I call it that because that's what it is, though it may be more accurate to call it The Brown Shirt Fund.
And I call Trump a dirty, thieving, racist asshole because that's what he is.
He's stealing from us - directly, and out in the open. He's treating the US Treasury like it's his own piggy bank. The Treasury - you know, the place where they keep all the tax money everybody loves to bitch about having to pay.
And don't start thinking Trump won't put himself first in line to receive compensation for having been "so badly mistreated by the government."
I'll say it again:
Trump is a whiny-butt little pussy who does nothing but bitch about how unfair it is that he's expected to play by the rules like everybody else.
TRUMP IS STEALING OUR MONEY
AND PUTTING IT IN HIS OWN POCKET,
OR HANDING IT TO DIRECTLY
TO HIS CRIMINAL FRIENDS
‘They were pissed’: Republican lawmakers were ‘screaming’ at Todd Blanche during anti-weaponization fund briefing
Ted Cruz said Trump could face a “full-on revolt in the Senate” over the controversial fund
Republican senators erupted behind closed doors this week as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to defend the Trump administration’s controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, according to a prominent GOP lawmaker.
It was a meeting that Sen. Ted Cruz later described on his podcast as one of the “roughest” he has witnessed during his time in Congress.
“Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said Friday on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.” “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.”
The “anti-weaponization” fund was announced Monday after Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. Cruz said many GOP lawmakers argued the proposal would be politically impossible to defend because it appeared President Donald Trump had “cut a deal with himself,” NBC News reported.
“There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying this feels like self-dealing,” Cruz said. “I got to tell you, the Republican senators were pissed – people were the entire meeting. They were screaming at the acting attorney general, and he was trying to lay out the legal basis,” Cruz said. Cruz added that “the legal basis is quite sound.”
Cruz said Senate Republicans were on the verge of rebelling over the proposal. Had the Senate moved forward Thursday night with a planned series of votes on the ICE and Border Patrol funding package, he said, roughly half of the Republican caucus was prepared to join Democrats in supporting amendments to restrict the fund.
He discussed “the degree of the jailbreak of Republicans who were bolting, who were saying we’re going to vote with the Democrats.”
Cruz warned the administration could face a major showdown when lawmakers return to Washington if changes are not made to modify the fund.
“If the administration doesn’t fix this,” he said, “they’ve got a full-on revolt in the Senate.”
In response to Cruz’s comments, a White House official told The Independent they appreciated the conversation and feedback and will have additional conversations as needed. The Independent has also contacted the DOJ for comment.
Concerns about the fund have continued to spread among Republicans.
The White House “put themselves in a bad spot. It wasn’t Congress that did it. Congress has had no input. Might be part of the problem,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., criticized it as a “payout pot for punks,” pointing to the possibility that people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could potentially receive compensation.
Democrats have also sharply condemned the proposal. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote in a letter to Blanche on Wednesday that “the notion of the federal government doling out compensation to rioters” is “absurd and offensive.”
On Thursday, Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit federal funds from being used for the program.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday, making clear that he wasn’t backing down on the fund.
“I could have settled my case…for an absolute fortune,” he wrote. “Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused.”
The Senate is scheduled to return June 1, which is the same day Trump has said he wants to sign the ICE and Border Patrol funding bill into law.
Everything is a fucking dodge for this asshole Trump, and his little slush fund scheme is no different. Helping the people who've been so terribly treated by big bad government is the disguise - the smoke-n-mirrors.
Think about all the effort and all the strategizing his guys have had to come up with trying to pull this shit off.
And don't start thinking Trump is the one who put it together. This is the guy you wouldn't put in charge of a charity car wash at a small town storefront church. All he did was say he wanted to hide his shit from the IRS, and keep his little secret from us - you know, the ones who have a fucking right to know about it.
And his boys decided this $1.776B is the perfect cover for another swindle.
We've been aware of the shit at the core of this, so it's kinda like old news. But we all let it slide 15 years ago.
There's no better indication of our rapid slide into plutocracy than a federal government run by guys so lacking in honor that they steal from us right out in open.
Go ahead - tell me we don't have a big fuckin' problem.
Trump ethics filing reveals thousands of trades tied to U.S. stocks
The purchases included securities linked to Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Oracle, Broadcom, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
President Donald Trump disclosed a flurry of at least $220 million in financial transactions earlier this year in the securities of major U.S. companies, according to two new financial disclosure forms released Thursday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
The new reports cover the first three months of 2026 and reported transaction values in broad ranges rather than exact amounts, showing a cumulative value of between $220 million and around $750 million. The purchases included securities linked to companies such as Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Oracle, Broadcom, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, as well as trades in municipal bonds.
Examples of large purchases, valued at between $1 million and $5 million each, were an S&P 500 Index fund, Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. Large sales of between $5 million and $25 million each included Microsoft, Amazon and Meta. The filing does not always make explicit the type of security, such as whether it was a stock or a corporate bond.
The filings also do not make clear in what accounts the transactions took place or who placed the trades. The president’s assets are held in a trust controlled by his children, while some of the transactions in the new filings indicate that a broker acted as an agent.
The White House press office referred questions to the Trump Organization. An attorney for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since returning to the White House last year, Donald Trump has repeatedly disclosed financial transactions through a series of public ethics filings, showing trades in both municipal debt and securities issued by major corporations.
The disclosure forms are required under federal ethics rules and provide only a partial snapshot of an official’s financial activity because they list transactions above $1,000 in broad value bands and do not disclose exact prices, profits or whether assets were purchased directly or through managed accounts. The president’s annual financial disclosure, a broader filing that includes business assets and income, such as golf resorts and crypto ventures, is expected in the coming months.
Trump’s Border Patrol Boss Quits ‘Effectively Immediately’ Amid Sex Tourism Scandal Tom Durante
Mike Banks, President Donald Trump’s top Border Patrol official, resigned from the position on Thursday, “effective immediately.”
Banks confirmed his departure in a text to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.
“It’s just time,” Banks told him. “I feel like I got the ship back on course. From the least secure disastrous chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen. Time to pass the [sic] reigns, 37 years its time to enjoy the family and life.”
Banks’ departure from the Border Patrol comes under the cloud of sex tourism allegations against him.
Several current and former border patrol agents told the Washington Examiner last month that Banks “bragged” about having sex with prostitutes in countries that included Colombia and Thailand.
“I don’t know how he became the chief of the Border Patrol with his character,” one former agent told the Examiner, adding that Banks asked him to accompany the agency honcho on one such trip. “He’s going to third-world countries to take advantage of poor f*cking women, which disgusts the hell out of me.”
Another agent told the outlet: “In our line of work, part of what we do is try to combat the trafficking of females, that is part of our job. It’s counter to what we do or what we should be standing for. If you’re partaking in those activities, you’re supporting the trafficking and exploitation of women.”
Banks was appointed Border Patrol chief shortly after Trump took office in 2025, following a two-year stint as Texas border czar under Governor Greg Abbott (R). Before that, he had been involved in border security operations for 23 years.
In a 2025 interview that appears on the Homeland Security website, Banks said that he was inspired to join the ranks of the border patrol “after having a few beers” and listening to stories from his border agent friends.
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign.
On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”
Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national emergency” at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.
The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.
No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.
The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.
Government contracting experts said the depth of the ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggested major potential violations of ethics rules.
“It’s corrupt, is the word,” said Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that the Strategy Group’s role should prompt investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee.
“Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,” Tiefer added.
Federal regulations forbid conflicts of interest in contracting and require that the process be conducted “with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none.”
“It’s worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias,” said Scott Amey, a contracting expert and general counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight.
The revelations come as the amount of money at Noem’s disposal has skyrocketed. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill granted DHS more than $150 billion, and Noem has given herself an unusual degree of control over how that money is spent. This summer, she began requiring that she personally approve any payment over $100,000.
Asked about the Strategy Group’s work for DHS, McLaughlin, the agency spokesperson, said in an interview, “We don’t have visibility into why they were chosen.”
“I don’t know who they’re a subcontractor with, but I don’t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself,” she said. “My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them.” Her husband, Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho, didn’t respond to questions.
In a written statement, DHS said, “DHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.” They added that the Strategy Group does not have a direct contract with the agency, saying “DHS cannot and does not determine, control, or weigh in on who contractors hire.”
Contracting experts said that agencies can and do sometimes require that subcontractors be approved by officials. It’s not clear how much the Strategy Group has been paid.
This is not the first time that the Strategy Group has gotten public money through a Noem contract. As governor of South Dakota in 2023, her administration set off a scandal by hiring the Ohio-based company to do a different ad campaign, paying it $8.5 million in state funds. While the state said the contract was done by the book, a former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem quietly intervened to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal. ProPublica granted some people anonymity to discuss the deals because of their sensitivity.
The firm also paid up to $25,000 to one of Noem’s closest advisers in South Dakota, previously unreported records show. (The adviser, 28-year-old Madison Sheahan, now serves at DHS as the second-in-command of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sheahan didn’t respond to questions about why she was paid.)
The DHS ad that the company filmed at Mount Rushmore has aired during “Fox & Friends” in recent days. Executives from the Strategy Group traveled to the shoot and hired subcontractors to fill out the film crew, according to records and a person involved in the campaign. The ad’s aesthetic sits somewhere between a political campaign ad and a Jeep commercial as Noem tells would-be immigrants to “come here the right way.”
“From the cowboys who tamed the West to the titans who built our cities,” Noem says, as images of Trump Tower in Chicago and Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt last year flash on the screen, “America has always rewarded vision and grit.” Noem continues: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you.”
The ad is the latest in a campaign that Noem debuted in February, just a few weeks after she took charge of DHS. “Any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers,” the agency wrote, explaining why it was skipping the competitive bidding process normally required for government contracts. The initial ads featured Noem thanking Trump for securing the border.
The contracts total $220 million so far, leading the DHS ad budget to triple in the most recent fiscal year, according to Bloomberg. The lion’s share of ad contracts is typically used to buy TV airtime or spots on social media. Advertising firms make money by taking an often-hefty commission. Federal records show the contracts have gone to two firms. One is a Republican ad company in Louisiana called People Who Think, which has been awarded $77 million.
But the majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.
Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain. McElwain has long had his own advertising company (separate from the Delaware one), but there’s little evidence that firm could handle a nine-figure federal contract on its own: It reported just five employees when it received COVID-19 relief money a few years ago.
How, where and to whom Safe America Media doled out the $143 million is unknown. Any subcontractors hired to do work on the DHS ads are not disclosed in federal contracting databases.
The office funding the ad contracts is listed as the DHS Office of Public Affairs, which is run by McLaughlin, contract records show. McLaughlin married Yoho, the Strategy Group CEO, earlier this year.
In its statement, DHS said the agency does its contracting “by the book” and the process is run by career officials. “It is very sad that Pro Publica would seek to defame these public servants,” DHS added.
Asked about why the agency chose Safe America Media, DHS said, “The results speak for themselves: the most secure border in American history and over 2 million illegal aliens exiting the United States.” McElwain and People Who Think didn’t respond to questions.
Yoho was still in college when he first served as campaign manager for a U.S. congressman. Now, at 38 years old, he’s a national player in the cutthroat industry of political advertising. Federal election records show tens of millions in payments to his firm during the 2024 election cycle, coming from dozens of Republican congressional candidates. And Noem has proved a particularly lucrative client.
Lewandowski brought Yoho into Noem’s inner circle back in South Dakota, according to two people familiar with the matter, putting the young consultant in charge of the ad side of her 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign. Noem had a more than $5 million advertising budget for the race, records show. After she won in a landslide, Yoho, who has called Noem a friend, came to South Dakota to attend her inauguration ceremony. He sat off to the side of the stage, next to Lewandowski. (Lewandowski didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
By then, Yoho’s next big project with Noem was already in the works. In late 2022, Noem was quietly preparing to launch another sprawling ad campaign — only this time, the money would come from state coffers. The stated goal was to encourage workers to move to South Dakota. The upcoming contract opportunity wasn’t public yet, but Yoho was already involved in planning the campaign, according to records first reported by Sioux Falls Live.
Then on Jan. 12, 2023, Yoho’s company registered to do business in South Dakota under the name Go West Media. The next day, the contract opportunity went live.
Seven companies submitted proposals for the project. Then the pressure from above set in, according to a former Noem administration official involved in the process.
The former official said a top Noem aide told them the governor would be angry if Yoho’s company didn’t win the contract. “He was very direct: ‘She wants to do it,’” they said. Contemporaneous text messages reviewed by ProPublica corroborate that senior Noem administration officials pushed for Yoho to get the contract. Eventually, he did. (In its statement, DHS denied that Noem influenced the process.)
Noem starred in Yoho’s ads herself, dressing up as a dentist, a plumber and a state trooper as she touted her state’s growing economy. Exactly how much Yoho and the Strategy Group made off the $8.5 million deal is unclear. Some of the money was used to purchase spots on Fox News, including one during a Republican presidential debate. Some of the money appears to have gone back to South Dakota — into the bank account of another of Noem’s top advisers.
Sheahan, now the second-in-command at ICE, was paid up to $25,000 by Go West in 2023 for “consulting,” according to a financial disclosure document Sheahan later filed. At the time, Sheahan was serving as both the operations director for Noem as governor and the political director for Noem’s campaign work, according to a copy of her 2023 resume obtained by ProPublica. Her responsibilities included coordinating “daily logistics and operations” for Noem and her team, the resume said. She also managed the “relationship with high level donors” to American Resolve, Noem’s network of outside political groups.
As his firm received millions from the South Dakota state government, Yoho separately continued to work for Noem in other capacities. He worked under Lewandowski on the publicity campaign for Noem’s 2024 memoir, according to a person familiar with the matter. (The book became famous for including an anecdote about Noem shooting her dog.)
The Strategy Group also received a stream of payments for social media consulting and media production work over the last few years from Noem’s American Resolve PAC. Federal election records show the PAC made its last payment to Yoho’s company this February, a couple weeks after Noem took her post as the head of DHS.
Dumbass Mayo-Americans (MAGA rubes) have to start understanding that their continuing support of Trump's Epstein Class buddies and their fucked up policies are costing them more than the alternative. ie: putting people in charge who are a bit more honest and a lot more competent at this whole government thing.
A good place for them to start is getting their tiny brains around the fact that a tariff is a tax - an extra tax - that they pay every time they buy the gas and the groceries and stuff at the hardware store that Trump told them was going to cost them less.
It's costing all of us more. Companies have done some very clever, very sneaky things to make it look like it's not as bad as it really is. There's been a massive move towards shrinkflation. Anybody with two brain cells they can rub together has to notice that we're all paying more and getting less.
And a little side-effect? Trump is figuring out ways to syphon that money into his own pocket. I know - everybody's really surprised by that one, right?
Billionaires and Centimillionaires are parasites. They are the only reason they exist in the first place. And there's no way for any sentient being to justify any of it.
The Trumplefucks love to crow about "transparency".
Their only claim to fame on that one is that they're totally transparent in their corruption. Everything else, they're about as transparent as lead-infused concrete - or they try to be.
Greene says Trump told her his ‘friends will get hurt’ by Epstein files
The congresswoman also told The New York Times the president rejected her suggestion to invite the Epstein survivors to the Oval Office, saying they had not earned the honor.
President Donald Trump told Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene this year that he opposed the release of the Epstein files because his “friends will get hurt,” Greene said in a New York Times Magazine profile published Monday.
Trump also told Greene, R-Ga., that he would not invite the Epstein survivors to the Oval Office because they had not earned that honor, according to Greene, who was once among Trump’s biggest boosters but has broken with him.
Greene said the president made the comments in the last conversation he had with her, in a phone call after she appeared at a September news conference with Epstein survivors on Capitol Hill. During the call, which the soon-to-be-ex-representative says Trump initiated, the president yelled at her as she listened on speakerphone, the Times said.
“Congresswoman Greene is quitting on her constituents in the middle of her term and abandoning the consequential fight we’re in,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Times and MS NOW. “We don’t have time for her petty bitterness.”
The Justice Department began releasing the Epstein files earlier this month. They included an email stating that Trump flew on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet at least eight times in the mid-1990s. The Justice Department said in a statement that some of the files “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” about Trump that the FBI received before the 2020 election. The released files also contained images of Trump posing with unidentified women whose faces were blacked out.
Other files included in the document dump included images of former President Bill Clinton alongside Epstein, his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and others whose identities were redacted; Trump adviser Steve Bannon; Microsoft founder Bill Gates; director Woody Allen; and lawyer Alan Dershowitz. All of those men have distanced themselves from Epstein and denied wrongdoing, as has Trump.
The DOJ said it has more than a million other documents related to the Epstein investigation to review and release.
Trump has said he was concerned people’s reputations could be damaged if they were merely named in the files without proof of wrongdoing.
The details featured in the Times story offer new insight into Greene’s remarkable break with Trump after being one of his staunchest supporters since she took office in 2021.
Greene began speaking out against the president earlier this year, criticizing his foreign policy decisions — including speeding up weapons deliveries to Ukraine and launching strikes on Iran — which she argued ran counter to the “America First” platform he campaigned on.
Their public bickering turned into a full-blown breakup after Greene became one of only four Republicans to sign on to a discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the Justice Department to release all documents related to its investigation of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.
Greene told the Times that her support for releasing the Epstein files was the final straw for Trump: “Epstein was everything,” she said.
In mid-November, as pressure to pass the bill ramped up, Trump railed against Greene in a Truth Social post, calling her a “traitor” and a “Lunatic” and announcing he was withdrawing his support for her. Greene has said those posts led to death threats against her and members of her family. She told the Times that she wondered: “Am I going to get murdered, or one of my kids, because he’s calling me a traitor?”
Greene said she texted Trump about the death threats, but he only insulted her in response, the Times wrote, citing an anonymous source familiar with the conversation.
Sounds a lot like the shit he said to Kevin McCarthy during the attempted coup on Jan6
McCarthy: "They're trying to fucking kill me!"
Trump: "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
A week after Trump’s angry posts, Greene announced she was resigning from office in January and said Trump’s opposition to her advocacy to release the Epstein files played a key role in her decision.
“The Epstein files represent everything wrong with Washington,” Greene told the Times. “Rich, powerful elites doing horrible things and getting away with it. And the women are the victims.”
Greene also called herself “naive” in her once unblinking support of Trump. But she rejects the claim that she has changed.
“I haven’t changed my views,” Greene told the Times. “But I’ve matured. I’ve developed depth.”
“I’ve learned Washington, and I’ve come to understand the brokenness of the place,” she added. “If none of us is learning lessons here and we can’t evolve and mature with our lessons, then what kind of people are we?”
FIFA Bribery Charges Dropped After Trump Given Peace Prize Under Scrutiny
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. moved to drop charges in a long-running international soccer bribery case on Tuesday, days after President Donald Trump received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.
The news has prompted scrutiny online, though there is no evidence of any connection between the award and prosecutors' move to dismiss the charges.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “These prosecutions are not consistent with the current prosecutorial priorities of the United States, which direct the Department of Justice’s resources into Making America Safe Again.”
Why It Matters
Prosecutors' move to drop the charges is the latest turn in a high-profile case involving corruption at the highest levels of international soccer.
While there is no evidence of wrongdoing, the timing of the move—so soon after Trump's award—has prompted speculation.
"No evidence of wrongdoing" ?
What the fuck is any president doing accepting anything of any value from somebody who has business before that president's DOJ?
U.S. prosecutors asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to drop bribery charges against Hernan Lopez, a former Fox executive, and the Argentine sports marketing company Full Play Group.
Lopez was convicted in 2023 of conspiring to pay millions in bribes to secure broadcast rights for South American soccer tournaments, while Full Play was accused of coordinating and facilitating the bribes on behalf of broadcasters.
The charges were part of a wider U.S. probe into bribery schemes involving officials in FIFA-affiliated regional bodies, though FIFA itself was not charged.
Prosecutors said the government had determined that "dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice."
Lopez told the Associated Press that he was relieved by the move to dismiss what he called baseless charges.
In Washington, D.C., on Friday, Trump was awarded the FIFA Peace Prize during the draw for the 2026 World Cup—which is scheduled to take place next summer in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Trump with the award, which the organization says is intended to "reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world."
Commenting on the news that prosecutors had moved to drop the charges, CNN reporter Aaron Blake wrote on X: "A week after FIFA gave Trump a newly created award and made him a focal point of the World Cup draw. And with no real explanation."
Reporter Sam Stein wrote on X, "Amazing what a made up trophy can get you these days."
The award itself has drawn scrutiny, with a human rights group asking FIFA's Ethics Committee to investigate whether awarding Trump breached FIFA's rules on political neutrality.
Earlier this year, FIFA opened an office in Trump Tower in New York City, further signaling its growing relationship with the president.
What People Are Saying
Hernan Lopez said in a statement to the Associated Press: "The charges were baseless from the start, and I have fought for five years to clear my name."
FIFA President Gianni Infantino wrote on Instagram after the World Cup draw: "I was honored and delighted to present the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize—Football Unites the World award to U.S. President Donald J. Trump for his unwavering commitment to advancing peace and unity throughout the world through his notable leadership and action."
What Happens Next
The Supreme Court is now set to consider prosecutors' motion to return the case to a lower court, where a judge is expected to formally dismiss the indictment.
You know you're in a really bad place when the most important profit center driving your business - and your business decisions - is the guy monitoring Trump's social media feeds.
Here's why the new White House ballroom project is not real. (The demo is obviously real)
Some background - I am a licensed Architect with 20+ years of experience. I have worked on multiple Federal projects with sensitive building programs that required background checks.
With a projected size of 90,000 sq ft, and a newly revised budget of $300M, the cost per square foot would be $3,333. No building costs anywhere near that. $1,000/sq ft is astronomical.
Let's assume, since we are drawing in the classical, style, that the proportions of the building adhere to the Golden Ratio. A 90,000 sq ft would be a building with a footprint roughly 380' x 235'. Longer than a football field and 1.5 times as wide.
The building is projected to accommodate 999 people. 15 sq ft/person is required for a banquet area; 20 sq ft/person is pretty comfortable. What you see in the rendering below is closer to 20 sq ft/person. That's only 20,000 sq ft, or a space that is 200'x100'. It's supposed to be a ballroom, so let's be extraordinarily generous and provide 10,000 sq ft for the ballroom support functions, and another 10,000 sq ft for pre-function. Extraordinarily generous. That's STILL only 40,000 sq ft, not even half of the supposed building.
There are no drawings for the building. The renderings are poorly coordinated - exterior views do not match the interior views. See below - the White House is 70 feet tall, to the roof. The interior renderings show a room that is roughly 100' x 200', with a ~20 foot ceiling. The exterior renderings show a building footprint of 4.5x that amount.
Those are renderings that could be produced by young staff in a week or two, at most. Nothing else exists.
White House tours have been discontinued - prob'ly so nobody can see the Russian agents planting their little spy gadgets everywhere.
But on the "bright side", once we're rid of President Yamtits McShitstain, we can gut that stupid monument to one man's fragile ego, and turn it into some useable office space for a legit government.
