Trail Notes
Trump's classified con / War insider trading? / Playing faves at SEC / In like Flynn / How low can Trump go? / Gone with the wind / ICE settles score / Attacking Harvard
Trump’s classified con
Oops. In their frantic effort to discredit special counsel Jack Smith and his investigations of Donald Trump, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday released documents meant to smear him. But, according to Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking Democrat on the committee, what they released also included material suggesting that classified documents Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago could have been helpful in expanding his worldwide business interests.
Raskin laid it out in a letter he sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi alleging that Trump “may have sold out our national security to enrich himself.” He noted that “these new disclosures suggest that Donald Trump stole documents so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them, that the documents President Trump stole pertained to his business interests, and that Susie Wiles, then the CEO of Donald Trump’s super PAC, witnessed President Trump showing off a classified map to passengers on his private plane.”
The White House dismissed Smith as “deranged,” its Pavlovian slur for anyone who criticizes the president.
War insider trading?
Traders made bets worth more than half a billion dollars in the oil market just 15 minutes before Donald Trump posted on social media that the United States was engaged in “productive” talks with Iran, although the latter’s government later claimed that wasn’t the case. But the unusual burst of activity in S&P 500 futures and oil futures trading early Monday morning has raised suspicions that it was sparked by insider info. Whoever purchased a large amount of stock futures and sold or shorted crude oil at that moment made a lot of money minutes later.
Playing faves at SEC
Margaret Ryan, the top enforcement officer at the Securities and Exchange Commission, abruptly resigned last week after only six months on the job. Now Reuters is reporting that she clashed with agency leaders about cases tied to Donald Trump and his family. Two examples of Ryan wanting to be more aggressive in pursuing charges of fraud or other misconduct involved Elon Musk and Justin Sun, a major backer of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture.
In like Flynn
Michael Flynn, who was briefly Donald Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, was rewarded Wednesday for sticking with the president. The Justice Department agreed to pay him $1.25 million to settle a case in which Flynn claimed he was wrongly prosecuted for making false statements to FBI agents investigating possible ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
In fact, Flynn pleaded guilty twice to lying to FBI agents, but Trump pardoned him after losing the 2020 presidential election. Soon thereafter, Flynn became an outspoken election denier, going so far as to say that before he left office, Trump should seize voting machines and have the military rerun the election in some states.
How low can Trump go?
Some bad polling vibes for the White House. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Tuesday found that Donald Trump’s approval rating dropped four points the previous week, so it’s now at 36 percent, the lowest of his second term.
Even more troubling for the administration, only one in four survey respondents approve of how he’s handling the cost of living, which is lower than any point when Joe Biden was in the White House. At the same time, a new Gallup poll found that for the first time since it began tracking U.S. workers’ “life evaluation,” more Americans report they are struggling financially (49 percent) than thriving (46 percent).
Gone with the wind
The Trump administration has followed through with its plan to pay a company nearly $1 billion to cancel plans to build two wind farms off the East Coast. The unusual deal will result in the French firm, TotalEnergies, forfeiting its leases to erect wind turbines off New York and North Carolina in exchange for receiving $928 million in taxpayer dollars. The company also agreed to invest in oil and gas projects in the United States. In short, the U.S. government is paying a foreign company to walk away from major clean energy projects and instead boost fossil fuel production.
ICE settles score
Former modeling agent Paolo Zampolli had already been rewarded for introducing Donald Trump to Melania. The president named him special representative for global partnerships. But Zampolli needed a favor. He has been in a custody fight with his Brazilian ex-girlfriend over their teenage son. When he heard that she had been arrested in Florida for fraud, Zampolli called a top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told him that she was in the country illegally, and asked him if she could be deported. With her out of the way, it could help him win his custody battle.
His ex, Amanda Ungaro, was deported, which may have happened anyway even if Zampolli hadn’t asked for help. But, as The New York Times reported, the fact that ICE responded so quickly to Zampolli’s request reflects how the deportation process can be used to settle scores.
Attacking Harvard (again)
Last year, the Trump administration blocked billions of dollars in research grants from going to Harvard University, but in September a judge ruled against the White House.
Undeterred, the administration is now back on the attack, claiming that Harvard didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students on campus during anti-Israel protests. Calling Harvard a “discriminatory institution,” the administration contends the government no longer has to deliver on any existing grants and has asked the court to force Harvard to pay back grants it has already received. Never mind that the president of Harvard is Jewish.
Pentagon press limits
Last Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Department of Defense’s (DOD) policy restricting how journalists cover the military violates the First Amendment. On Monday, the department said it will appeal, but in the meantime will prohibit reporters from having workspaces inside the Pentagon, which they’ve had for decades. Instead, they will have to work from an annex outside the main building, although no such annex currently exists.
Citing “security” concerns, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said any journalist wanting to interview a member of the military would have to be escorted through the building. Meghann Myers, a reporter for Defense One, scoffed at that requirement, pointing out that journalists have to pass security checks to get Pentagon press credentials in the first place. “The only thing this administration did,” she told The Washington Post, “is attempt to punish reporters who sought information beyond public affairs offices.”
All in the family
Most people have never heard of a 26-year-old podcaster who’s running for Congress in Wisconsin. But transportation industry lobbyists sure know who he is.
His name is Michael Alfonso, and he happens to be the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. From last October through December, a super political action committee called Northwoods Future spent $1 million to support Alfonso. Donors included lobbyists and executives from industries that his father-in-law’s agency regulates, as well as Wisconsin billionaire Richard Uihlein, the CEO of Uline, a business supply company. It probably doesn’t hurt that Duffy himself has appeared at several Alfonso campaign rallies and Alfonso has sworn his fealty to Donald Trump, who endorsed him.
Credit card crunch
A new report by the Century Foundation concluded that 40 percent of U.S. adults cannot pay their monthly credit card bills in full. The foundation estimated that about 27 million Americans now can only afford to make the minimum payment every month.
DOGE cut oil experts
Among Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts last year were major reductions at a State Department office that focuses on international oil and gas issues. The sacked employees included staff who would have been responsible for gaming out possible scenarios if the Strait of Hormuz were closed. Making matters worse, the State Department also fired staff with close professional relationships with oil and gas companies in the Middle East.
Only the best people
Meet Gregg Phillips. He now is head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s office of response and recovery, but he has what could be called a colorful past. Not only did he call former President Joe Biden a “bitch” who “deserved to die,” not only has he claimed that the COVID vaccine was designed to kill people, but he also once told a podcaster that he was teleported to a Georgia Waffle House 50 miles away. “Teleporting is no fun,” Phillips said. “It was real.”
Randy Rieland is a former columnist at Smithsonian magazine, website director at the Discovery Channel, and senior writer at Washingtonian magazine.
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