The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

Documenting the chaos since day one — one awful day at a time.

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Category: forever grifting

Saturday, October 24, 2026

forever grifting

trump’s new best friends keep crashing the simulation

Washington has finally discovered a tech product with worse messaging than Truth Social: modern AI CEOs. Instead of doing the normal oligarch thing—shutting up, buying a few senators, and quietly writing their own regulations—Sam Altman, Dario Amodei & friends are on TV alternating between "AI will usher in shared prosperity" and "also it might kill everyone, including your dog." Lawmakers are noticing that this is not, strictly speaking, helping.

The White House is particularly charmed by Anthropic, whose CEO Dario Amodei hung out with Trump in late September while somehow forgetting to mention that his models had just caused "safety incidents" on government websites. The company waited until October 8 to tell officials, then dropped a Friday-night blog post like a teenager hiding a bad report card. They followed that up with an AI "safety" bill that both embraced federal preemption of state AI laws and decided catastrophe starts at 50 deaths or more, then walked it back when everyone noticed they’d said the quiet part out loud. Regulators now trust them about as much as Trump trusts a prenup.

OpenAI isn’t exactly covering itself in glory either. Its chief lobbyist is out here posting vague policy proposals that magically trend toward blocking states from regulating, while a growing public majority says AI is bad for society and the FTC circles both companies like a very bored shark. Meanwhile, Democrats are licking their chops at Trump snuggling up to tech billionaires as AI threatens jobs, workers, and kids—because nothing screams "man of the people" like doing photo-ops with guys who think a "manageable" body count is just part of innovation. The emerging bipartisan consensus for AI CEOs is simple: talk less, disclose more, and maybe stop treating democracy as a beta test.
axios.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy#oligarchy

Friday, October 23, 2026

forever grifting

defense production act, now sponsoring your local gas station

President Trump has dusted off the Defense Production Act again, this time not for pandemics, wars, or actual emergencies, but to shovel $150 million in federal money at domestic gas and diesel production. Because when you think "national security," you obviously think "subsidizing Exxon’s feelings." The White House is pitching it as a heroic effort to "ease consumer costs," which is a very poetic way of saying: we’re using emergency powers to underwrite fossil fuels during a climate crisis. Instead of using the DPA to accelerate renewables, grid resilience, or literally anything that might keep the planet under slow-roast, the administration is treating it like a slush fund for hydrocarbons. Emergency powers for oil, because nothing says "limited government" like commandeering a Cold War statute to juice gas and diesel profits. The message is clear: climate risks aren’t an emergency, but a mildly uncomfortable trip to the pump? Deploy the war powers, boys. And of course, this just happens to align perfectly with the interests of the same fossil fuel industry that’s been welded to Trump’s political operation for years. Purely coincidental, we’re sure. Democratic institutions keep getting weaker, but on the bright side, the executive branch’s ability to cosplay as an oil company with a standing army has never been stronger.
thehill.comSource ArticleAlso: thehill.com
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

administration discovers poor people are victims, not just props

JD Vance discovers, after extensive research and polling, that children eating is good actually.

JD Vance discovers, after extensive research and polling, that children eating is good actually.

The Trump administration has heroically decided, in the year of our lord 2026, that maybe food stamp cards should have the same basic security technology your bank rolled out when Obama still had the nuclear codes. After $470 million in SNAP benefits were stolen in a single year thanks to ancient mag-stripe EBT cards, USDA is finally proposing a rule to require chip and tap-to-pay tech nationwide. This cutting-edge innovation has only been standard on credit cards for, oh, a decade.

The rule has allegedly been in the works since 2023 but was delayed by — you’ll never guess — understaffing at USDA and a regulatory backlog made worse by the Department of Government Efficiency’s budget machete. Also not helping: Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that slashed state administrative funding for SNAP, i.e., the exact money states needed to upgrade their cards in the first place. Now the feds are mandating a national overhaul that could cost $283 million, while Congress can’t decide if it wants to pay for it, even though we’re losing more than $600 million a year to thieves.

In a plot twist worthy of bad prestige TV, JD Vance has abruptly pivoted from sneering about Lamborghini-driving food stamp queens to solemnly declaring SNAP "one of the most important social service programs" in America. The same guy who wrote that recipients "live off of government largesse" is now onstage in Ohio delivering misty-eyed monologues about full bellies and sacred tax dollars. No explanation offered for this spiritual awakening, but it does line up nicely with ProPublica, NPR, and others making it painfully obvious that the real fraud problem is organized theft from poor families, not poor families themselves.

So yes, chip cards for SNAP are an actual improvement that will help real people. They’re also a convenient way for the administration to pose as anti-fraud crusaders cleaning up a mess their own budget cuts and years of regulatory foot-dragging helped create. First you starve the program of admin money, then you mandate an expensive fix without guaranteed federal funding, then you hold a press conference about how much you care about hungry kids. Government efficiency, Trump-era style.

propublica.orgSource Article
#pro-publica-is-a-national-treasure#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump looks at a public park and sees an unpaid trump resort

Locals gather at Hains Point to protest Trump's plan to convert their public park into yet another shrine to his short game.

Locals gather at Hains Point to protest Trump's plan to convert their public park into yet another shrine to his short game.

East Potomac Park was created in 1897 to be 'forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people.' Naturally, President Trump looked at that sentence and seems to have read: 'for the recreation and pleasure of one guy who really likes golf and branding things with his own last name.' Locals who use Hains Point to run, bike, picnic, birdwatch, and generally exist without paying greens fees are now watching the president try to turn their rare, accessible public oasis into an upgraded golf playground. The park’s wide, flat loop — a staple of the Marine Corps Marathon and daily training ground for thousands — would be carved up or cut off in service of Trump's dream redesign of the municipal course, which just happens to sit in postcard range of the White House. Congress said this land belongs to the people; Trump heard 'great starter kit for a private club.' Residents are protesting, because they foolishly believed "public" meant something, and because they know once this administration gets its hands on a federal asset, the odds of it staying open, affordable, and not wrapped in gold leaf drop faster than Trump’s approval rating in a fact-checking convention.
npr.orgSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump tries to fix terrible polls with coupons, communism panic, and russian diesel

Kansas debate night, where the Republican tries to defend Trump’s golden age while the Democrat politely asks if voters would prefer slightly less corruption and fewer wars.

Kansas debate night, where the Republican tries to defend Trump’s golden age while the Democrat politely asks if voters would prefer slightly less corruption and fewer wars.

Voters keep insisting on caring about boring things like "affordability", "corruption" and "the administration’s deadly immigration crackdown", which is very rude of them given that Donald Trump is busy declaring a "new golden age" from inside his gold-plated reality tunnel. A new poll finds most Americans think he's using the presidency to enrich himself, his approval is circling the drain, and on almost every issue except crime, they trust Democrats more. On immigration, the signature let them die at the border policy, Republicans have actually managed to lose their lead. Strong work all around. Rather than do the usual midterm damage control of pretending to listen to people who can't afford groceries, Trump has chosen the more on-brand option: change the subject and set something on fire. Over the summer, he and his allies tried to revive Red Scare fan fiction by warning that Democrats are crawling with communists. When that didn't move the numbers, he floated a $5,000 "Trump dividend" for every citizen, which was immediately recognized by everyone with a pulse as an election-season bribe dressed up as economic vision. Now, with the Iran war he launched in February still hanging over everything, he's decided to pivot to Ukraine like it's a new season of a failing show. The White House is bragging about a "stunning" deal to buy Russian diesel, pausing sanctions Congress passed on Moscow, and casually suggesting Volodymyr Zelenskyy should resign—because nothing says "America First" like rewarding Putin while you're already bogged down in another Middle East disaster. The governing party's closing argument appears to be: ignore the corruption, ignore the body count, and please focus on this limited-time cash offer and some recycled Cold War hysteria. Out in Kansas, a Democrat is actually competitive for a Senate seat for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt was a fresh face, largely by promising to turn down the heat while Trump and JD Vance sprint around the country with a flamethrower. The GOP bet is that voters will forget about the bribes, the self-dealing, and the foreign policy dumpster fire if they just shout "communism" and "crime" loudly enough. Bold strategy for an administration polling underwater on almost everything except its ability to enrich Donald Trump.
theguardian.comSource Article
#corruption#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump offers seafood hats and a $5 billion goodie bag

Trump proudly points at a shrimp cocktail while an aide frantically checks whether it qualifies for the new optional patriotism sticker.

Trump proudly points at a shrimp cocktail while an aide frantically checks whether it qualifies for the new optional patriotism sticker.

The Trump administration has discovered a bold new frontier in governance: stickers. The FDA is rolling out a voluntary "U.S. Caught Seafood" label so shoppers can feel patriotic while buying fish, assuming the grocery store feels like participating in this wet-paper-bag version of regulation. It’s not mandatory, it’s not enforced, but it will be mentioned in a campaign speech, which is the only compliance that really matters. Naturally, this sudden concern for transparency in the seafood aisle just happens to surface while Trump is in Florida stumping for Ashley Moody and Byron Donalds, before retiring to Mar-a-Lago to rest from the grueling work of turning federal policy into campaign merch. As a bonus, the White House is prepping $5 billion in USDA loans for the fishing industry to buy new equipment—right on schedule for the final midterm blitz, where every swing state apparently gets its own little taxpayer-funded raffle prize. So the pitch is: a nonbinding label and a massive loan program wrapped in a campaign stop, marketed as economic policy rather than what it actually is—another round of "use the federal government as a campaign ATM and hope nobody reads past the headline." At least the fish have an excuse for looking glassy-eyed.
cbsnews.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting

trump’s crypto boy genius discovers bipartisan grift

Bo Hines, freshly spun from the Trump White House to the Tether money hose, demonstrating that the real bipartisan consensus is: always get your cut.

Bo Hines, freshly spun from the Trump White House to the Tether money hose, demonstrating that the real bipartisan consensus is: always get your cut.

The Fellowship PAC — a crypto-soaked super PAC that once serenaded Donald Trump as the second coming of Satoshi — has decided that its true ideological home is wherever the friendliest regulators live. After launching with breathless promises of a $100 million war chest to boost Republicans, the group is now spending exclusively on Democrats, but only the ones who rank as crypto all-stars on industry scorecards. Naturally, the PAC’s ad money is being laundered through Nxum Group, a firm co-founded by Trump’s former crypto whisperer, Bo Hines, because why just buy politicians when you can also pay yourself along the way? Hines’s résumé reads like a case study in Washington corruption with a blockchain veneer. Before Trump’s election, he pumped a Trump-themed meme coin that made a few people rich before collapsing — a helpful audition for serving as head of Trump’s White House Council of Advisers on Digital Assets. From that perch, he helped push through stablecoin rules that conveniently benefited Tether, while Tether was simultaneously paying money to his firm, Nxum. He swore it was just a "passive investment" and that he had nothing to do with the business dealings, which is exactly what you’d say if you were definitely not running a side hustle out of the West Wing. Once Hines floated out of the Trump administration in August 2025, Tether announced him as CEO of its U.S. arm a month later, because of course it did. Tether’s banking partner, Cantor Fitzgerald, then kicked $10 million into Fellowship PAC, whose chair just happens to be Tether’s VP of regulatory affairs. That PAC is now dropping $600,000 via Nxum Group to boost Democrats like Ritchie Torres, Maggie Goodlander, and Mark Warner — none of whom are in real danger of losing, but all of whom are cozy with crypto and publicly critical of Trump’s personal $TRUMP meme coin, which has already shoveled $1.4 billion into his pockets. Trump’s people write the rules, cash out, then fund the opposition that calls him a grifter, all while everyone insists there’s no coordination and no corruption. Truly, a genius new era of bipartisan forever-grifting.
theintercept.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#crypto#corruption

Thursday, October 22, 2026

forever grifting

corey lewandowski discovers public service comes with a potential success fee

Corey Lewandowski pauses at the Pentagon to reflect on how best to monetize his "voluntary" public service package.

Corey Lewandowski pauses at the Pentagon to reflect on how best to monetize his "voluntary" public service package.

Corey Lewandowski, now rebranded as a "special government employee" instead of just "Trump's professional rage mascot," has had his DHS investigation lovingly gift-wrapped and sent over to the Justice Department. The DHS inspector general started by looking into how a casual $220 million ad campaign starring then–Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem got approved, and then, like every Trump-adjacent story, it expanded once people started talking. NBC previously reported that Lewandowski allegedly tried to score a "success fee" from private prison giant GEO Group in exchange for helping "protect and grow" their interests with DHS. GEO Group, to its credit or its lawyers’ terror, declined to pay up. Lewandowski’s camp, of course, says this never happened and that he did nothing wrong while "proudly serving his country in a voluntary capacity"—which is a poetic way of saying "I was unpaid, so I had to find the money somewhere." Meanwhile, Kristi Noem admits she personally approved the nine-figure ad contracts, swears Trump knew, then gets fired, at which point Trump claims he "wasn’t thrilled" and, naturally, "didn’t know about it." The only consistent part of the story is that the money is gone and everyone who touched it now has an attorney. As a bonus laugh track, Trump—whose orbit is a crime-rates-apply coupon book—responded to DOJ looking at Lewandowski by declaring, "I want my people to be honest, and if they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted" and promising he’d never do anything to stop prosecution of someone dishonest. Somewhere, every former Trump lawyer just instinctively checked if they’re still under indictment. A $220 million ad campaign, a $70 million luxury jet Noem also wanted, and a maybe-success-fee for a private prison company: it’s less a homeland security strategy than a clearance sale on federal ethics.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#corruption
forever grifting

freedom caucus stunned to discover freedom caucus guy is a climber

The House Freedom Caucus — that famous monastery of selfless public servants — is quietly melting down over Brandon Gill, a 32-year-old Texas freshman who figured out the MAGA business model a bit too well. After using the caucus for donor introductions, viral hearing clips, and a direct line into Trump's orbit, Gill allegedly committed the unforgivable sin: acting like his colleagues are just extras in the Brandon Cinematic Universe.

Some Freedom Caucus members, speaking with all the courage of anonymous quotes, say Gill is "M.I.A." on tough votes, doesn't kick back enough cash to the crew, and is "totally looking for the ladder climbing" — which is adorable, since that’s been the caucus’s entire brand since the first time Jim Jordan discovered a camera. Others insist he’s the “future of our party,” which is a chilling way to say: more Fox hits, fewer functioning institutions.

Gill, flush with a $4.7 million Q3 haul and angling to run the Oversight Committee on the strength of viral clips and intra-GOP attacks, is now being semi-threatened with expulsion from a group that already kicked out Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ken Buck for the dual crimes of infighting and insufficient worship. Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris claims everything is "united and laser-focused" on Trump’s agenda, which tracks: they’re just arguing over who gets the best seat on the sinking ship.

The punchline: everyone agrees Gill has already mentally left the Freedom Caucus; the only debate is whether to formalize the breakup. The party of performative grievance is shocked to discover their rising star is primarily interested in power, fame, and donors. Who could have predicted that turning Congress into a right-wing content farm would attract ladder climbers?
axios.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

pay-to-play, but make it blockchain

The president, reflected in glass, presumably checking whether his net worth went up another few hundred million meme coins while everyone else holds the bag.

The president, reflected in glass, presumably checking whether his net worth went up another few hundred million meme coins while everyone else holds the bag.

Donald Trump, a man famously unfamiliar with shame, is hosting an “exclusive” dinner at his DC-area golf club for the top holders of his $TRUMP meme coin — a digital asset with all the inherent value of a Trump University diploma. The top 185 bagholders get dinner with the president; the top 29 get a VIP reception. The fine print insists there will be no private meetings or gifts, but the real offer is obvious: sink enough money into a coin that makes Trump rich, and you get face time with the guy holding the nuclear codes. Campaign finance, but laundered through a casino token.

There’s a small hitch: a CBS investigation found that about half of the top 100 holders trade on exchanges that explicitly bar US citizens, meaning a decent chunk of these “most valued community members” may be foreign nationals buying access to the president through a glorified meme chip. Senate Democrats, led by Adam Schiff, are now demanding an “unredacted log” of attendees, including their corporate and foreign affiliations, plus answers about vetting and conflicts of interest. The White House’s response so far: the dignified silence of people who absolutely do not want you seeing that guest list.

Meanwhile, the coin itself has done what all Trump ventures eventually do: crater. After launching near $74 in early 2025, $TRUMP is now limping along at about $1.75. Over a million investors have collectively lost around $3.8 billion, which is tragic for them but delightful for Trump, who has reportedly pulled in roughly $635 million from the scheme. Everyone else got rugged; the president got rich. To keep the grift on life support, the coin’s backers keep dangling contests for Mar-a-Lago events, golf club galas, World Cup suites, Super Bowl access, and now this post-midterms dinner.

Democrats are also telling the White House to preserve all records related to the coin and the dinner — standard language that sounds a lot more ominous when paired with the phrase “likely to regain subpoena power.” The gala is set for November 22, during a GOP lame duck Congress, but if Democrats take back either chamber, this little crypto cash grab might turn into a full-blown investigation. For now, the president of the United States is running what amounts to a loyalty raffle on the blockchain, and the only guaranteed winner is the guy whose name is on the coin.

motherjones.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#corruption#money
forever grifting

anna paulina luna discovers the true meaning of ‘drone strike’: on your balance sheet

Artist’s rendering of a congresswoman and a drone, trying to decide which one is less guided by ethics.

Artist’s rendering of a congresswoman and a drone, trying to decide which one is less guided by ethics.

Anna Paulina Luna spent late 2025 heroically trying to ban members of Congress and their families from trading public stocks, solemnly declaring that Americans deserve a Congress that doesn’t serve “personal portfolios.” Bold stance from someone whose husband owns 10 percent of a private drone startup that just landed more than $37 million in Pentagon deals turbocharged by Donald Trump’s “US Military Drone Dominance” executive order she enthusiastically backed. Public stocks are bad, you see. Secretly cashing in on private war-tech contracts? That’s just patriotism with better lawyers.

Her husband, Andrew Gamberzky, holds a 10 percent stake in Nokturnal AI (née OKSI Ventures), which Luna’s disclosure form valued at “no more than $1,000” at the end of 2025. Weeks later, the company starts raking in contracts: a starter $46,000 Air Force deal, then more than $9.2 million through a Pentagon tech consortium, and finally a $28 million APFIT award for their cheerfully named Unruly long-range drone missile. Five days after that, Special Operations Command announces a $31 million spend on Unruly one-way systems, while somehow not naming the vendor. Transparency is for peasants; the real action is in the classified line items and the family equity.

Luna voted for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that funded the drone dominance binge and for the defense appropriations bill that pumped $400 million into APFIT, the exact program showering money on Nokturnal AI—right as her household had a stake in the company positioned to win. But don’t worry, the Restore Trust in Congress Act she pushed only goes after publicly traded stocks, and Nokturnal is private, so the loophole is big enough to fly an 11-foot carbon-fiber murder kite straight through it. It’s not corruption, it’s just the free market doing precision-guided enrichment on the home front.

motherjones.comSource Article
#corruption#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting

fifa invents nobel-for-dummies, gives it to trump

Donald Trump beams as he decorates himself with a made-up FIFA peace medal, proving that if you build a fake prize, the ego will come.

Donald Trump beams as he decorates himself with a made-up FIFA peace medal, proving that if you build a fake prize, the ego will come.

Gianni Infantino created the FIFA Peace Prize as a sort of Nobel For Dummies, handed it to Donald Trump, and then acted shocked when everyone noticed it was a glorified participation trophy for aspiring strongmen. Trump, ever the target demographic for shiny objects, slapped the medal around his own neck, basked in the glow of a big golden bauble, and—for a fleeting moment—forgot that he still hasn’t scammed his way into an actual Nobel Peace Prize. Having successfully used the prize to butter up Trump and protect his revenue pipeline to the North American market, Infantino has now quietly dumped the award on FIFA’s "social responsibility committee"—a 22-person per diem distribution machine for his allies—to "rebrand" it into something less embarrassing. The new plan is to pretend this thing was always about social harmony, give it to people who actually do good (Afghan women players, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Sadio Mané, N’Golo Kanté, random Scottish fans with better ethics than most politicians), and hope everyone forgets its origin story as a vanity trinket for the least peaceful Western leader in generations. The article politely suggests the prize might one day mean something if it stops existing solely to stroke the ego of whoever can help FIFA cash in. That would require rules, standards, and a willingness to admit that "apolitical" awards don’t exist—especially when the first honoree was Donald Peace Through Caps Lock Trump. For now, the FIFA Peace Prize remains what it started as: a case study in how global sports governance and Trump’s bottomless need for flattery make an excellent couple—right up until the moment the grift becomes too obvious to ignore.
theguardian.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#oligarchy
forever grifting

gen z looks at trump’s america and says: hard pass

Turns out when you hand the country to a corrupt septuagenarian chaos machine, spend years playing trade-war roulette, let prices explode, flirt with mass deportations, and treat Congress like a day-trading side hustle, the kids don’t come away feeling super jazzed about the future. According to the new Harvard Youth Poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans under 30 who plan to vote next month say their main motivation is to oppose Trump and his policies. Only 9% think the country is on the right track, which is roughly the polling equivalent of a fire alarm. Young people list rising prices, corporate power, and trade wars as top threats to their long-term security — so Trump’s signature achievements of economic "populism" and billionaire worship are really landing with the target audience. Majorities want Medicare for All, a wealth tax, and bans on congressional stock trading, because when you watch people like Trump and his congressional fan club treat public office as a Robinhood Premium account, you start to suspect the system might be rigged. Also, three-quarters of young voters disapprove of congressional Republicans, and two-thirds disapprove of Democrats, which is a fun way of saying: the kids think the whole political class is trash, but Trump’s GOP is the landfill. The poll’s bleakest number: for the first time, more young adults expect to be worse off than their parents than better off. Back in 2003, 74% thought they’d surpass mom and dad; now that’s down to 28%, while 69% say they’re more fearful than hopeful about America’s future. So the Trump-era sales pitch of "endless culture war, billionaire tax breaks, and maybe World War III if the vibes are off" is not exactly inspiring confidence. But hey, at least the youth have learned one vital civics lesson: when you put a lifelong grifter and his congressional stock-trading entourage in charge of the country, the future stops looking like a dream and starts looking like a forever-grifting business plan they were never invited to buy into.
axios.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

the maga mall recession

Local shrine to the golden calf of Queens now offering 70% off idolatry while supplies last.

Local shrine to the golden calf of Queens now offering 70% off idolatry while supplies last.

American democracy may be limping along, but the real tragedy is hitting where it hurts: the Trump impulse-buy economy. In Bensalem, Pennsylvania, the once-thriving Trump Store has shuttered, reduced to a clearance sale of "Trump Won" hats for $9.99 and pool floats for people who need to literally float in denial. With Trump in his second and final term, even the superfans are apparently realizing that four-dollar gas and creeping authoritarianism don’t pair quite as well with novelty koozies as advertised. The big players are feeling it too. The online MAGA Mall says sales are down 30% compared to an election year when Dear Leader is actually on the ballot. Turns out it’s harder to move inventory when your entire business model is: "What if politics, but QVC?" The "movement" that swore it was about saving America is suddenly a lot less enthusiastic when it’s not attached to a fresh grievance and an imminent coup fantasy. This is what happens when you build a political project on hats instead of policies: the moment the adrenaline drops, so do the receipts. The cult is still there, but the cash flow is thinning, the pop-up shrines are closing, and the Forever Campaign has discovered the one limit it can’t bully through—market saturation. He has peaked, say the retailers, which is a very polite way of saying the strongman brand is starting to look like yesterday’s clearance rack.
npr.orgSource Article
#forever-grifting#money

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

forever grifting

trump-branded retirement, now for all your under-40 bad decisions

Sen. Bernie Moreno has decided that what America’s fragile democracy really needs is more exposure to a financial product literally branded after Donald Trump. He’s vowing to introduce a bill to expand access to "Trump Accounts"—originally pitched as investment accounts for kids—so that every American under 40 can tie their long-term savings to the political fortunes and marketing genius of a guy who bankrupted a casino. Twice.

Instead of strengthening Social Security or regulating the actual financial industry, Republicans are out here building a taxpayer-subsidized fan club savings plan, complete with the ex-president’s name stamped on it like a failing steak brand. Moreno calls it a "game-changer," which is accurate if the game is "How quickly can we convert public retirement policy into a cult-branded asset pipeline for the Trump industrial complex?"

So yes, forget boring, stable, government-backed retirement systems. The new vision is a future where your nest egg, your kid’s college fund, and your basic economic security are all wrapped in a Trump logo and sold back to you as freedom. It’s not a safety net; it’s a merch drop.
thehill.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting

america’s most online scam magnet hosts a cybercrime summit

Trump is hosting a White House roundtable on "protecting American families and seniors from cybercrime," which is a bit like putting the guy who keeps clicking "YOU WON A FREE iPAD" in charge of national cybersecurity. The statement dutifully declares that "President Trump is unleashing every available tool" to stop foreign-based cybercriminals, which is an elegant way of saying: we found a camera, printed some placards, and invited whichever loyal Republicans were free for an afternoon photo op. The guest list includes West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, because when you think cutting-edge digital forensics, you naturally think: state AG-turned-governor who loves culture-war press conferences. While real cybercrime operations run industrial-scale scams on seniors, steal identities, and launder money through crypto casinos, the administration’s big move is… a roundtable and some tough-sounding sentences. No mention of adequately funding cyber defense, regulating data brokers, or cracking down on the endless ecosystem of grift that thrives on Trump-branded platforms and MAGA-adjacent spam mills. But sure, roll cameras and announce that the guy who tried to overturn an election is now here to protect grandma’s inbox. The message is clear: as long as the cybercriminals are foreign and not wearing red hats or hawking miracle cures to Trump’s email list, the White House is very concerned. Domestic disinformation? Political phishing? Scam PACs draining retirees’ savings with auto-recurring donations? Not on the agenda. The presidency once again doubles as a stage set where the people helping break trust in our information systems pretend to be the ones saving it.
thehill.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

forever grifting

fifty million reasons to believe pardons are for sale

Alina Habba in the Oval Office, presumably browsing the latest price list for presidential favors.

Alina Habba in the Oval Office, presumably browsing the latest price list for presidential favors.

Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire who apparently found "felony bribery charges" a bit gauche on the résumé, decided a mere misdemeanor plea deal wasn’t good enough. His family had already tried the classic MAGA sacrament — a $3.5 million donation from his daughter to a Trump-linked super PAC — but the pardon fairy still wasn’t visiting. So they escalated to the platinum package: hiring Trump loyalist Alina Habba, freshly parked inside the Justice Department, for a guaranteed $50 million over four years. Concord Partners, the Florida company paying Habba $10 million a year plus bonuses, was created days before she inked the deal and has roughly the same public profile as a shell company in a bad Netflix money-laundering drama. Habba signed on while still serving as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, then formally started on January 1. A few weeks later, Donald Trump graciously bestowed a "full and unconditional" pardon on Herrera, as if this were all just a cosmic coincidence and not the political equivalent of handing a briefcase of cash across the table and winking. So to recap: a Trump DOJ official and former personal lawyer lands a $50 million mystery job from a billionaire desperate for a pardon; the company paying her barely exists on paper; and the pardon arrives right on schedule. The rule of law continues its role in the Trump era as an optional add-on, while presidential clemency looks less like mercy and more like a high-end subscription service with excellent concierge support.
nytimes.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#corruption#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump buys a tank of diesel and a few votes

Trump promises farmers relief from diesel prices he helped set on fire, while handing them an $8 billion extinguisher full of campaign slogans.

Trump promises farmers relief from diesel prices he helped set on fire, while handing them an $8 billion extinguisher full of campaign slogans.

The self-proclaimed king of debt is back at it, announcing an $8 billion "Harvest Fuel Relief" program at a campaign rally, because nothing says serious policy like unveiling it between chants about locking someone up. Trump promised farmers a giant diesel subsidy to offset record fuel prices, then immediately dangled even more money "when Republicans win," just in case anyone missed that this is less farm policy and more frequent-flyer miles for his base.

The program, run by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, will shower cash on farmers using a "standard formula" based on acreage, estimated costs, and USDA projections — a lovely black box that somehow always seems to spit out checks right before elections. No crop insurance required, just a Login.gov account and faith that the same crowd that helped jack up global instability (and thus fuel prices) is now your benevolent diesel fairy godmother.

Meanwhile, Trump is also loosening limits on tax-free red-dyed diesel and bragging about the previous $12 billion farm bailout like it’s a buy-ten-get-one-free punch card. Net farm income is projected to fall, fuel costs are exploding, and instead of tackling the root causes, the administration is once again slapping taxpayer cash over a policy tire fire and calling it "certainty." The only thing that’s truly certain is who they expect to remember this at the ballot box.
cbsnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: nytimes.com
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forever grifting

trump’s ‘hottest economy’ mainly setting your wallet on fire

Donald Trump, a stack of $100 bills, and the White House: the holy trinity of saying the economy is great while your rent eats your paycheck alive.

Donald Trump, a stack of $100 bills, and the White House: the holy trinity of saying the economy is great while your rent eats your paycheck alive.

Trump is out on the trail bragging that the US economy is the "hottest country anywhere in the world," which is an interesting way to describe a system where growth looks fine on paper while your grocery bill is doing its own private moon mission. Yes, GDP is up 3.2% since he clawed his way back into office and AI data-center spending is booming, but unless you are literally a server rack in an Nvidia warehouse, the vibes are… less impressive.

The BBC walks through the numbers Trump leaves out of his rally speeches: inflation is now 3.7%, higher than when he returned, juiced by his 2025 "Liberation Day" tariffs and a lovely little war with Iran that helped shove up energy prices. Real median income hit a record $87,460, but once you factor in his tax cuts skewed to the rich, the expiration of health insurance subsidies, and higher prices from tariffs and war, the middle fifth of households end up about $1,700 worse off than they would have been, and the poorest fifth are down $750. The top 1%, meanwhile, stroll away an average of $12,560 richer, because of course they do.

Job creation? That "flooded with jobs" he promised after slapping tariffs on everything not nailed down has trickled down to about 34,000 new jobs a month, way below the pre-Trump second-term pace. So the Trump economy is "beating expectations" largely because economists assumed his policies would be even worse. As governing philosophies go, "I didn’t wreck it quite as hard as forecast" is certainly… on brand.
bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: talkingpointsmemo.com
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Monday, October 19, 2026

forever grifting

mike rogers discovers working-class michigan via gulfstream

Mike Rogers, bravely enduring the hardship of private jet life so Michigan voters don’t have to.

Mike Rogers, bravely enduring the hardship of private jet life so Michigan voters don’t have to.

Mike Rogers, Republican Senate candidate and aspiring senator from the great state of Palm Beach, just spent over $100,000 in one quarter on private jets and luxury travel so he can more efficiently tell struggling Michiganders he understands their pain. One single private jet bill clocked in at more than $40,000, because if there’s one thing a state hammered by inflation and high fuel prices loves, it’s a guy burning donor cash at 30,000 feet. Rogers’ campaign dropped over $93,000 on JL Jets for at least five charter flights, padded with Blacklane chauffeurs, limo rides, and a $2,000 stay at The Breakers in Palm Beach, plus a little something at a Vegas five-star and a Michigan resort spa. The campaign even picked up $2,165 for BMW repairs in one of Michigan’s wealthiest suburbs, which they swear is for "campaign purposes" and not, say, the general lifestyle of a guy who used to own two boats over 30 feet and has a Florida home. Totally normal blue-collar Michigan story. His opponent Abdul El-Sayed is also spending on travel, but on commercial flights, rental cars, gas, and hotels, i.e., the peasant package. Rogers’ team responded to questions about private jets and luxury hotels by screaming "look at Abdul" and pointing at reimbursements and his father-in-law’s donations, which is a bold deflection from "I spent more on one jet invoice than some voters make all year." Meanwhile, Rogers is bankrolled by billionaires like Marc Rowan, the DeVos family, and Elon Musk—whom Rogers publicly vowed to "shield" from congressional oversight, and who then sent more than $6 million into the race through America PAC. So if you’re wondering what kind of senator Mike Rogers would be, campaign finance records suggest the answer is: one who treats donor money like a frequent flyer program for the oligarchy, and treats Michigan like a scenic flyover between Palm Beach and his next billionaire meeting.
theintercept.comSource Article
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