Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, Sarah Ewall-Wice, and Laura Esposito, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out.
In this week’s news from the ooze: Katie Britt, Henry Kissinger, Sergio Gor, Pope Leo XIV, Kara Swisher, Kid Rock, Barron Trump, Zach Nunn, Don Lemon, Walter Isaacson, Tina Brown, Christina Koch, Sarah Trone Garriott, John Catsimatidis, Steve Jobs, Andrew Tate, Sean Duffy, and Ice Barbie.
Battle of the Billionaires Could Doom JFK’s Only Grandson
In the eleventh hour of New York’s most glamorous congressional primary, a mysterious billionaire who lives on the other side of the country has stepped in to attempt to deliver the kiss of death to John F. Kennedy’s only grandson.
San Francisco billionaire Chris Larsen has funneled more than $3.5 million into backing Jack Schlossberg’s NY-12 opponent, Alex Bores, The Swamp has learned—dealing a potentially devastating blow to the Kennedy scion’s bid for an open seat in one of the wealthiest congressional districts in the nation.
Worth an estimated $12.4 billion, the crypto mogul insists his crusade isn’t against 33-year-old Schlossberg, but against artificial intelligence—despite the fact that he built his fortune out of the digital economy himself. Now that he’s elevated to the status of one of the country’s richest men, Larsen seems keen to tighten the guardrails on A.I., but keener to make sure the Kennedys don’t get another congressman.
“I’m supporting Bores because after meeting him, I was very impressed,” Larsen emails The Swamp. “He’s a balanced legislator and exactly what we need in Congress and the only member of the NY State Assembly with a computer science degree. He’s being ‘made an example of’ by OpenAI and other AI interests dropping $10M to defeat him to send a message.”
That was a reference to how Bores is under attack from a Super PAC backed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz. (The $10m total is Larsen’s estimate; total spending in the notoriously expensive New York media market won’t be known until long after the June 23 primary itself.)
Larsen isn’t the only—or even the richest—billionaire who is making the race for the deep, deep blue seat one of the most expensive in Congressional history. Former New York mayor and fellow billionaire Mike Bloomberg has poured $5 million into the campaign of state Assemblyman Micah Lasher, the protégé of outgoing Congressman Jerry Nadler. (Nadler held the coveted seat for more than three decades, making this primary quite literally generational.)
It’s curious that Larsen wouldn’t want to share the wealth with Schlossberg, who emerged as the frontrunner in one early poll. The social media star-turned-politician has also called for tighter AI regulations and rejected campaign contributions tied to the industry.
Meanwhile, Schlossberg has rejected Super PAC support, relying instead on the Kennedy name and a handful of shirtless ad campaigns. Still, it’s unlikely he’s hurting for cash. When his mother, Caroline Kennedy, became Barack Obama’s ambassador to Japan in 2013, her financial disclosures revealed a net worth of roughly $250 million.
Trouble in Iowa Already for JD Vance
News of trouble in the grasslands of Iowa has reached the (corn) ears of The Swamp. Iowa Republican Rep. Zach Nunn is facing a much tighter run for re-election to the Hawkeye State’s 3rd Congressional District than he had planned—and as a result, headed for Mar-a-Lago over the congressional break to attend a swanky fund-raising dinner.
The 47-year-old’s vast swathe of the south of the state was Trump +4 last time round, and is now rated by the Cook Report as the most imperilled for MAGA in the state, which is showing signs of shifting from its ruby red status.
What happened after the dinner is intriguing: Nunn got a visit from JD Vance. But the fiercely ambitious vice president may not have had as many fans as he thought at the rally he held—because some of them were paid to be there.
A lobbyist was offering $100 in cash to people to attend Vance’s event in Des Moines, Iowa, with an extra $25 for each additional person they recruited, Iowa Starting Line revealed. Jake Swanson, a lobbyist for an ethanol company, wrote in a text message before the May 5 rally, “I wanted to invite you to join me in seeing Vice President JD Vance this afternoon in Des Moines. I do some work for an ethanol company and so if you’re able to join, I will give you $100, and for anyone that you recruit, an additional $25. No limit on referrals, so if someone recruits a group of 20 to show up, that’s $500.” There’s no indication of how many people took up the offer, but it is not a great look for either Vance—who needs real support in Iowa if he wants to be president—or Nunn, who needs real support in Iowa if he doesn’t want to be job-hunting in January.
(The rally wasn’t exactly a home run for Trump’s number two. He forgot the name of Nunn’s election opponent and fumbled through his notes for about 20 seconds. “Zach, you’re going to have to help me out with her name here. I lost my page here,” said a flustered Vance. “Okay. There we go. Sarah Trone Garriott. There she is. I’m on the wrong page here.”)
The Swamp has reached out to Swanson for comment. Swanson didn’t answer questions about audience recruitment from the Iowa Starting Line, but issued a statement, saying: “I love ethanol and what it does for our state. So I was happy to bring some Iowa State kids to the rally to celebrate all the things Trump-Vance have done for biofuels and I think there’s opportunity for so much more. This is what I like to do in my own personal spare time.”
A spokesperson for Rep. Nunn said, “A new low for the Daily Beast—repackaging nonsense from a left-wing blog and thinking they have a story. Zach Nunn is focused on delivering for Iowa families.”
Thanks for reading, guys!
Don Lemon Drops Husband a Glittering Clue
“Don Lemon Uncuffed” might be considered a relatively straightforward title for an interview with the former CNN anchor and now Lemon Nation leader, considering his arrest at the hands of Trump’s goons for demonstrating in St. Paul’s, Minnesota, church in January.
The broadcaster told the packed audience at Tina Brown’s Truth Tellers conference in London that there was more significance than might be apparent. Lemon was wearing a blingy bracelet when federal agents snatched him from the elevator of a Beverly Hills hotel while he was covering the Grammys. His captors were having problems getting the cuffs on with the perp’s bracelet, which was cutting into his wrist. Unhappy about leaving his jewelry with his jailers, he asked an FBI agent standing nearby to give it to his husband, Tim Malone, who was still in their room and had no clue what had happened to his spouse. The G-man agreed to take it to the couple’s hotel room. “That was the only way that anybody knew what had happened to me,” Lemon told interviewer Kara Swisher.
Elon’s Demon Mode
Biographer Walter Isaacson had to live and breathe Elon Musk while researching his acclaimed biography about the world’s richest man. But while it may have given him a better understanding of Musk, it didn’t mean he liked him any better. “He’s insane,” Isaacson told the Truthtellers audience. The Tesla boss had a “demon mode” in which he could get “dark and mean and ugly.” But surely there must have been some redeeming charm? No, it doesn’t seem so, according to the man who has also authored books about Henry Kissinger and Steve Jobs.
True Britt, Hard Gor, and Ice Barbie
Alabama’s junior senator Katie Britt deserves a MAGA medal for grinning throughout Donald Trump’s meandering “weave” on Monday at an Oval Office event that was supposed to be about maternity healthcare. It didn’t matter if the president was talking about the Iran War or his “fat slob” friend, Katie just kept smiling.
Just wondering why Marco Rubio took former Catholic schoolboy Sergio Gor with him to the Vatican last week to try to get Pope Leo XIV on side. Perhaps he hoped the U.S. ambassador to India could curry favor with the pontiff!
Special Envoy Kristi Noem attended the inauguration of President Laura Fernandez Delgado in Costa Rica last week. Perhaps she was interested in a holiday retreat on the island, following Trump whisperer Laura Loomer‘s (denied) claim that Marjorie Taylor Greene had bought a hideaway home there. Wouldn’t that be a nice cosy way to thank Corey Lewandowski for his support?
SPOTTED: Artemis II crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen stuck in a Senate basement security line to get passes to enter the U.S. Capitol. Hardly the dark side of the Moon.
Who Is Trump’s ‘Fat Slob’ Friend?
Trump bragged in the Oval Office about his “highly neurotic, very fat, sort of a fat slob” friend, who he credited for his work to bring down the cost of the “fat drug” in the U.S. The president insisted the “rich as hell” man doesn’t want his name mentioned and even said he “so destroyed his reputation in terms of his physicality.” The internet went into a frenzy over who the slob could possibly be. Billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis was among the names floated most often online. Another candidate was Australian billionaire James Packer, who has been open about his weight struggles, previously admitted to taking Ozempic but said it was not working and was spotted dining with Trump last year. Others suggested the president, who claimed he was 224 pounds last year, actually made the person up or was, in fact, talking about himself, as he has praised himself as a genius and the mystery man as “brilliant.” Trump also brought up his fat friend a year ago as “rough” and “very rich.” At that time, speculators had Elon Musk as the top contender as the mystery slob. If there is any truth to that, Trump may have to apologize to the (now thinner) Tesla boss on the plane to China.
Is Duffy Doing the Great American Road Grift?
Reality TV star turned Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was unhappy about criticism for spending seven months on the job filming a reality show about a road trip with his family while Americans struggle with higher costs, but it could be just the beginning of the top Trump official’s grift. While Duffy insists the adventure with his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy and nine children was meant to be wholesome, it reeks of possible corruption and a violation of ethical rules.The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is demanding an inspector general investigation into Duffy’s so-called “Great American Road Trip” amid accusations it violated federal gifting laws. While Duffy insisted his family’s road trip while on the clock was not paid for by the taxpayers, it was sponsored by some of the very companies Duffy is supposed to regulate, including Toyota, which is prominently displayed in the preview, as well as United Airlines and Boeing, according to the website. The new complaint wants a probe into whether Duffy or his family received travel or hospitality gifts from the industry. If you see a Duffy clan member in a brand new Corolla or getting an extra stroopwafel on United, tell The Swamp immediately.
Operation Epic Furious
The guerilla-style art group Secret Handshake has installed two arcade machines on the National Mall, taking aim at President Donald Trump with the satirical game “Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell.” Among those spotted playing the arcade game were members of the National Guard who, if they stuck around long enough, got a chance to see Trump’s character bash Pope Leo in the game.
Barron Trump and the One NYU Club Who’d Like Him to Join
School’s out for the summer, and New York University’s chapter of College Republicans marked a monumental year with an end-of-semester campus bash headlined by Kai Schwemmer, the newly minted political director of College Republicans of America.
For a school where fewer than 3 percent of the student body identifies as “very conservative,” it’s apparently been quite the year for the chapter, which president and Fox News darling Ryan Leonard has repeatedly claimed to have dramatically expanded in both size and influence.
“This year we took our club from nothing, to being one of the TOP College Republicans chapters IN THE COUNTRY, so we thought it would be fitting to invite the political director of College Republicans of America,” a spokesperson for the young MAGA men gloated. (Yes, they really do try to speak like Trump.)
Special guest Schwemmer, who is commonly referred to as the “Mormon Nick Fuentes,” is fresh from a two-year church mission in Argentina. He also speaks for slavery, against abortion access, and describes himself as an “anti-universal suffrage guy.” So just your regular NYU student?
You may think that he sounds like the kind of bro NYU student Barron Trump might want to hear from. Barron, 20, has aligned himself with manosphere figures including Andrew Tate and Sneako, a far-right podcaster who has claimed Trump’s youngest son is a fan and who, coincidentally, appeared as a guest speaker for the NYU chapter earlier this school year.
But alas, it seems not even a special guest from the manosphere could persuade Barron to attend the only club he might be welcome to join at the liberal university. To be fair, the soon-to-be-junior may still be licking his wounds after NYU’s former College Republicans president referred to him as an “oddity” on campus. There’s still next year boys.
How I Met Usha’s Mother
Usha Vance’s woke YouTube show “Storytime with the Second Lady” has dropped its sixth episode and it’s a banger. How do you follow a get like Cheryl Hines, two-time Emmy award nominated actress and wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reading The Three Little Pigs? Vance took a big swing and it paid off. She reached out to Dr. Lakshmi Chilukuri who agreed to come on the show.
Who, you may ask? Dr. Chilukuri is a microbiologist who was born in India and emigrated to the United States in the 1980s. Oh, now that we think about it, she’s also Vance’s mother who loved reading books like The Hobbit to young Usha. For storytime, Dr. Chilukuri reads “How the Camel Got his Hump,” a delightful cautionary tale by British imperialist Rudyard Kipling. The story centers on a lazy camel who says “Hrumph” whenever the industrious horse asks for help. The horse complains to a djinn (a spirit) who punishes the camel by giving him a hrumph (shortened to just “hump”) which will allow the camel to make up for lost time by working three days straight without eating.
Let’s hope this doesn’t give the Vice President any ideas for people on welfare. Vance already noted in Hillbilly Elegy that you could walk “through a town where 30 percent of the young men work fewer than twenty hours a week and find not a single person aware of his own laziness.” Hrumph!
When the reading concludes, Vance asks her mother if she believes the story of how the camel got his hump is accurate. “Well,” the microbiologist says, “There’s a whole science called evolution that tells you how animals develop the way they did.”
Check that evolution out, kiddies. As Vance says at the end of every episode, “When we read, we grow.” Just don’t tell those Evangelical voters.
