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: Bruce Springsteen, Chris Christie, Jackie Kennedy, Bristol Palin, Gary Click, Roger Stone, Rodney Creech, Tulsi Gabbard, Sarah Kellen, Dakota Meyer, JFK Jr., Michael Whatley, Donald Trump, Jon Husted, Harvey West Jr., Les Wexner, Sherrod Brown, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Cameron Knight, and Jeffrey Epstein
Pervy Republicans Running for Senate, Part 1
Republicans heading into the 2026 Senate cycle are assembling a truly astonishing collection of candidates tied to underage sex scandals, abuse allegations, and Epstein-world baggage. They’re all over the US map, so let’s start in North Carolina where former GOP chair Michael Whatley is catching flak for appointing Harvey L. West Jr. to key leadership roles inside the state party despite warnings from fellow Republicans. The first role was overseeing the GOP’s First Congressional District committee, and the second was leading the influential Plan of Organization committee, which holds significant sway over party rule making.
West, now 54, has proven himself a skilled fundraiser which made it easy for some Republicans to overlook that he served six years in prison after a 1999 plea deal on charges that he raped three teenage girls—two were 14 and one was 16.
Now, parents groups and Democrats, including former governor turned Senate rival Roy Cooper, are turning the scandal into campaign fuel, questioning Whatley’s judgment and demanding an explanation for why he appointed a convicted child rapist multiple times to a rulemaking body for the state GOP. Some of Whatley’s own party has joined the critics, reminding voters that Whatley appointed West over the objections of some conservatives. A recent Carolina Journal/Harper poll showed Cooper is holding an 11 point lead over Whatley.
Pervy Republicans Running for Senate, Part 2
Moving north to Ohio we find GOP candidate Jon Husted who accepted more than $116,000 over the years from Jeffrey Epstein associate and former Victoria Secret boss Les Wexner. Now we realize that Wexner is a generous guy who reportedly gifted Epstein with a 7-story, 40-room mansion on East 71st just off Fifth so what’s a few thousand dollars (the maximum amount) tossed to Husted right before a vote to release the Epstein files last year?
Wexner’s name appears in the files more than 4,000 times. Husted, unsurprisingly, voted to block the release. Husted’s campaign spokesperson told The Swamp, “the Wexners have given to dozens of candidates from both sides of the aisle” – including Husted’s Democratic rival Sherrod Brown. Beyond Wexner, Husted seems to be making a habit of accepting help from alleged creeps. For instance, he touted the endorsement of Ohio state Rep. Rodney Creech who, according to Bureau of Criminal Investigation documents obtained by Statehouse News Bureau, was accused by an underage relative of sexual misconduct (claims he denies). Husted is also backed by Rep. Josh Williams who reportedly posted sexually explicit and degrading content on Facebook before sponsoring bills he said would protect children from obscenity. The most recent poll between Husted and Brown has Husted up by 3 points.
Pervy Republicans Running for Senate, Part 3
In Alaska, Dan Sullivan voted against releasing the Epstein files and received a donation tied to former Alaska GOP operative Craig Valdez, who is now facing federal child exploitation and sex trafficking charges (Sullivan’s campaign told The Swamp they donated Valdez’s funds to a local charity tackling domestic violence and sexual assault). On the opposite side of the country in New Hampshire, the GOP Senatorial candidate is being hammered by opponents after his name surfaced in an Epstein email who wrote “John Sununu has good stories.” Most people would enjoy being regarded as a skillful raconteur, but Sununu insists Epstein was not talking about him…nor was Epstein talking about Sununu’s father, a former NH governor, also named John Sununu.
Pervy Republicans Running for Senate, Part 4
Iowa Republican Ashley Hinson is also facing scrutiny for keeping donations from billionaire donor John W. Childs, who was charged in 2019 as part of a Florida massage parlor and sex trafficking sting. Charges were later dropped. Michigan’s Mike Rogers is also facing questions over one of his campaign faith leaders, Tim Cross, who admitted he didn’t believe victims of sex crimes involving three elders linked to his church. The Swamp has reached out to the Republican National Senatorial Committee but it has yet to respond. But with five months until the midterms, the GOP’s “family values” brand is starting to look less like a campaign slogan and more like an opposition research file.
Pervy Republicans Running for Senate, Part 5
We suspect there are more secrets lurking in the MAGA underbelly… so if you know of one, you know where to find us.
This Bruce Fan Isn’t Dancing In The Dark
Who was spotted at a Bruce Springsteen concert in Cleveland, Ohio (yes The Swamp has spies everywhere...) but Chris Christie? Yes, that Chris Christie, the one who had been in a viral video, apparently being snubbed by The Boss at a concert in New York. (Christie says he wasn’t snubbed and posted a selfie to prove they’re pals.) A better question for Christie might be exactly what was he doing when Bruce led the crowd in chants of “ICE out”?
The Swamp’s informer was too far up in the cheap(er) seats to hear or lip read but could see Christie was saying something, and doing so energetically… Go on Chris, spill.
JFK and Jackie’s D.C. Home and a Price to Die For
When the JFK Presidential Library and Museum learned that JFK and Jackie Kennedy’s first home in D.C.—the five-bedroom Marbury House, built circa 1811 and located at 3307 N Street NW in Georgetown—it inquired politely whether the owners would consider donating it as a consequential part of the first couple’s history. The Kennedys bought the pretty brick home for $82,000 in 1957, spending another $18,000 to spruce it up, and it was the first home of both Caroline and John Jr. It doubled as Kennedy’s campaign HQ, and Jack and Jackie walked from its front door for the 1961 inauguration. After moving into the White House, they sold the house. Financial analyst Vincent Griski and social worker Cameron Knight have owned the townhouse since 2004 when they bought it for $3.35 million, and found a buyer earlier this month who agreed to pay a tidy $6.1 million. Asked by the JFK Library if they were interested in donating, Knight said, according to Town and Country: “Over my dead body. You can buy it from me.’”
Dog Eat Dog World
The MAGA movement’s favorite pastime—eating its own—claimed another victim this week as longtime Trump dirty trickster Roger Stone and conspiracy flamethrower Laura Loomer descended into an all-out blood feud over departing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Loomer has spent months insisting Gabbard was secretly plotting a 2028 presidential run from inside the administration, while repeatedly alleging Stone was preparing to manage the campaign. Stone is a die-hard Gabbardista who concluded his introduction of Gabbard on a recent podcast by saying, “Now that I’m finished gushing like a fanboy….” Reports also claimed that Stone convinced Trump not to fire her from the Cabinet back in March. So after Gabbard’s shock resignation finally landed, Loomer practically took a victory lap online, portraying herself as the only person in MAGA-world willing to say the quiet part out loud. Stone, naturally, responded with the subtlety of a Molotov cocktail, unloading on Loomer on social media, branding her “deranged,” “self-absorbed,” and a “phony brittle little c**t.” Loomer fired back by accusing Stone of panicking because she exposed his alleged backroom maneuvering for an ex-Democrat. For the uninitiated: Stone is the decades-long GOP trickster pardoned by Donald Trump after his conviction in the Mueller probe, while Loomer has built a career out of online provocations so toxic even Republicans occasionally recoil. Their meltdown is just the latest MAGA civil war spilling into public view (See also, Ben Shapiro beefing with Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly beefing. Mark Levin.) As Trump’s orbit fractures into rival camps jockeying for influence, loyalty, and positioning ahead of the post-Trump future nobody in MAGA wants to admit they’re already planning for.
Prosecutors Filed Away Some More Famous Epstein ‘Co-Conspirators’
The Epstein files just coughed up another ugly subplot. According to testimony from longtime Jeffrey Epstein lieutenant Sarah Kellen—one of the co-conspirators granted immunity in the sex trafficker’s notorious 2008 sweetheart plea deal—three prominent men were identified as helping connect Epstein with young women and girls. Kellen claimed they were celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai, former mayor Philip Levine, and famed fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier. The names surfaced in testimony to the House Oversight Committee, which is probing Epstein’s sprawling recruitment network. Demarchelier, who died in 2022, was one of fashion’s biggest photographers, while Fekkai built a luxury beauty empire, and Levine became a wealthy Florida politician and donor. None of the men has been criminally charged in connection with Epstein, and the extent of their alleged involvement remains murky. But the significance lies in Kellen herself: prosecutors once described her as one of Epstein’s most trusted fixers, deeply embedded in the machinery that kept his operation running for years. Now she considers herself as an Epstein survivor. One thing is certain; she knows where the bodies are buried…
Usha Vance’s Subversive Wokeness Campaign Continues
Storytime with the Second Lady dropped a special episode for Memorial Day, and, kids, it’s a bit of a bummer. Usha Vance’s special guest reader is Dakota Meyer who’s known for two things: (1) receiving the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama after showing “extraordinary heroism” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2009; and (2) briefly being married to and sharing two daughters with Bristol Palin, daughter of former VP candidate Sarah Palin. Meyer chose to read from Honor Flight, a book that claims it’s for Grades 2-5 but offers a sobering dose of realism about veterans returning from war zones. “Some spoke of their time. Others could not. Some moved forward. Others were mired in the vicious quicksand of trauma,” read Meyer. Grim stuff. The light chit-chat after the reading wasn’t much better. “How do you explain Memorial Day to your kids?” the Second Lady asks Meyer. “You know, every day for me is Memorial Day. I lost a lot of guys in Afghanistan,” he responds. White, Christian and a Trumper, Meyer still reads as woke around the edges, advocating for mental health and speaking openly about post-traumatic stress disorder, his struggles with alcoholism and his suicide attempt. A sadness hung over the episode which, for Memorial Day, makes sense. What made less sense was the weird tablecloth-y scarf jerry-rigged to cover Vance’s bust.
MAGA Star Goes to White (Supremacist) Hot Euro Summer
What comes to mind when one thinks of a European summer? Aperol spritzes, sunset seafood dinners, the clear blue Mediterranean?
Or how about crossing the Atlantic to launch an angry attack on immigrants? If that’s more your thing, you’re like Stefano Forte, the president of the New York Young Republican Club, who spent the unofficial start of summer in the coastal city of Porto, Portugal, where he headlined the Remigration Summit 2026.
Billed as an event “shaping the future of Europe and the West,” the 28-year-old joined several other young far-right figures at the summit—where premium tickets went for $378, without even a glass of vinho verde—to promote the mass expulsion of immigrants and minority groups from countries where, just to state the obvious, he is not a citizen.
The website listed nine headliners in total, including a “surprise speaker” later revealed to be Forte, a failed New York State Senate candidate.
Organizers praised New York’s “famous” Young Republican club and described him as “a fierce advocate for our Western civilization.” (They were too polite to mention it was most recently “famous” for its members’ association with a leaked racist group chat. Who among us…?.) Other so-called Western civilization warriors included far-right German politician Lena Kotré, who made international headlines for distributing “stabbing weapons” during a campaign event in 2024, and Austrian activist Martin Sellner, who corresponded with Brenton Tarrant, the gunman who killed 51 people in the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. Before the atrocity he donated roughly $1,700 to Sellner. Nice company!
If you couldn’t make it to Porto for the White (Nationalist) Lotus, there was also a livestream, so you could cheer on mass expulsion from the comfort of your own home.
Alas, The Swamp did not shell out. But our spies are always watching so stay tuned…
