Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out.
In this week’s news from the ooze: Markwayne Mullin, Bari Weiss, Huggie Bear, James Fishback, Lord Peter Mandelson, Nick Fuentes, Kelcy Warren, Corey Lewandowski, Byron Noem, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, Clinton Bonds, Allison Schuster, Rebecca Johnson, Thomas Halvorsen, Ron DeSantis, Paul Hamill, and Princess Diana.
Trump Lines His Pockets as Republican Reps Live It Up at His Luxury Resort
America is at war and casualties are mounting, gas prices and the cost of living are skyrocketing, and federal workers forgotten in a government shutdown are wondering when they’ll get their next paycheck. So what better for GOP lawmakers to do than to head for the Miami sunshine for the annual House Republican policy retreat?
One cloud on the horizon: Nothing was on the House. Rooms at the four-star luxury 643-room golf resort start at $600 a night. (You do get access to a pool with a 125-foot water slide, though.) All the expenses—the $1,100-a-night-suites, the $31 burger, and the luxury $420 spa treatments—go into the pockets of the owners of the Trump National Doral Golf Club. No prizes for guessing who that is.
But here’s a clue: The name is on the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom. So one person (presumably) did get their room comped.
Super suckup Speaker Mike Johnson gushed it was an “amazing” venue and insisted attendees among the House’s 218 Republicans had “so much” to celebrate while they were chatting by the pool.
If they were hungry for a bite, there was the BLT Prime steakhouse in the evenings where GOP lawmakers could drop $79 on that ribeye or $75 for the dover sole. For more casual daytime fare, there was the Champions Bar & Grill overlooking the greens or the poolside Palm Grill, where the burger is $31.
Hearteningly for Trump’s accountants, this was a lucrative return trip from the House Republicans. Just days after Trump returned to office in 2025, House Republicans high-tailed it to Doral, and liked it so much they’re back again.
While the full amount House Republicans spend at Trump’s fancy club remains unclear, individual GOP campaigns, PACs and the national party have separately spent more than $1.8 million at the resort since Trump’s first run in 2016, and that’s not including the thousands they’ve dropped on meals at its multiple restaurants or on other luxury amenities.
But the White House dismisses widespread concern over the president profiting from his office. The president “only acts in the best interests of the American public,” according to White House spokesperson Allison Schuster. She also insisted there are “no conflicts of interest no matter how many times the failing media claims otherwise.” Err, sure, Allison.
After all, the White House argues the president is forgoing a salary as president, but what’s a $400,000 salary when you can add a whopping $3 billion to your net worth in just a year?
How Markwayne Became the MAGA Man in The Arena
In the red corner, representing Westville, Oklahoma, was Markwayne Mullin, aka the MAGA Cowboy, weighing in at 168 lbs, with a 3-0-0 Mixed Martial Arts record.
His opponent was Bobby Kelly, aka Huggie Bear, representing Joplin, Mo & Galena, Ks, weighing in at 196 lbs, with a 11-10-0 MMA record.
And the winner was… the MAGA Cowboy.
When Donald Trump announced last week that Markwayne Mullin was replacing ICE Barbie Kristi Noem as the Department of Homeland Security security, Trump described the first term GOP senator as a “MAGA warrior” and praised his undefeated mixed martial arts fighting career.
No matter that Mullin’s career lasted all of three fights, with three wins, one over “Huggie Bear,” and two victories over middleweight Clinton Bonds, a loser of eleven of his 12 professional fights.
The cowboy’s total career earnings from 2006/7 was, err, $0. It’s probably just as well that he was flush from Daddy’s plumbing business. Mullin left college without a degree—he is the only serving senator without a Bachelor’s degree—to look after his father. Then he built up a big enough fortune to buy the Mullin dude ranch. Stretching across the foothills of the Ozark mountains, the family ranch is available for weddings and corporate events. Intriguingly, Mullin’s ranch also offers quickie weddings for couples desperate to tie the knot.
“With the Just Married Package, you’ll be able to say I DO in a short and sweet elopement between the two of you! And YES! - There’s time for a couple photos too!” reads the ranch website. “Unlike old-fashioned, runaway weddings, modern elopements offer so much more!
It’s easy to plan a modern elopement with all the details so that you can share the most significant day of your life with the people closest to your heart!”
Politics has been much better for Mullin’s bank account than MMA. When he first became a House rep. in 2013, Mullin had a net worth of about $3.5 million By 2018, that number had ballooned to more than $11 million. Today, according to Quiver Quantitative, it currently stands at an estimated $66 million. He also happens to be one of the most active stock traders in Congress, making more than 500 trades since 2023 for some $24 million. So much easier than seeking his fortune in the ring.
Keeping the Right Company
James Fishback, the white nationalist MAGA candidate pulling up palm trees in the Republican primary to replace Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida, may not have Donald Trump’s endorsement (that went to frontrunner Byron Donalds) but maybe he can call on CBS News boss Bari Weiss for a helping hand.
Two years ago, Fishback was a contributing writer for Weiss’ anti-woke Free Press and he posted a photo of them yukking it up at a D.C. event on the day before Trump was sworn in for a second term. But with revelations of ties to far-right misogynist Nick Fuentes, perhaps even the Trump-smooching media maven might pass.
The Price of Darkness
The Swamp hears that disgraced former U.K. ambassador to the U.S. Lord Peter Mandelson has employed Princess Diana’s one time legal representatives Mishcon de Reya to look after him following his arrest for allegedly farming out classified documents to his pal Jeffrey Epstein. The bill could end up being as much as $20 million, so we are intrigued to know who might help keep the Prince of Darkness solvent. Mandelson once got into hot water in the UK for accepting a loan from government colleague Geoffrey Robinson to buy his London home. Mandelson was a vocal Trump critic, who had a Damascene conversion to shameless suck-up. Now they are friends, perhaps Mandy can ask Trump for a loan. Or, better still, a pardon.
Spotted: Logan International Relations consultant Paul Hamill, Washington Post Intelligence Councils engagement head Thomas Halvorsen and Washington Life magazine senior editor Kevin Chaffee at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for the annual Qatar Embassy Iftar Dinner. Code Pink provocateur Olivia Dinucci and fellow anti-war activist Chuck Modiano at Marx Cafe for a Cuba-related fundraiser. Hogan Lovells trade lawyer Mayur Patel outside Barrel House Cafe as punters lined up for a JFK lookalike competition. Bezos Earth Fund director Nicole Iseppi and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History chief scientist Rebecca Johnson at the Australian Embassy for an IWD event. Brazilian UFC fighter and Elon Musk fanboy Caio Borralho partying at XS Nightclub in Las Vegas after his win at UFC 326, where the White House’s “Fight Night” lineup was announced.
Won’t Anyone Think of the Swimming Pool Owners?
A question lingers still following Wil Lewis’s departure from the Washington Post having drained the venerable publication of its staff and its reputation. The British journalist was let go by the publication’s owner Jeff Bezos after a night of the long knives shredded more than 300 journos from the payroll. Worried former staffers can’t help wondering: who on earth is looking after the swimming pool at Lewis’s Georgetown townhouse?
ICE Blonde and a Marriage Frozen in Time
Like Kristi Noem’s looks, her husband’s social media habits have dramatically changed over the years. Bryon Noem had luckily left the House committee room before his wife was asked about her alleged “sexual relations” with top aide Corey Lewandowski. But Mr. Noem left the conversation long before that. For years while Noem was governor of South Dakota, the former first husband dutifully engaged in social media and actively shared wedding anniversary posts every year on May 23, including their original wedding photo of him with Noem, that had The Swamp doing a double take. But noticeably with her exit from the governor’s mansion, the Facebook posts of the first gentleman also stopped, leaving everyone to wonder what is happening behind closed doors.
Noem may have been at his wife’s side when she first went through the wringer on Capitol Hill, but he’s been out of the public eye ever since—and off the internet it appears as well. But it has not stopped curious onlookers from commenting on his old posts. “Does Corey Lewandowski get invited to family gatherings?” one wrote. It was The Swamp, of course, that first revealed that Lewandowski had been spotted emptying the trash cans at Noem’s apartment (a story that is now part of the congressional record). Corey may now be unemployed, but there will always be a job for him with Kristi: garbage man.
Big Oil
As Donald Trump threatens to hit Iran “20 times harder” if it disrupts oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, it’s worth remembering who exactly benefits when global oil suddenly becomes the most important thing on Earth again. The oil industry has been one of Trump’s most loyal financial backers; he even asked them for a cool $1 billion in 2024. Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips were among the companies who donated millions to Trump’s inauguration fund in 2025, according to Federal Election Commission data. Then there are the oil-patch billionaires who prefer their politics with a side of drilling rights. Pipeline magnate Kelcy Warren—executive chairman of Energy Transfer—poured millions, and more millions, into Trump’s 2024 campaign and hosted high-dollar fundraisers for the-then presidential hopeful in Houston, Texas. Texas oil heir Bryan Sheffield, founder of Parsley Energy, also kicked in over $1 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign. And according to an analysis by Climate Power, Big Oil spent $450 million to help out Donald Trump and Republicans throughout the 2024 election cycle and 118th Congress in the form of direct donations, lobbying, and advertising to support Republicans and their policies. None of this proves a direct link between campaign cash and foreign policy brinkmanship, of course. But it does create a certain oily and slick… atmosphere.
What Is Ivanka Priming Lauren For?
Her husband Jared Kushner is tasked with creating peace in the Gaza Strip, Iran and Ukraine (yes, we know…) but Ivanka Trump has other things on her agenda: Blowing bubbles. The first daughter posted a strange video of herself promoting a new children’s book by Lauren Sanchez Bezos, The Fly Who Flew Under the Sea, by, in fact, blowing bubbles. (The book is on Amazon, naturally.) Ivanka and Jared were guests at the Bezos nuptials in Venice, so for normal people, The Swamp would consider this an act of simple friendship. But surely no true Trump would do something for nothing. Could Ivanka be laying the groundwork for her own Melania-style Amazon documentary, complete with her own $40 million payout? Consider her primed.
