Today in Politics, Bulletin 459. 9/14/26
… A blockbuster new story from ProPublica revealed that a Russian oligarch paid over $170,000 for a lavish 3-day wedding celebration in the Bahamas for Donald Trump, Jr., Bettina Anderson, and their friends and relatives. … Except for daddy Donald Trump, who decided to skip the wedding to pay golf. … ProPublica: “On May 24, Donald Trump Jr. was celebrating in the Bahamas, as scantily clad dancers in stilettos and sailor caps performed for him and his guests. It was the last night of his wedding, a lavish, 3-day party held across a pair of ultra-exclusive private islands.” … “A 5-tier funfetti cake had been airlifted in from FL, and helicopters and seaplanes descended on the islands before guests settled into their oceanfront villas. That night on the beach, Trump Jr. lifted his bride into the air while fireworks launched from a barge over the sea. ‘It was everything we dreamed of and more,’ his wife later wrote on Instagram.” … “That dream was heavily funded by a secret benefactor: Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses. The oligarch paid to rent out one of the private islands, where a reception was held and where guests slept. He also covered other big-ticket items, like the fireworks show, and his team helped plan the event.” … “Kremlev is the head of the International Boxing Assn, a scandal-plagued sports group that has been financed by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. The wedding payments came from an IBA-affiliated entity in Dubai that the boxing association uses for financial transactions.” … “The guest list numbered around 50. It included Trump Jr.’s brother-in-law Jared Kushner, Eric Trump - and Kremlev, an imposing man with a shaved head who speaks limited English. The oligarch was part of a large group whose presence puzzled other attendees. They sometimes stood off by themselves, speaking Russian.” … “Kremlev’s previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr. represents an extraordinary development: a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting the president’s son and gaining intimate access to the Trump family. National security experts expressed alarm at Trump Jr. accepting the oligarch’s largesse, saying it raised an urgent question: What motivated Kremlev to spend a fortune cultivating the connection?” … Retired FBI senior counterintelligence official Frank Montoya, Jr.: “If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something. This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.”
… Journalist Rob Crilly: “Among the details from the ProPublica piece on Don Jr's wedding is the fact that he had treatment to better define his jawline.” … I can definitely see that as an issue. … Journalist Anne Applebaum: “Some details: Kremlev, the Russian who sponsored Don Jr’s wedding, is a former member of the Night Wolves biker gang, went to China with Putin and is personally sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in abducting children.” … As the story blew up on Instagram, self-described “socialite” Bettina Trump took to Instagram to try to defend the Russian-financed wedding:
… She’s the perfect wife for Junior. Both seem completely narcissistic, self-absorbed, craving constant attention, fake, greedy and immoral. … Spokesman for Eric Trump issued this statement: “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has he ever heard his name.” … Steve Witkoff has his good friend Vladimir. Junior and Bettina have their good friend Umar. Jared has his good friend MBS. So many beautiful friendships. … Meanwhile, Trump was ranting on Air Force One returning from his golf weekend in Ireland about Ukraine bombing Russian refineries, attempting to shift the blame for rising oil and diesel prices onto Zelenskyy:
… Then late this morning, Trump posted this claim on Truth Social: “Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise! The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.” … But then Zelenskyy made a post that there was no deal yet:
… In other words, Russia has agreed to nothing. … Centre for Strategic Communication: “Long before Ukraine began systematically destroying Russia’s oil refining capacity, Russia had already done the same to Ukraine. … “Russia repeatedly targeted the facility again in the months that followed. The following day, April 3, Russia announced that its missiles had also targeted the Odesa refinery and three fuel-storage facilities. Russians understood from the beginning that destroying refining and fuel infrastructure was a means to degrade ability to wage war. … AP: “A crucial Saudi oil pipeline that was struck in an attack last week will mostly be out of service for weeks as the damage is repaired, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized more islands dominating key Red Sea shipping routes in new blows to Saudi Arabia’s oil exports. The developments further strain Saudi Arabia’s effort to get its oil to market while avoiding the Strait of Hormuz.” … “The kingdom relies on the East-West Pipeline, which runs the breadth of the country, to move its crude production from Gulf ports to ports on its western, Red Sea coast. From there it can be put on tankers for export.” … More from Trump’s press gaggle on AF1:
… CNBC: “Crude oil prices popped on Sunday after Saudi Arabia closed its critical pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 3.46% to $103.51 per barrel by 4:56 AM ET. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded 3.51% higher to $108.28 per barrel.” … “Drones launched from Iraq damaged the East-West pipeline on Thursday, forcing the Saudi govt to close the key crude oil artery. Riyadh has not disclosed how badly the pipeline is damaged or how long it will remain shut. A diplomatic meeting between Iran and the Gulf Arab states to discuss the situation in Hormuz, originally scheduled to take place Monday in Oman, was abruptly postponed after the pipeline attack.” … But Trump posted for about the 138th time that Iran is begging for a deal again: “The failing Nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the USA will choose to engage - The concept of which we are open to.” … Kobeissi Letter: “We now have:
… Trump posted: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the USA has that, in spades! The Trump Admin has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,“ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” - and we will continue to do so! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!” … Insanity. Thanks again, Trump voters. Every day you curse us with a brand new dose of corruption, incompetence and stupidity. … Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) at a campaign rally:
… Gavin Newsom made a surprise announcement during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper when Tapper brought up that he would not be the only Californian to run for president in 2028 if Kamala Harris runs. Newsom said that 2 strong candidates from CA would lead to “mutually assured destruction” for them because they share the same supporters and donors:
I can tell you that my attitude on Trump and MAGA has evolved over the years since 2016. Despite the fact that I was still a Republican until 2020, I never supported or voted for Trump. But in 2016 I still voted Republican except for Trump because I was solely focused on him as the problem. After that, I started to also focus on and blame the henchmen around him as equally culpable. The whole toxic inner circle of OG MAGA. Then just before 2020 that expanded out to include Republicans in Congress - many of whom I knew despised Trump but decided to go full MAGA. That is what caused me to leave the party and register as a Democrat. They sold their souls, and I lost all respect for them. But now in recent months I reach the final step of that evolution - I now fully blame Trump voters for the mess we are in. I was always careful not to do that because I realize people can get conned, fooled, duped, etc. and there was always a chance in my mind that education and information might bring many of them around. But really, there is no excuse for the 3-time Trump voter in 2024. They had all the information they needed to have about who Trump was and what he was all about. I suppose part of my hesitation for including them in assignment of blame was that many of these voters are my family members and friends for many years and I don’t think they are bad people. I think many Americans have this same situation. With that said, if his first term, the covid debacle, election denials, J6, stolen documents, felony convictions and sex assault judgments don’t disqualify someone on the 3rd time to these fellow Americans, then that is on ten of millions of them who now bear the responsibility for what is happening now. And I haven’t been afraid to say that in recent months. It is on them. They are responsible. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Today was the day that Mitch McConnell was supposed to make his triumphant return to the senate after his extended absence, since his vote is needed get the farm bailout bill out of committee. He was not seen anywhere in the senate today. … DC journalist Desiree Townsend went to McConnell’s home this afternoon to check on his status. While she was outside, Mitch’s driver Felipe arrived with some flowers and headed into the residence. Townsend asked him if Mitch was coming back to work today. She also asked him what the flowers were for. He refused to answer either question. … She didn’t leave. A home health care worker then arrived. Townsend: “If McConnell is returning to the Senate floor today, it raises the question of why a home healthcare worker would be arriving just 20 minutes before the Senate convenes and approximately 2½ hours before the Senate is scheduled to vote.” … Washington Sun: “Trump and his 3 sons have taken a step that would permit them to cash out the digital ‘tokens’ created by the family’s cryptocurrency firm, intensifying concerns from ethics experts about potential conflicts of interest.” … “On May 19, 4 anonymous digital wallets simultaneously moved more than 20 billion in $WLFI - one of the two crypto tokens launched by the Trumps’ firm - to a vesting contract. The new contract kicks off a waiting period after which the accounts are able to sell their holdings. One of the exchanges was for the precise amount of crypto that Trump was awarded when setting up the firm, World Liberty Financial, which he controls. … “Three of the others match precisely the amount of crypto given to other relatives of the president. Trump’s sons - Don Jr., Eric, and Barron - are the only other family members who have been identified as founders. Govt watchdogs are concerned the Trump family is taking steps to get a payout.” … Zach Everson with Public Citizen: “It has never been clear what World Liberty Financial was supposed to do other than enrich the Trumps, and here we have them taking the first avenue they can to offload their coins.” … “The tokens owned by the family are currently valued at more than $1 billion. The president has already reported more than $550 million in income from sale of World Liberty Financial tokens, while retail investors have lost $1 billion from their investments in the company, according to an analysis by a blockchain company.” … Punchbowl: “Senate Republicans released a new version of the Clarity Act late Sunday night with what GOP aides describe as significant concessions to Democrats. Several changes are meaningful, including new ethics restrictions blessed by the WH with an enforcement role for state AGs. … But it’s far from clear that this maneuver will be enough to rally the votes needed to secure cloture on the Clarity Act. The full Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the landmark crypto market structure bill on Tues. The latest draft bolsters crypto ethics limits on federal officials like Trump, including some authority for state AGs to sue if federal officials run afoul of the law. … State AGs will have the power to enforce bans on federal officials issuing or sponsoring digital assets or maintaining a significant financial interest in a crypto product, as well as force crypto exchanges to delist products that violate those rules.That’s a significant development. Key Republicans like Sens. Cynthia Lummis (WY) and Bernie Moreno (OH) have protested giving state authorities the power to enforce crypto ethics rules.” … “But the ethics language still falls short of what many Democrats have been pushing for: forced divestiture of existing crypto assets. The latest version of Clarity will require officials to divest or put the assets in a blind trust. State AGs will also have to prove harm to sue over the requirements.” … So at the same time the WH now suddenly seems ready to make a deal on crypto regulation, they are making moves to cash out before any law goes into effect. Nothing to see here. … NYT: “The 10-year Treasury yield, one of the world’s most important interest rates, breached 5% for the first time in years, capping a long stretch of turmoil in the bond market that has pushed up borrowing costs for companies and consumers.” … Semafor: “Last Sept, Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait got a call from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The secretary had been a regular on Bloomberg’s programming and in its reporting for years, first as the founder of a hedge fund, and increasingly as he rose in Trump’s circle to become the most powerful financial official in the now-president’s Cabinet.” … “He was furious that Bloomberg reporters Anthony Cormier and Zachary Mider planned to report that Bessent had agreed to simultaneously occupy two different houses as his ‘principal residence’ - just as Trump was trying to use the same rationale to justify firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.” … “During the conversation, Bessent told Micklethwait that if Bloomberg went ahead with a piece whose accuracy he heatedly disputed the financial news giant could expect different treatment from the Treasury Dept - including no more appearances by the Treasury secretary, a coveted TV guest.” … “Bloomberg published the article anyway. But in the year since, Bessent has followed through on his threat. The secretary stopped appearing on Bloomberg TV. Some of its reporters privately complain that they no longer receive certain press releases with key financial info. … “Bloomberg and WSJ journalists were also denied credentials to join Bessent at a G20 meeting of financial leaders in Asheville, NC, earlier this month; a Times reporter was also denied credentials.” … Reuters: The EPA is rescinding carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants as early as today. This is a major shift in federal climate policy, and follows moves earlier this year by the EPA to rescind vehicle climate standards and challenge the landmark 2009 endangerment finding, which established that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health. … The Atlantic: “Early every day, WH Chief of Staff Susie Wiles meets with Meghan Bauer, a presidential assistant who coordinates with Cabinet members, to review who’s recently traveled where, who’s heading out into the country, and—perhaps most important—who’s in a swing district at that very moment. … The debrief is part of the admin’s unofficial Cabinet Travel Competition, overseen by Bauer, in which the WH encourages Cabinet secretaries to traverse the country to promote Trump’s agenda and tracks their visits to politically competitive congressional districts or states ahead of the midterm elections. … The formal competition ran from Memorial Day to Labor Day, although secretaries will likely be encouraged to keep going through November. There were rumors of a prize—possibly a dinner with the president for the winning Cabinet secretary, plus their family.” … Ben Meiselas asked NM Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham about Trump’s call to rename New Mexico as New America: “We’ve been NM 250 years before we were America. It’s in our Constitution. Trump has no power to change our name. And so he continues to look foolish. Republicans at that convention were cheering. I guess they had to cheer anything he said since there was nobody there.” … CNN: “DOJ’s push to pursue a sweeping conspiracy probe into former officials behind investigations targeting Trump has descended into turmoil and possibly new delays following the abrupt resignation of the top prosecutor overseeing the probe. Joe diGenova, the former top prosecutor leading the South FL-based investigation, resigned a day after a tense phone call AG Todd Blanche.” … “The final clash centered on diGenova’s effort to block lawyers dispatched by SOJ HQ from assisting the probe, following broader disagreements with top Justice officials over its pace. Among the disputes that added to tensions between diGenova and his bosses was diGenova’s request for a high-security room known as a SCIF to be built at the Ft. Pierce office, to make it easier for the prosecution team to store highly classified materials.” … “For more than a year, DOJ officials have pushed to bring criminal charges against former CIA director John Brennan, who is accused of making false statements to Congress and has been the subject of the president’s ire for years. Since diGenova joined the probe in April, he’s chosen to pursue a broader set of charges against several of Trump’s political critics - including Brennan - who were involved in investigations of him over the past decade.” … “Despite the behind-the scenes disputes, investigative activity appeared to have intensified in recent weeks, with a flurry of subpoenas issued to witnesses seeking documents and, in some cases, for grand jury testimony. The effort appears to focus on a broader set of targets beyond Brennan.” … Axios: “The biggest surprise of last week’s Republican midterm convention began with an audacious request from the organizers to GOP Sen. Dave McCormick: Could he get Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, a fellow Pennsylvanian, to make an appearance? ‘I’ll ask him,’ McCormick said. Within days, Fetterman - who’s been increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party - was on board.” … “The idea for Fetterman to make the appearance emerged over the summer, as organizers of the Dallas convention sought what they called an ‘Oh shit’ moment. They were looking to drive home a key midterm message - that Democrats are too extreme. Organizers discussed featuring ‘walk away’ figures - people who had supported Democrats but had become disillusioned with the party.” … “Republican operative Tony Sayegh, a leading convention organizer, was a driving force behind the idea, and Trump adviser Jason Miller backed the plan. Fetterman topped their list.” … Of course he did. … NYT: “For decades, secretaries of defense have largely sought to insulate the military from the country’s divisive culture wars. Pete Hegseth, more than any of his predecessors, has taken the opposite approach, bringing those fights directly into the Pentagon.” … “There have been purges of senior military officers on a scale unlike anything in the modern history of the department. There have been new restrictions on where officers can study and what thoughts they can express in academic papers. There have been widespread polygraphs aimed at ferreting out leakers or intimidating those tempted to share sensitive info.” … “The turmoil comes at a moment when the extended war with Iran has caused a series of cascading strains on the force. Long deployments have sapped the morale of sailors. Shortfalls of critical missile interceptors have raised troubling questions about the military’s ability to outlast Iran and fight a conflict in another part of the world.” … “Current and former military officials describe Hegseth’s tumultuous tenure as a persistent distraction that has pulled top leaders away from focusing on these priorities and fed a climate of mistrust in the top ranks.” … “Senior officers have also raised doubts about Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine. Gen. Caine has been guarded in discussing the advice he has given Hegseth, particularly on sensitive personnel matters. A question asked by officers up to and including 4-star generals is whether the chairman has been unwilling or unable to protect the force from the culture war Hegseth is waging.” … WSJ: “Shortly after Canada and America became embroiled in the worst bilateral trade war in their modern history, the secure phones of Europe’s top leaders lit up with a trans-Atlantic call. Mark Carney was pushing to take Canada’s relationship with the EU to the next level—a bold gambit to rewire the economic cabling of the Western alliance.” … “For months, the Canadian PM had held private conversations with almost every major European leader—from France to Italy, Germany and Scandinavia and even some of the continent’s lesser-known royals—on how to more deeply plug Canada and its 41 million people into Europe’s 27-nation club.” … “Now, Carney was accelerating Canada’s pivot to Europe, matchmaking a shotgun marriage to offset the pain of its divorce with America. In effect, a threat to make Canada the 51st state is pushing America’s northern neighbor so close to Europe that leaders have begun to half-in-jest dub it the EU’s newest member.” … “Carney has instructed his special envoy to Europe to scope out the most ambitious possibilities short of full membership in the EU or its common market. The details are still being sketched by technical working groups for what the PM has told his aides will be the reorienting of an economy and a society that for half a century has been dominated by the US.” … Trump continued his blizzard of propaganda posts today, which obviously correlate to some bad polling numbers that were probably shown to him by his pollster Tony Fabrizio:
… No, we don’t. And all of that is costing us a fortune. … 60 Minutes did a story about the lucrative pardon industry that has grown up around Trump during this term. Rapper Boosie Badazz told Lesley Stahl that he was led to believe that if he gave $600,000 to two brokers with connections close to Trump, he would be issued a pardon. He was promised that Laura Loomer, Erika Kirk, Mike Johnson and Natalie Harp would advocate for his pardon:
… Victor Marx, Republican nominee for governor of Colorado, was caught on tape saying this to supporters at a small gathering: “My father was a drug dealer and a pimp. I tell people I’m a reverse coconut - brown on the inside, white on the outside. I’m very comfortable around people of color.” … All the finest people. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Meidas+, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |
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