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Signal Scandal Isn't Going Away Quite Yet

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who peddles outright lies just as effectively as Trump v1.0 WHPSes Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany, was asked about the Signal scandal yesterday, and declared that "this case has been closed." Not so much, as it turns out.

To start, and you may want to sit down before reading this, it turns out this was not the only time that NSA Mike Waltz used Signal to conduct high-level conversations that were classified and supposed to be secure. Undoubtedly, every reader is shocked—shocked!—to learn that. This is according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal (note: paywalled).

Further, Waltz has enemies within the administration. Some of them dislike his views on foreign policy (he is an old-school Reaganite). Some of them are angry that he embarrassed the administration. Some are anti-Waltz for both reasons. In any event, the anti-Waltz crew, led by J.D. Vance, is seizing this opportunity to press their advantage. They want Donald Trump to cashier Waltz immediately, and to replace him with... presumably some other unqualified crazy person.

Reportedly, Waltz's job security has come down to a fairly simple calculation. On one hand, Trump is absolutely furious with his NSA, both because of the black eye he gave the White House and because it was Jeffrey Goldberg, of all people, who was included in the meeting and broke the story. On the other hand, Trump really, really, really does not want to give a "scalp" (his word, or at least his word as relayed through underlings, off the record) to the media. In particular, he does not want to deliver a career-defining feather for Goldberg's cap.

As a result of the delicate balance between Trump's anger with Waltz and Trump's hatred of the press, the NSA is currently still employed, but is on "shaky ground." We would guess that he will weather this storm, in the short term, but that he'll be shown the door sometime later this year, in a way that it looks like it's coming from Trump alone, and has nothing to do with outsiders or their reporting.

So it's Waltz who is presently in the frying pan, and who is learning whether he'll be dumped into the fire. However, there's another guy who screwed up bigly here, and that is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. A fair bit of the classified info came from him, and he was also the person in that conversation who had the greatest authority, and greatest responsibility, to put an end to the whole thing, and to redirect to actual, secure channels.

By all indications, Hegseth has avoided much blowback, at least for now. However, there is some reporting that folks in the Pentagon are already weary of the SoD, and of his cavalier attitude toward the DoD's mission. They are upset about the Signal fiasco, they are angry that Hegseth brings his wife to meetings where civilians don't belong, and they are not pleased by his general habit of di**-waving. So, don't be too surprised if Hegseth's position becomes untenable at some point between now and, say, the end of the year. (Z)


An ad for Earl Scheib offering to fireproof any Tesla, except Cybertrucks, for $199.95


Today's Crazypants Report: This is What Grift Looks Like

We're not sure what Donald Trump's single-greatest motivation is. There was a piece in The Conversation about a month ago arguing that his most pressing need is to dominate, presumably to make up for all the times he was made to feel small as a child (by his parents) and early in his business career (by more successful real estate investors).

Maybe that is indeed #1 on his list. We may never know for sure, since he's never going to let anyone in on his innermost thoughts, especially someone qualified to try to make sense of them (like, say, a psychiatrist). Another contender for #1, and the one that we might pick, is Trump's pathological need for more money—there's no such thing as enough for him. Of course, for him, the line between "I must have more money" and "I must dominate" is a pretty thin one, since he judges success and failure by how much money someone has, or how much they realize from any particular deal.

We write all of this as entree to four different stories about outrageous grift from Trump and/or his inner circle, all of them from just the last week or so. Here's the rundown:

  1. The Big One: One day, perhaps, Trump will realize huge gains due to his holdings in Truth Social, through Trump Media & Technology Group. However, he's already realized huge gains through his crypto coin, $TRUMP. Despite the fact that $TRUMP is not a medium of exchange, and so has no actual value, it has generated at least $14 billion in trades. It is hard to know exactly how much Trump has made from this setup. He and his family own the company that controls $TRUMP, and get 75% of trading fees. So, just from the various transactions that have taken place, he's probably collected about $100 million. He may also have brought in some additional, sizable amount of money through ownership of some portion of the $TRUMP coins. And, per Reuters, about four dozen others have enjoyed handsome returns on their $TRUMP "investment"—at least $10 million each.

    Remember, again, that the $TRUMP coin has no actual value. Then consider that the coin's price has dropped by more than two-thirds since its high point. What that means is that Trump and 50 (or so) of his closest friends made their fat returns on the backs of a lot of smaller fish who are almost certainly going to be left high and dry. How many small fish? About 200,000 of them. Obviously, some sizable portion of that group are people who are huge Trump fans. So, he's fleecing his own people.

    This is a textbook pump-and-dump scheme. And since the potential to pump-and-dump $TRUMP is probably dead at this point, the First Sons—Donald Jr. and Eric—have just announced a different bitcoin. This one is called $USD1, and will be pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. That means it will have actual value, which also means that suckers investors who bought $TRUMP can tell themselves, "Well, this one is different." This particular type of bitcoin, called a stablecoin, has been widely criticized on a number of bases, most commonly that stablecoins are poorly regulated and they often fail to hold their value (in contrast to claims that they are guaranteed to hold their value). Undoubtedly, the Republican-controlled Congress will get right to work on those problems, now that the Trumps are in the stablecoin business.

  2. Reparations: It wasn't good enough for Donald Trump that he merely pardoned the convicted criminals who attempted to pull off a coup for him on Jan. 6, 2021. Now he wants to compensate them for their suffering on account of getting caught breaking the law. In a way, this is surprising since Trump hates losers and anyone who gets caught and convicted is normally a loser in his mind.

    Last week, Trump told Newsmax's Greg Kelly there is talk about a compensation fund for the rioters "because a lot of people in government really like that group of people." He added they were treated unfairly. He specifically noted Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a police officer while she was trying to break into the Capitol.

    With Trump it is hard to tell which ideas are serious ones he will fight for, and which are just one-off remarks he will never bring up again. A compensation fund paid for by the government would require an act of Congress, and that seems unlikely because only representatives in deep-red districts would vote for that unless it was buried in a much larger package and no one noticed. But the Jan. 6 coup attempt is something that still looms large in Trump's mind, so maybe he is serious about this.

    What he could also do is create a foundation or some other legal structure and get millionaires and billionaires who want to curry favor with him to donate to it. Then he could give a portion of the take to the Jan. 6 criminals, while keeping the rest for himself—since after all, he also suffered on that day. After all, Congress decided that he lost the 2020 election. That wasn't easy to take.

    It is also worth noting that if a bunch of hardcore Trumpers enjoy a big windfall, either funded by the government or by private donors, there is every chance that many of them will spend the money on things like Trump-branded guitars, or golden Trump shoes, or $USD1 bitcoins. You always have to assume with Trump that whenever he talks about money going to other people, he's really thinking about how some of that money will end up in his own pocket.

  3. This Resurrection Brought to You By Chick-Fil-A: The White House Easter Egg Roll dates back to 1878. In that year, the meanies in Congress said they wanted those damn kids to get off their lawn, and so a tradition that pre-dated the Civil War moved to the grounds of the Executive Mansion, where it's remained ever since.

    The fellow who was president in 1878 was Rutherford B. Hayes. That means that 25 non-Trump presidents, both Republican and Democratic, never sought to commercialize the event. Maybe they felt that was inappropriate for an event that involves children. Or one that involves "The People's House." Or maybe they were aware that, in the end, Easter is a rather important religious holiday, and thought that it really should not be cheapened by money. Most likely, though, is that those 25 men did not have dollars on the brain, and so it just didn't occur to them to try to squeeze money out of the thing.

    Trump does have dollars on the brain, and so too do a number of the grifters in his inner circle. And so, his team created a splashy brochure offering "opportunities" to purchase sponsorships. If you really love Trump/Jesus, then you can buy the Platinum Package for $200,000. That gets you a prominent place on the sponsorship list, a bunch of tickets, a few seats at a brunch, and some benefits that we don't understand, like "Branding for a key area or activation." If you only kind of love Trump/Jesus, you can get the cheaper Gold Package ($125,000) or Bronze Package ($75,000).

    Nobody is entirely clear on where the funds, once raised, will go. However, when Trump is involved in anything involving money, and it's not clear where exactly the money is going, you pretty much know EXACTLY where it's going.

  4. Miracles for Sale: This one is not from Trump himself, it's from one of his inner circle (although don't discount the possibility that he gets a cut of the action). Trump's prosperity-gospel-loving "faith" advisor Paula White produced a video in which she suggested that if you send her $1,000, that will unlock up to seven "specific supernatural blessings." Among the possible "blessings" (prizes?) are God assigning an angel to you, prosperity, curing sickness and punishing your enemies.

    If this sounds like ridiculous—and perhaps even evil—nonsense, you can stop reading. If this sounds like something of interest, however, we are pleased to advise that Electoral-Vote.com also has a special on miracles right now. If you send us $500 before Easter, you get FOURTEEN miracles. That's right, twice as many miracles for half the money! You don't even need the staff mathematician to figure out that's four times as many miracles per dollar as White is offering. All you have to do is click on the PayPal link above and send us the $500. You don't even have to send us an e-mail; we've automated the process, so that you'll get your miracles as soon as the money leaves your bank account.

And that's the latest news on the grift front. (Z & V)


An ad for Trump-branded Viagra


Will the Shadow Docket Be Used for Shady Things?

As Donald Trump has ramped up his rule by executive order, the laws and the Constitution be damned, the courts have proven to be a rather large wrench in the works. Enter the shadow docket. Trump made liberal use (no pun intended) of this party trick in his first term and now he's just gone hog-wild as the lower courts continue to enjoin his illegal actions and the federal appellate courts are mostly ignoring his entreaties. Following is a summary of his efforts to get SCOTUS to stop those big meanies from making him follow the law—it's not fair!

  1. Trump v. J.G.G.: Trump has filed an application for an emergency stay of a district court's injunction against Trump's invocation of the Alien and Enemies Act to unilaterally designate and deport, without due process, people it says are undocumented and members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump is arguing to the Supreme Court that he alone decides whether the U.S. is at war, a prerequisite to invoking the Act, and, likewise, whether anyone in the U.S. is a threat to national security. The administration is also arguing that the plaintiffs should have filed habeas corpus petitions in Texas where they were/are being held.

    A 3-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected those arguments by a 2-1 vote. Chief Justice John Roberts gave the plaintiffs until April 1 to submit a brief in opposition. The temporary restraining order (TRO) applies to anyone subject to Trump's order, including the more than 200 people removed to El Salvador on midnight flights. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has invoked the state-secrets privilege in response to Judge James Boasberg's order for details about the commercial flights (details revealed publicly by Secretary of State Marco Rubio) and whether the government violated the TRO in continuing the flights to El Salvador. AG Pam Bondi has argued the privilege applies despite arguing in a different case, in front of the same judge, that texting detailed attack plans does not involve state secrets.

  2. Birthright Citizenship: Trump has attempted, via XO, to end the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. Three different district courts said, "Uh, no," and enjoined the XO. Trump applied for an emergency stay arguing, among other things, that the nationwide injunction issued by Judge Leo T. Sorokin in Massachusetts "compromise[s] the Executive Branch's [sic] ability to carry out its functions." The Ninth, Fourth and First Circuit Courts of Appeal denied Trump's requests for a stay of the lower courts' orders.

  3. Mass Firings of Probationary Federal Workers: On March 14, District Judge William Alsup issued a preliminary injunction ordering Trump to immediately reinstate more than 16,000 probationary workers summarily fired in February. The order is directed at the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury. The case was brought by nonprofit groups whose members are impacted by the reduced services that result from the mass firings. Alsup found that the Office of Personnel Management, which directed the firings, has no authority to hire and fire employees at another agency. The Ninth Circuit then denied Trump's request for an administrative stay and has not yet ruled on its request for an emergency stay. On March 24, Trump went to SCOTUS for both. The Supremes have called for a response to Trump's requests by noon on April 3. In another case involving probationary employees, on March 26, District Judge Bredar in Maryland extended a temporary restraining order, which requires the reinstatement of 24,000 probationary employees, finding the administration did not follow the laws for mass layoffs and reductions-in-force in terminating the employees. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump's request for an administrative stay, but so far they have not added this case to their growing list of SCOTUS petitions for an emergency or administrative stay.

  4. Cuts to Funds for Teacher Training: A district court judge out of Boston granted a TRO requiring the Department of Education to restore grants to two programs for teacher recruitment, training and professional development. The DOE abruptly canceled the programs after finding some materials related to—say it with us—the boogeyman du jour, "DEI" (pause for collective gasp). The Court limited the order to those eight states who had brought the case, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin. The federal appeals court denied Trump's request for a stay pending appeal, so on Friday the administration went whining to SCOTUS... er, petitioned the Court for an emergency stay. The Court has yet to respond to this latest appeal.

To put some of this into context, in the 16 years of the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations, they asked for emergency relief from SCOTUS only eight times.

But Trump has increasingly relied on the so-called shadow docket because it short-circuits the normal processing time, keeps opponents on their heels, and allows for some shenanigans at the high court that wouldn't pass muster if the case proceeded in the regular course of business. The Court is supposed to intervene at such an early stage of a case only on the very rarest of occasions, and only when the stakes are so high that failing to step in could lead to catastrophic results. But Trump has learned that this Court will be only too happy to accommodate his requests when it suits their own political agenda, and he had a pretty good track record in his first term. He filed 41 emergency appeals in his first term and won all or part of them 28 times, so why wouldn't he routinely file such appeals and clog the system to his heart's content? Only the Court can put a stop to this kind of abuse of process, but it's anyone's guess how far they'll let Trump go in his second term. We'll know soon enough, though. (L)


An ad for the book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' with an intro by Sen. Ted Cruz


Trump Teases Third Term

Yesterday, Donald Trump did an interview with NBC. And the big "news," such as it is, was that he once again hinted he may try for a third term, claiming that "there are methods" by which he might do so.

Although this got a lot of attention yesterday, we have only four things to say. First, there are NOT "methods," beyond those that involve twisting and turning the Constitution, and then hoping SCOTUS looks the other way. This is not impossible, but it's not likely, either. The justices are clever enough to know that letting Trump game the system will open the doors for some Democrat to do so in the future. And Democrats tend to be MUCH younger at age of election than Republicans. The last six Democrats, at time of their first election to the presidency, were 43, 56, 52, 46, 47 and 78. The last six Republicans were 62, 56, 69, 64, 54 and 70.

Second, even if SCOTUS does re-invent the Constitution, American voters don't like dynasties (see Bush, Jeb). Also, Barack Obama might have a thing or two to say about Trump v3.0. Yesterday, in fact, the top trending item on eX-Twitter was "Obama 2028."

Third, there is a bit of a silver lining here. If Trump feels the need to lay the groundwork for running again, then it means he is not planning to retain the office by fiat. Or, more likely, that he realizes it's not practical to retain the office by fiat.

And fourth, Trump breaks this shtick out anytime he wants to create a distraction—like, say, from the Signal mess. We do not wish to play his game, and so it is very likely going to be a LONG time before you see us writing about a hypothetical third Trump term again. (Z)


An ad for a reboot of the 1980s show 'The A-Team.' This one features a lawyer named Art, an accountant named Murray, another accountant named Josh, and a musician named Lenny (played by Lenny Kravitz' and is called 'The J-Team'


Democratic Presidential Candidate of the Week, #39: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

It's going to be a while before we get to someone who is truly viable. That said, sometimes a dark horse emerges. So, we have to do what we can to cover our bases.

Bernie Sanders, looking angry, and being expressive with his hands

Next week, it's #38 Al Franken. If readers have comments about him running for president in 2028, please send them to comments@electoral-vote.com.


A cartoon from the 1890s featuring William McKinley. It says 'PROSPERITY' at the top, and has him standing on a giant coin, held up by a bunch of men in different kinds of dress. The men have been labeled by the maker of the ad, to say 'Mexico,' 'Canada,' 'China,' 'Japan' and 'Europe.' The ad is paid for by Trump's PAC.


This Is How the French Do It

As it turns out, far-right French politician Marine Le Pen is not just a paranoid xenophobe, she's also a crook. She and her party, National Rally (RN), looted the European Parliament to the tune of €4.1 million (about $4.4 million). This was accomplished by using money meant to pay E.U. staffers to instead pay RN staffers. This is not kosher, and the amounts involved turned it into a serious criminal matter.

Yesterday, Le Pen was convicted and sentenced for her role in the scheme. She has to pay €100,000 (about $108,000) in fines, and she's also sentenced to 4 years in prison—2 years of house arrest, 2 years suspended as long as she does not commit any more crimes. She is also banned from running in the 2027 French presidential election. Le Pen claims she is an innocent victim, and that she is being persecuted by her enemies, and yada, yada, yada. She will appeal, of course, though people who know far more about French law than we do say she's got little chance of prevailing.

So, what impact will this have on the French elections? That, of course, is hard to say, given how many lifetimes there are between now and when French voters head to the polls. There could be a rally 'round the flag effect, not unlike what happened with Donald Trump, wherein Le Pen's base is angered and makes sure to turn out, whether she's on the ballot or not. On the other hand, the opposition might be able to paint Le Pen/RN as hopelessly corrupt, and just as willing to steal the money of La Belle France as they are the money of the E.U.

This question is not merely academic, because the current administration is not terribly popular, the continent and the world are currently in a "throw the bums out" frame of mind, and Le Pen/RN were considered the frontrunners to claim victory in 2 years. For what it its worth, the last three polls to ask respondents about Le Pen gave her 35%, 35% and 36% support, which was enough to lead all other contenders by 10+ points. In the only poll taken since Le Pen's downfall, her successor, Jordan Bardella, polled at... 36%. So, maybe it's the party and not the candidate. That said, there's plenty of time for things to change.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to learn that there are countries out there that hold crooked politicians responsible for their misdeeds, seeing to it that they are subject to scrutiny by a court, and imposing penalties, up to and including disqualification from office, when appropriate. Undoubtedly, our readers in the United States and Israel did not know that was possible. (Z)


Congrats to you for reading to the very end. And add an extra kudo on top of that if you figured out what day today is, as you looked at the "ads" chosen by "the algorithm."

The day we ACTUALLY accept ads will be a cold day in hell.


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