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: Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Maria Bartiromo, Elaine Chao, Chris Klomp, Stephen Miller, Amy Gleason, Laura Ingraham, Paolo Zampolli, Robert L. Mallet, Melania Trump, and Queen Camilla.
Secret Plot to Turn Kennedy Center Into Billionaire Bling Yacht Club
The Kennedy Center has been the home for dancers, singers, musicians, and other artists representing the cultural diversity of the United States since it opened its doors on September 8, 1971.
Now, under Donald Trump, there are plans to target another audience for the nation’s premier performing arts center—the wealthiest one percent.
The president may have been forced to remove his name from the building, but there is a secret blueprint to put his mark all over the center.
The Swamp has learned that one vision for the Kennedy Center includes:
- Valentino fashion shows.
- A luxury marina for smaller yachts and tenders to carry passengers to deeper water at The Wharf Marina or The Yards Marina.
- High-end restaurants.
- A collaboration to send American arts into space.
The latest bold proposal to remake the Kennedy Center in Trump’s image comes from Paolo Zampolli, Melania Trump’s former modeling agent turned presidential envoy, and the president’s top lieutenant on its board of trustees. It comes as the July 31 deadline approaches for the board to tell a federal judge what plans it has in place for the venue’s future.
“I told the White House that I’m going to work with them to see what we can do together,” Zampolli told The Swamp’s Farrah Tomazin.
Trump installed Zampolli to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees in 2020, where he now sits alongside other Trump appointees, including Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy Dan Scavino. His blue-sky brainstorming comes as Trump’s own overhaul of the nation’s premier arts venue remains mired in the courts, with a federal judge blocking the administration’s attempt to rebrand the center in the president’s name.
Whether Zampolli’s vision comes to fruition is yet to be seen, but the special envoy isn’t thinking in legal briefs (even though the trustees are named in the lawsuit brought forward by ex-officio board member Congresswoman Joyce Beatty). He’s thinking bigger. As The Swamp revealed last week, the 56-year-old recently helped secure a Romanian-American friendship park named after Trump in Bucharest, just as Trump and his family business move to expand their footprint across the Balkans.
While the courts slow Trump’s Kennedy Center ambitions, Zampolli appears more than happy to fill the vacuum—with yachts and couture. The Trumps have partnered with Valentino couture before, sponsoring a 2005 fashion luncheon in Palm Beach. Whether it’s Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden or her husband’s memorial cultural center, Trump continues his crusade to remake D.C. in Mar-a-Lago’s image.
But if the billionaire club plan goes to a vote, Zampolli might want to check on one of his fellow Trump appointees to the board. Elaine Chao, the elusive wife of the equally elusive Mitch McConnell, was also appointed to the board in 2020 when she was Transport Secretary in Trump’s first term. After all, the 73-year-old may have her hands full posing for proof-of-life photos with her 84-year-old MIA husband.
Darline’s Ex Missing from Lindsey Graham’s Funeral
Lindsey Graham’s niece Emillie spoke with warmth and humor about her uncle at his Washington Cathedral funeral on Tuesday. He was, apparently, a great fan of Disney World and was not such a good driver, but he was always there for his sister’s older daughter, who is now married with a son, as we revealed in The Swamp last week, and a second child on the way.
Emillie, 32, attended the funeral with her husband, Kyle, her mother, Graham’s sister, Darline—who has taken Lindsey’s place as South Carolina senator— and her 17-year-old sister. Also at the funeral was Emillie’s stepfather, Larry Nordone. The only close family member missing was Emillie’s father and Darline’s first husband, Terry Lee Boggs, who himself survived a heart attack about a decade ago. There are photos of Terry, 60, and the family with the late senator on his Facebook account, but apparently he was unable to make the funeral.
Swamp Secrets Upturn Senate Race
Emillie’s mom might not want to read further. In last week’s Swamp, we followed the money on Darline Graham—and uncovered how she had donated $100 to then-South Carolina state senator Katrina Shealy, who filibustered a draconian abortion ban. The revelation was explosive, and now Darline is facing a contested primary for the full six-year term she wants to secure with opponents seizing on her backing for a pro-choice politician. Who says The Swamp doesn’t have the best tea?
Miller’s Spit Roast
Posters of Stephen Miller have appeared across DC, directing passers-by to a website inviting the public to roast the Trump immigration architect with their best jokes. “Think you have the funniest Stephen Miller joke or meme? Submit your best joke or meme material. Winner gets a $500 gift card!” the website, UglyF–k.org reads. It’s a pretty good indication of where Miller sits in the capital’s popularity rankings. “Stephen Miller looks like a botched circumcision,” screams one poster on bustling 18th Street in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. “Stephen Miller looks like he has a sex doll named Mother,” screamed another. Whether the stunt is political activism or elite trolling depends on your perspective, but either way, it’s forced residents to spend the week looking at one of the most polarizing faces in Washington. Which, depending on your politics, is either the joke—or the punishment.
Why Mitch Is Still in the Money
Mitch McConnell has not missed a paycheck since being rushed to the hospital more than six weeks ago. And while perhaps the former Senate Majority Leader doesn’t need the cash, with an estimated net worth of at least $30 million, for most average Americans the income he’s received so far as part of his $174,000 salary is a significant sum. Six weeks of paid leave amounts to more than $20,000 before taxes. The longtime senator is not just getting paid; he gets to keep his job amid his recovery despite his long history of trying to deny the same for millions of Americans. McConnell has been in the Senate long enough to vote against the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which passed despite his opposition and gave eligible workers job protections with 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
The Republican’s lucrative vanishing act has reignited calls within his party for fixed terms in Congress, with Trump the latest to join the debate. “I think term limits are very important because I see what’s happening,” the president told guests at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Friday night as he lined up a joke about an aging lawmaker.
“The other day, a senator I knew got a text, a great guy, from his wife. And she said, “When you get home, I wanna have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me.” And he said, “I can’t do both.” The dinner crowd was suitably lukewarm. “Does anybody get that one?” a visibly frustrated Trump asked. “I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole fricking stupid speech that they wrote.”
DOJ’s MAGA Museum Is an Open and Shut Case
As he waits for the Senate to (fingers crossed!) confirm him as the nation’s new attorney general, Todd Blanche took some time out this week to unveil a new Justice Department museum for people to learn more about the agency’s storied history. There’s only one small catch: the public can’t actually get in.
The Swamp attempted to take a look inside this week, only to discover that the museum—located inside the department’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue (the other Washington building named after a Kennedy)— isn’t open to visitors at all. Despite Blanche’s rhetoric at the opening ceremony, access is limited to DOJ employees, turning what was billed as a public-facing showcase into something closer to an internal morale booster. The museum is part of America’s 250th birthday celebrations, and features exhibits chronicling the department’s history and high-profile cases. But one suspects it says little about the four indictments Trump received or his longtime nemesis: former special counsel Jack Smith. If someone has seen the exhibit, please drop us a line and let us know.
Good Business for Clinton’s Commerce Chief
It’s still a booming market in D.C. for the super rich (luxury property sales jumped 4.5% in the second quarter), and Robert L. Mallet, former deputy secretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration, has decided it’s time to move on from MAGAland. He just sold his four-bed, renovated three-level Colonial on more than an acre with a swimming pool in McLean for $5 million, which was about $200,000 less than the asking price. Mallet, now president and CEO of Africare, was clearly happy with the deal. The house was sold less than a day after going on the market.
The Odd Couple
After John McCain’s death, his longtime friend and ally Lindsey Graham said the Arizona senator’s last words to him in 2018 were, “I love you. I have not been cheated.”
As D.C. paid tribute to Graham at a remembrance ceremony at the Capitol and at his Washington Cathedral funeral, The Swamp couldn’t help but wonder how their conversation has been these past two weeks in the Upper Chamber. No doubt, McCain would still love his old friend, but he might also feel cheated by the way his trusted South Carolina wingman betrayed his memory and paid fealty to Donald Trump, who called McCain a “loser” and “not a war hero.”
D.C.’s Other Funeral Of The Week Is Even Weirder
It wasn’t just Lindsey Graham being laid to rest this week… so too was The Clipboard. The funeral was held when the “Make Health Tech Great Again” summit kicked off normally, but like everything connected with the Trump administration, quickly got weird. The event started with some congratulatory words from besieged Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr., who was followed by Deputy Secretary nominee Chris Klomp and Administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr. Oz, who thankfully didn’t demonstrate how to do a squat. When the last speaker finished, things took a turn starting. A New Orleans version of When the Saints Go Marching In blasted through the speakers as a group of a dozen “pallbearers” carried in a casket.
The women wore veils as one might to a funeral, or to cover one’s embarrassment. A man named Zach with a (fake) minister’s collar began the service: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember the clipboard.” Yes, the clipboard which “never met a form it didn’t like.” The phony minister elaborated, “The clipboard wasn’t the problem. It never wanted to hurt anyone. It was just a board. We were the ones who kept handing it to people.” But now in an era of tech, the clipboard is obsolete. All anyone needs is a QR code that contains the most private medical data. So who gets the credit for killing the clipboard? “Nobody killed the clipboard,” said DOGE (remember them?) administrator Amy Gleason, who emceed the event. “We all had to do it together.” Then the pallbearers laid flowers on the casket and marched off. The audience reaction to this absurdist drama was subdued, prompting Gleason to end the summit with a somewhat apologetic, “We had to have a little fun today…” Fun? The clipboard might be dead, but it looks like irony isn’t.
Young Republicans’ Shame Spreads West
Will the last scandal-free Young Republicans please get in touch? Anyone?
Days after New York Magazine shared a photo of the New York Young Republicans’ then-treasurer performing a Nazi salute, there are more bizarre revelations about the party’s junior wing. This time, though, the Big Apple has been spared: The scandal is in the Show Me State. David Barth, a property developer in Kansas City is suing the Missouri Young Republicans for a whopping $10 million, alleging the group defamed him in a smear campaign to sabotage his multimillion-dollar housing project. In January, a public comment submitted by the email address “missouriyoungrepublicans@proton.me” claimed that Barth was a “DEI developer” producing “cheap DEl c–p to make a fast buck,” a surefire way to galvanize the deep-red county. Going even further, the organization allegedly called him a “sick greedy man” with “mental health issues” and alleged his company was filled with “pedophiles” who deserved to be “chemically castrate[d].” Sheesh. Barth’s attorney said the group harmed him with “disturbing” claims, including that his development will bring “pimps, prostitutes and organized crime to the area.” Marc Ellinger, an attorney for the Missouri Young Republicans, however, denied that the email “missouriyoungrepublicans@proton.me” belongs to the group, and will fight the case in court. “Someone sent that email but it wasn’t us,” he tells us.
Do you know a Young Republican scandal waiting to be aired? Email us…
The Swamp is Getting Bigger and Better
There’s so much ooze and scandal in Washington D.C. that we’re changing when we publish this newsletter so we can include even more sleazy secrets. From next week, The Swamp will hit your inbox on Wednesday mornings.
