First Draft: Trump Wants to Give $1.7 Billion of YOUR Money to HIS Pals
Mehdi on the biggest Trump corruption scandal of them all. Plus: the latest War Powers vote on Iran fails in Congress, again. And you'll never guess which Trump official went for a 'VIP snorkel.'
On this day in 1942, gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 eastern states, in an attempt to help the US war effort. By the end of the year, all 48 states were rationing gas. There’s no way such a drastic step will ever be needed again. Right?
Good morning! Mehdi here. Later today, I’ll be unpacking the ongoing AOC-vs-MTG controversy in a video monologue and making the case for the Democratic congresswoman and against the former Republican congresswoman. That’ll be in your inboxes in a few hours.
But for now, in today’s ‘First Draft’ newsletter, Trump’s corrupt behavior reaches corrupt new heights; Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is trying to get back into Parliament to topple flailing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer; and Israel continues to bomb Lebanon in violation of the supposed “ceasefire” as yet another War Powers Resolution vote fails in Congress.
The New Trump Slush Fund
“You can take all the corruption from every single US administration in history, add it all together, and it will not equal the amount of corruption committed by the Trump Regime in less than two years,” tweeted Ron Filipkowski, the conservative-turned-liberal commentator and ardent Trump critic. He was referring to a New York Times story about how the Trump administration is planning to drop fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in exchange for Adani agreeing to invest $10 billion in the U.S. economy.
But let’s be honest: Filipkowski could have been responding to any number of corruption scandals in this second Trump term. How about the president’s acceptance of a $400 million plane from Qatar in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution? Or Trump and his family’s acceptance of $187 million from the Abu Dhabi royals via their investment in the Trump family cryptocurrency venture, another clear violation of the Emoluments Clause? Or companies associated with Trump’s sons winning at least two lucrative government contracts?
The list goes on and on and on and on.
Nevertheless, I’d argue that this was the week we learned of the biggest Trump corruption scandal of all.
Here’s the background:
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