Barbie Queued
In 87 percent of earnings calls this season, CEOs used the word “uncertainty” to describe the economic outlook. Is there any finance trend we can be sure of in this age of on again off again tariffs and off the cuff economic strategies? Yes. Grift. Kids may not find as many dolls under the tree this holiday season, but every day is Christmas for the Trumps. “While American kids surrender their dolls, Trump is charging $20 million a pop for people to have dinner with him. One international trucking logistics firm is spending as much as that on Trump coins (it’s issuing debt to buy the crypto), because it believes that ‘the addition of the Official Trump tokens’ will help it ‘advocate for fair, balanced, and free trade between Mexico and the US’ At the same time, an investment firm in the United Arab Emirates announced that it is making a $2 billion investment using Trump’s stablecoins, another crypto scheme the president’s family is running … While other American kids face a pencil quota, Don Jr. must provide for his children with billions from the Persian Gulf — which Trump reportedly plans to rename the ‘Arabian Gulf’ at the request of his sponsors. Trump and his family aren’t the only ones exploiting his presidency for personal profit. As the Post has reported, government messages from the State Department and U.S. embassies have pushed foreign countries to approve Starlink, the satellite business of the world’s wealthiest man, Trump sidekick Elon Musk, who also gets to pressure leaders in private meetings.” Dana Milbank in WaPo (Gift Article): As the world goes to hell, Trump is living his best life. (It’s good to be the king.)
+ Frank Bruni in the NYT (Gift Article): Five Pencils for You. Infinite Luxuries for the Trumps. “Around the same time last week that President Trump decreed two dolls to be plenty for a child in our tariff-turvy country, his son Eric was many time zones away, supping at the trough of excess. In gilded Dubai, he celebrated plans for a $1 billion, 80-story Trump International Hotel and Tower there. That characteristically understated edifice — with what Eric called “the tallest swimming pool in the world” — will undoubtedly make the Trump patriarch and the Trump progeny shine richer than ever. As will so much else that the gluttonous Gotrocks are up to, frenziedly capitalizing on their political capital. Five pencils may be adequate for an American pupil — that was the allotment that President Trump advised, given the wages of his trade wars — but no number of billions is enough for him and his avaricious brood.” (There’s actually a pretty obvious win-win here. We just need to put a tariff on avariciousness.)
+ It turns out that these kind of cash conflicts are an area where many cabinet member thrive. WSJ (Gift Article): How RFK Jr. Is Boosting ‘Food Babe’ and Other MAHA Acolytes. “HHS secretary elevates lightly regulated wellness companies and allows advisers to keep investments, after vowing to end conflicts.” You might laugh at MAHA, but MAHA is laughing all the way to the bank.
