Trump, moments after signing a stack of corruption pardons, bravely defends the constitutional right of his friends to steal with impunity.
Trump’s second-term message to crooked politicians is refreshingly clear: why fear the law when you can just get your buddy in the Oval to erase it? Former Las Vegas councilwoman Michele Fiore stole about $70,000 from a charity meant to honor dead cops and blew it on rent and her daughter’s wedding. A jury took two hours to convict her; Trump took one signature to say actually, that’s fine. She’s just one of at least 15 ex-officials and co-conspirators nailed for public corruption who have now been washed clean by presidential Sharpie.
That’s just the opening act. While he’s tossing out pardons like MAGA confetti — including roughly 1,500 for Jan. 6 rioters on Day One — the administration is quietly kneecapping the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, the post-Watergate unit that investigates corruption and election crimes. Public Integrity was supposed to stop politicians from turning government into a personal ATM; Trump’s treating it like an unnecessary obstacle to the vibe. Legal experts politely call this an “increasingly casual perspective on public corruption.” Normal people might call it building a protection racket into the Constitution.
According to scholars like Columbia’s Richard Briffault, the cumulative signal from all this is that corruption isn’t a bug, it’s the feature; the real victims are the poor misunderstood crooks who got “unfairly treated” by juries, evidence, and basic ethics rules. So the White House line is now: steal from charities, sell your office, auction off badges, help sabotage democracy — just make sure you’re on Team Trump when the indictments land. Accountability is for suckers; loyalty gets you a pardon.
#corruption#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump’s favorite pool guys turn lincoln’s reflecting pool into a blotchy hot tub
Behold the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, now available in ‘Budget Waterpark Blue’ thanks to a Trump-recommended contractor he’s absolutely never heard of, don’t ask questions.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is getting a very special 250th birthday makeover: bubbles, holes, and a mottled blue paint job that looks like a suburban HOA hot tub. Interior Department staff are already flagging quality problems, from blistering waterproof layers to sloppy, uneven tinting. Only about 35 percent of the surface is fully coated, but sure, everything’s definitely going to be done by the May 22 deadline they used to justify skirting federal bidding laws.
Naturally, the contractor — Atlantic Industrial Coatings — wasn’t just randomly selected from a government-approved list. Donald Trump proudly announced he’d personally recommended the company because they’d done such fantastic work on the pools at one of his golf clubs. Then, as soon as the job started looking like a third-rate motel renovation, he sprinted to Truth Social to declare he doesn’t know them, has never used them, and that “Interior” did it. Classic Trump: first it’s his brilliant pick, then it’s a stranger he’s never met in his life.
A White House official, speaking anonymously because dignity has long since left the building, tried to square the circle by saying Trump doesn’t have a “personal relationship” with the contractor, he’s just familiar with their work as a builder. So the president recommended a company he supposedly doesn’t know, that got a rushed, no-real-bid contract on a national monument, and is now turning Lincoln’s Reflecting Pool into a patchy blue meme. For the nation’s 250th birthday, the administration is gifting us a perfect metaphor: a leaky, overpriced monument to self-dealing and denial, slowly bubbling apart in full public view.
#corruption#forever-grifting
shadow hearings for a shadow presidency
House Democrats hold a ‘shadow hearing’ on Epstein near Mar-a-Lago, because in Trump’s America even congressional oversight has been downgraded to community theater.
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein are heading back to Palm Beach, where a billionaire sex trafficker got a spa day from the justice system and a future president got a membership discount. Democrats on the House oversight committee are holding a "shadow" hearing near Epstein’s old mansion to revisit the 2008 sweetheart deal that let him dodge federal charges and to dig into how girls were allegedly recruited straight out of Trump’s nearby Mar-a-Lago. Because of course the child-trafficking pipeline in this story runs through the president’s private club.
The hearing isn’t official — no subpoenas, no oaths, and, crucially, no Republicans, who are apparently too busy protecting the president’s reputation to bother with the whole sex-trafficking thing. Newly released Epstein emails claim Trump "of course" knew about the girls and spent hours with at least one victim at Epstein’s house, but he continues to deny any knowledge, presumably on the grounds that he also doesn’t remember who paid his legal bills, wrote his checks, or did his taxes.
Democrat Robert Garcia is using the event to link Palm Beach’s original failure — prosecutors handing Epstein a golden plea deal — to the current one, where House oversight chair James Comer refuses to hold real hearings while being accused of helping the Trump White House bury the scandal. Ayanna Pressley calls this a step toward a "reckoning" for survivors, while one victims’ attorney dryly notes that maybe, just maybe, Congress could try passing laws instead of staging another backdrop of traumatized women for campaign reels. America’s accountability system remains consistent: the more powerful you are, the more likely your reckoning involves a livestream and zero subpoenas.
#corruption#killing-democracy
