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: Taylor Strand, Mike Johnson, Kari Lake, Greg Brockman, Rick Louhery, Kash Patel, Julia Letlow, and Ghislaine Maxwell, Todd Blanche, and Baron Mandleson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire, and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham.
Cheers to the End of the Kennedy Center
As Kennedy Center violinists scramble to figure out whether they’ll still have jobs after Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to shut the place down for two years, others connected to the Center are fiddling while Rome burns.
Senior MAGA-aligned executives at the storied arts institution have been racking up thousands of dollars in dining and champagne services, even as attendance tanked in the wake of Trump’s takeover. One set of receipts, for example, shows almost $11,000 being billed to the center for meals that included three bottles of $175 Veuve Clicquot, shrimp cocktails and racks of lamb, plus Hendricks and negronis thrown in for good measure. Three names popped up on the tab: Nick Meade, who was Ric Grenell’s senior adviser before being installed as VP of governance; former national chairman of the Young Republicans Rick Louhery, who is now the Kennedy Center’s EVP, and Taylor Strand, the senior head of marketing. The center also picked up a $740 bill for Meade’s birthday celebrations in May; a $400 delivery of water for its “Israeli Lounge”; five of invoices for $655 “champagne services”; and a $4000 bill for a “Chinese Buffets for the Ambassador”.
Then there’s the lodging. Around the same time Kennedy Center executives were wining and dining, $30,000 also went towards stays for newly hired executives, contractors, and Grenell associates at the famous Watergate Hotel, where rooms can cost up to $700 a night (unless you take the historic “Scandal Room”—Room 214—which sets you back about $1600 a night.) Strand, for example, clocked up a $3100 bill for 10 days at the Watergate last May; Lisa Dale, who was brought in as center’s new head of development, spent $4771 bill for an almost two week stay around the same period; while Marlon Bateman, an independent contractor who reportedly helped Grenell fire staff, had a bill of $2400 for six days.
But the MAGA-favored spending spree doesn’t stop there, with social media contracts flowing to folks including Jeff Halperin, the husband of election denier turned-failed-serial Arizona candidate-turned Trump appointee Kari Lake. Trump-friendly organizations such as FIFA and NewsNation received preferential treatment and a conservative gathering called the Christian Persecution Summit scored a discount. (“You can be gay and be a Christian, and there’s no problem with it,” Grenell once quipped on The Ruben Report.)
The costs are now under investigation by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, who this week accused Trump of treating the much-loved institution as a “clubhouse” for his pals. And while staff are kept completely in the dark, the Center has been busy shaking down the public. On January 20, days before the newly rebranded Trump-Kennedy Center was nearing a similar fate to Trump Steaks and Trump University, executives launched a membership blitz, urging people to renew their memberships, which range from $75 to $25,000. “We look forward to fulfilling our duty as the nation’s cultural center in the years ahead,” they promised.
The pitch went out despite leadership now refusing to answer basic questions from The Swamp: Will staff be laid off? Will the National Orchestra be moved to another location? Are the Kennedy Center Honors canceled? Will members get refunds if the doors are closed for two years? So far, silence. For an institution that depends on public trust, philanthropy, and federal support, the optics are brutal. Workers get uncertainty. Members get charged. Executives get champagne. And Trump gets to call it “renovation” while the place is stripped for parts.
Keystone Kash’s Daily Epstein fix
If there’s one thing Kash Patel can’t resist, it’s the sound of his own importance echoing through a briefing room. So naturally, as the Epstein files continue to drip out in humiliating installments, the FBI director has decided he needs daily briefings because nothing says “serious law enforcement reform” like demanding a recurring meeting about a scandal the Bureau spectacularly botched for decades.
One of the stranger revelations buried in the Epstein document dump is an internal FBI “Daily News Briefing” from July 2025 that flagged wrongdoers journalists, including The Swamp’s Farrah Tomazin and Sarah Ewall-Wice. (Tomazin wrote about the FBI reviewing the Epstein files and tallying every time Donald Trump’s name appeared; while Ewall-Wice wrote about the White House throwing Patel under the bus as it sought to distance the president from the firestorm.)
So to recap: under successive administrations, including those led by Christopher Wray and James Comey, the FBI failed to aggressively pursue tips, witness accounts, and allegations about a serial sex abuser for years. But they did keep a list of which reporters were keeping an eye on their failures. And now Patel wants daily updates about that process. The swamp isn’t draining. But it is trying to control the narrative. Luckily, The Swamp is here to keep score.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s convenient bromance
Last week The Swamp brought you the news of Ghislaine Maxwell lodging a habeas petition in court which referenced four potential “co-conspirators” and “25 men” who allegedly reached “secret settlements” connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse—and were never indicted. This week, we bring you the ooze about a newly resurfaced video that makes the optics of Maxwell’s pardon petition look more dubious by the day. It’s no secret that Maxwell’s legal team are angling for executive clemency for her 20-year sentence as Epstein’s convicted accomplice. But back in June 2024, the former British socialite’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, appeared on a podcast with Todd Blanche, who warmly described him as a “friend,” someone he “knows pretty well,” and “the best out there.” Who is Todd Blanche, some might have asked at the time.
Well, Blanche, was then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. But the chumminess hits different now that Blanche was promoted to the nation’s Deputy Attorney General as well as the official who oversees the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Blanche, as we know, is also the person who flew to Florida last July to meet with Maxwell and Markus as the Epstein firestorm over the Epstein files continued to dog his boss. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a few weeks later the Bureau of Prisons, which Blanche also oversees, transferred Maxwell to a low security federal camp where she reportedly received access to a puppy, customized meals and a host of other perks. The Swamp is not alleging wrongdoing here. But when the lawyer for one of the country’s most notorious criminals is publicly embraced by the DOJ’s second-in-command—and that same criminal is seeking a pardon—you can see why victims are concerned.
The Dark Lord Formerly Known as Mandy
There’s talk of another Epstein pal being stripped of his British title after Andrew Mountbatten- Windsor lost his baubles (as such fripperies are known across the pond. Today, Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States, is formally known as, depending on your preference: Baron Mandleson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire, and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham; or just plain Lord Mandleson. But that might change since his name filled the front pages of U.K. newspapers on Tuesday, accused of leaking “market sensitive” information to Jeffrey Epstein in 2009 during a previous stint in government.
Mandelson looks certain to be kicked out of the House of Lords, which is why he has his exotic title. He’d also lose the right to wear a fetching stole made of ermine. In a twist of British fate, he can still call himself “Lord Mandleson” for life, unless King Charles himself removes it, which he did for Andrew. But there is one title the embattled politician will be stuck with forever—the “Prince of Darkness.”
Spotted celebrating the Big Easy
Business man Gray Stream and New Orleans native Sarah Hebee being crowned the King and Queen of Mardi Gras at the French ambassador Laurent Bili’s residence. Also there: Big Easy-adjacent powerbroker Steve Scalise, Louisiana’s Speaker Mike Johnson, Saints Kicker Garrett Hartley and Senator Bill Cassidy—who could do with a few stiff sazeracs after Trump endorsed his primary rival Julia Letlow.
Lobbying Skyrockets in Trump’s America
Lobbying firms are upping their activities in the swamp by an order of magnitude. In 2025, a record $5 billion flowed into them, according to analysis by OpenSecrets. Ballard Partners, where White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles worked during the president’s first term, has seen its quarterly earnings soar from just over $6 million at the end of 2024 to $28.6 million in the final quarter of 2025 with a jaw-dropping $88 million over the course of the year, the biggest jump of all the lobbyists. Its president Brian Ballard has close longtime ties not just to Wiles, but also Trump and Republican politics. Ballard also now has a plum seat on the Kennedy Center board. Jeff Miller’s lobbying firm brought in more than $15 million at the end of 2025 up from $4 million in the final quarter of 2024. More than 1,700 more organizations reported lobbying activity last year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was the biggest spender with more than $72 million. The National Association of Realtors came in second with $54 million and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America was third with $38 million. The Business Roundtable and American Hospital Association rounded out the top five. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and General Motors were also in the top ten. Steak dinners all round!
Can Money Buy The Republicans Happiness?
The 2026 midterm season is about to kick into full gear, and Republicans have an astronomical sum of money to spend. Trump supporting MAGA Inc. has a whopping $304 million at its disposal after bringing in $280 million in 2025. Jeff Yass, the billionaire businessman invested in Chinese parent company ByteDance who convinced Trump to flip on supporting the TikTok ban, gave $15 million. OpenAI president Greg Brockman gave $12.5 million. SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler’s husband and chief of the New York Stock Exchange Jeff Sprecher, Elon Musk and billionaire cosmetics heir Ron Lauder, whose son-in-law was just tapped to be the next Fed chair, all gave $5 million last year as did Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman. Even if Trump doesn’t want to dole out all that money to maintain a majority, the Republican National Committee had $95 million cash on hand at the end of 2025, dwarfing the Democratic National Committee’s just $14 million. The Senate and House campaign arms were much closer when it comes to the cash at their disposal. But all the money in the world can’t overcome how voters are feeling every day, the GOP outlook is looking grim, after a Democrat blew out a Republican in a Texas state race in a district the president won by 17 points. Money can’t buy you happiness… and we’ll soon see if it can buy you a majority.
