Dem
54
GOP
46
It's popcorn time, at least for anyone who dislikes Donald Trump and his team, as not one, not two, not three, but four different ugly squabbles spilled into public view this week.
We'll begin with the story we've already written about a lot, namely the decline and fall of Kimberly Guilfoyle. The fellow who spilled the dirt on Guilfoyle is Republican donor and former Congressional candidate Eric Deters. Early on, as the administration was circling the wagons around Guilfoyle, she (and others) attacked Deters as a scammer and known blackmailer, and insisted the incriminating text messages were fake.
Deters has now filed a defamation suit. And, in addition to that, he claimed yesterday that he has a 16-minute voicemail on his phone that "might bring down the entire Trump administration" and "end the J.D. Vance/Marco Rubio ticket." That's a pretty big claim, especially since no smoking gun seems to last for long when it comes to Teflon Don. But we won't have to wait long to find out, because Deters says he's going to release the message sometime today.
Moving along, there is apparently no honor among grifters. Former Trump attorney Alina Habba has recently married Turhan Mildon, a wealthy businessman who has extensive interests in Venezuela. Trump acolyte Ric Grenell, who was then leading the Kennedy Center, suggested that Mildon donate roughly $6 million to the Kennedy Center, and that the "gift" would certainly help out when it comes to figuring out who does, and does not, get access to Venezuela. The check was cut and then, according to Habba, disappeared. She and her husband claim that Grenell pocketed or redirected the money, he says that's not true. The feud is young enough that it's hard to discern what the truth is. What we do know is that there will be a clear answer eventually, because checks like that leave a big paper trail. At the moment, though, insiders are describing it as a "blood feud" between former friends Habba and Grenell.
Third up, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and special envoy at the State Department Paolo Zampolli, a personal friend of Trump's, have been conducting their own blood feud for the last few months, over e-mail, with a dozen-plus State Department staffers looped in via the cc: field. It's pretty soap opera-y, but the executive summary is that Landau accused Zampolli of going well beyond his mandate and engaging in negotiations he was not legally allowed to undertake, while Zampolli accused Landau of betraying Trump. Each threatened to sue the other for defamation, and each threatened to tattle to Trump (though it's not clear either actually did). Anyhow, Politico laid hands on the e-mails and, hours after the outlet made them public, Zampolli was fired.
And finally, it would appear you don't serve as Donald Trump's chief of staff without breaking a few eggs. According to Politico, some Republican insiders are angry with Susie Wiles because of her daughter's shady-looking dealings with Republika Srpska. Others blame Wiles for Trump's poor polling numbers. And still others simply see her as a rival for Trump's attention and affections. Reportedly, Natalie Harp in particular has a habit of printing out negative stories about Wiles to share with the President. And in response to all of this, Trump has been asking people if they think he should fire Wiles.
It may just be a coincidence that all these stories broke within 48 hours of each other. But maybe not. When things are bad, tensions and stress levels rise. And when tensions and stress levels rise, arguments and fights break out. And if people are so upset as to be careless, then they might not keep those arguments and fights on the down-low. So, we could very well be seeing the effects of an expected shellacking at the polls in a couple of weeks. And one can only imagine how ugly it might get if the Democrats gain control of at least one chamber of Congress, and begin frustrating the administration's ambitions, while at the same time launching a gaggle of investigations. (Z)