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: Matt Floca, Micheál Martin, Sean Spicer, Bluey, Joe Rogan, Stormy Daniels, Pete Hegseth, Ric Grenell, Megyn Kelly, Gregory Meeks, Steve Whitkoff, Jeffrey Epstein, Michael Cohen, Joel Griffith, Thomas Massie, Erika Kirk, and William Shakespeare.
How CPAC is Turning Into the Ultimate MAGA Brawl—Thanks to Epstein
MAGA is self-destructing faster than Trump can say “Hormoooz” or “Coo-ba” with Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin at each other’s throats, Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson swapping insults, Candace Owens turning points on Erika Kirk, and Joe Rogan going, well, rogue. Now the ultimate fight of all: Steve Bannon vs. Roger Stone.
In one corner, Bannon, 72: an undisputed, and probably literal, heavyweight who has brazen hypocrisy, a stretch in jail, a tumultuous White House term and a podcasting career on his score card.
And in the other corner Stone, 73: a decades-long master of the low blow who has a Richard Nixon tattoo on his back, a Trump pardon in his bespoke suit pocket, and an eye-popping sexual past.
The venue is the most exalted of MAGA’s rings: CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, due to take place at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, on March 25.
And the cause of this rumble far from the jungle? The Swamp has learned that Stone has launched a quixotic quest to keep Bannon away from CPAC, seizing on a weapon handed to him by Congress: The Epstein files.
Stone says they prove that Bannon was a key enabler to Jeffrey Epstein and demands that conservatives stay home unless Bannon quits. “I convinced Donald Trump to speak at his first CPAC conference in 2011,” Stone said. “Now I’m urging a general boycott of CPAC 2026 because they are featuring Pedophile Enabler Steve Bannon as a speaker.”
Neither Bannon nor CPAC has yet to comment on the pushback. But it nonetheless reflects a deeper tension within Trump-world, where Epstein’s sprawling web of wealthy and politically connected acquaintances—a network that has included everyone from financiers to politicians, including Trump himself—continues to haunt the movement.
Stone isn’t the only one fuming. Conservative activist Joel Griffith also blasted the lineup, tying his opposition to broader concerns about antisemitic extremism creeping into the movement. “Yes, antisemitism is a growing problem on both the LEFT and ‘right.’ CPAC is featuring Steve Bannon this year,” Griffith wrote. “As a member of YJConservatives, I’ll most definitely be boycotting this conference.”
That’s quite a turnaround for an event that once served as the Republican Party’s intellectual clubhouse, a place where rising conservative stars tested ideas about markets, foreign policy, and the Constitution.
All of it is something of a nightmare for Matt Schlapp and his wife Mercedes, who have turned what was once a policy conference into a cosplay convention for Trump loyalists, complete with Trump memorabilia booths, loyalty contests, and red-meat speeches aimed at the base. Schlapp, of course, has his own checkered past, ably documented by the Daily Beast over the years. He paid $480,000 in 2024 to settle an allegation of groping Republican operative Carlton Huffman, without admission of liability, and then was accused of another sexual assault on a man, which he also denied. So will Schlapp support Bannon or Stone? Stay tuned to The Swamp to find out… but one thing we do predict, there will be a rematch.
Meet Kennedy Center’s New Boss’ Unlikely Inspiration: A Fictional Puppy
The latest plot twist at the gilded circus known as the Donald J. Trump John F. Kennedy
Memorial Center for the Performing Arts has produced an unlikely new boss. Matt Floca, a little-known Biden-era facilities chief, somehow survived the MAGA takeover and is now overseeing the center’s two-year renovation for Donald Trump after the ousting of Ric Grennell. Until recently, Floca was best known internally as the Center’s vice president of operations—the guy responsible for the sort of unglamorous backstage logistics that keep the nation’s premier performing arts complex from literally falling apart. He also had another reputation, sources tell The Swamp: opening staff meetings with inspirational quotes from Bluey, the acclaimed kids’ series about a blue heeler pup who turns everyday life into imaginative adventures. “We will conclude onsite entertainment and operations on July 6, 2026, for a period of approximately two years,” he wrote in his first Executive Director email to staff on Tuesday, which in itself was an imaginative way to explain Trump’s blunt shutdown. Floca joined the Kennedy Center in January 2024 after 10 years with the D.C. government, where he kept the lights on without setting the world on fire in roles such as construction project manager, director of facilities management and associate director of sustainability and energy. But the 38-year-old apparently proved himself an efficient operator during the Trumpworld transition and quickly climbed the ladder. If Trump was looking for a crisis manager, Floca does have one very relevant credential. In November 2024, he helped steer the center through a dramatic infrastructure meltdown after an electrical fire in the Theater Lab triggered the building’s sprinkler system, sending water cascading into the opera house just hours before the final performance of Macbeth by the Washington National Opera. The result was, effectively, indoor rain. A restoration team of roughly 65 workers spent hours vacuuming what Lady Macbeth might describe as “all of Neptune’s waters” with industrial dehumidifiers, fans, and an elaborate tent to speed dry the hall. Now Floca finds himself in charge of overseeing Trump’s highly publicized two-year overhaul after MAGA loyalist Ric Grenell was ousted this week. “He’s a pro at construction, “ Trump mused during a board meeting at the White House on Monday—before joking that Floca would be fired if he didn’t carry out his plans for the building. As for Grenell? He was spotted on Monday night putting on a brave face at a Ramadan fast-breaking celebration at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Restaurant—smiling through the dates and hummus while the man who replaced him quietly gets to work. The show, as William Shakespeare would say, must go on.
And Also Meet… MAGA’s Own Leprechaun
Washington’s diplomatic crowd went full Irish on Sunday night as Prime Minister Micheál Martin headlined the annual St. Patrick’s season bash at the nine-bedroom mansion of Ireland’s ambassador to the U.S., Geraldine Nason. The Taoiseach was the main attraction at the packed reception, where guests worked their way through shamrock milkshakes from McDonald’s, Kerrygold butter chip sandwiches, black pudding hors d’oeuvres, and a seemingly endless supply of Guinness. Among the more memorable sights: MAGA leprechaun and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who arrived sporting green-and-white shamrock-patterned pants, leaning into his Irish heritage. He had, sadly, left his pot of gold at home.
Pentagon Pete and His Worrier Ethos
Secretary of Bore Pete Hegseth is famously thin-skinned and rarely lets a public appearance go by without lambasting the media. He became so paranoid about leaks from the Pentagon that he effectively banned all the mainstream press—including Fox News—from his briefings. The result has largely been a rapt live audience for his bullyboy performances and a few soft-pat questions that are still largely beyond him.
Now, it appears he is also nervous about public criticism. How else would you explain why the comments section has been turned off on the department’s YouTube channel?
Hegseth has also apparently ordered his staff to block entry to press photographers after a few of his crazier expressions were published as pictorial evidence of his bonkers speeches. It seems to The Swamp that he may have ordered a YouTube video or two to be taken down. Honestly, if he really is worried about looking deranged, he should probably yank every last one of them.
All in the Family
Donald Trump’s disgraced former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was Lara Trump’s surprising guest for a one-hour interview on her Right View podcast, and she was keen to make it clear that during his decade working for the president, he never heard anything from or about Jeffrey Epstein. The Democrats want him to damn the president, and he just won’t do it. The lawyer sentenced to three years in the clink for trying to cover up the Stormy Daniels scandal for Trump is a man of principle, after all. All of which raises the question: was Lara helping to rehabilitate Cohen … or her father-in-law?
Kushner’s Konflicts in the Krosshairs
First son-in-law Jared Kushner inserted himself into foreign policy negotiations despite having no government position, which makes him fair game on Capitol Hill. While Republicans have relinquished their oversight powers to the president, Democrats sent a letter to the president demanding Kushner and fellow real estate developer-turned-chief Iran negotiator, Steve Witkoff, go before lawmakers. Right now, their demands are falling on deaf ears, but a House Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson told The Swamp that should Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks take the gavel as chairman, he’ll be using every tool available to compel testimony. Kushner and Witkoff could end up being slapped with subpoenas and their roles in launching the U.S. into the Iran war won’t be the only topics on the table. Both men and their families are facing questions about their business dealings with foreign leaders and how much they’re personally benefiting on the side of their diplomatic work with the Trump administration, including Kushner trying to raise $5 billion from foreign governments for his own firm while serving as Trump’s envoy. And if the plan was for Kushner and Witkoff to ignore the subpoenas and relocate to Dubai, they might need a new backup.
MAGA for Massie the Nearly Man
“Look, the truth, I agree with President Trump nearly all of the time,” says Trump’s least loved Republican in a new head-turning ad. It’s hard to be a Trump foe in a MAGA-dominated party, but is Rep. Thomas Massie the man to thread that needle? While the president blasted him as a “nutjob” and “loser” in his own backyard, the Kentucky Republican is still tapping into the pro-Trump base as he tries to get reelected. “I’m one of the few Republicans who stands up to every president,” Massie insists in his new spot while facing a Trump-backed primary challenger Ed Gallrein. Nice try, but don’t expect that endorsement any time soon.
