The Never-ending Grift
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release
Re: Melania documentary
But no one paid $40m to acquire Am I Racist? – or an additional $35m to market it. That’s how much Amazon has poured into Melania – remarkably, the most the deep-pocketed company has ever paid to secure distribution of a single film. This is seemingly the result of a post-election bidding war when corporate panic over matching a seeming rightward turn in the populace was at its peak.
Technically, paying the president-elect’s wife this much money – Melania reportedly pocketed nearly $30m of Amazon’s initial $40m outlay – was legal, because the first lady isn’t part of the government. She’s just a private citizen who happens to be married to the president and happened to receive a multimillion-dollar check from a company with many government contracts through its web services and other divisions.
@taiwan_girl said in The Never-ending Grift:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release
Re: Melania documentary
But no one paid $40m to acquire Am I Racist? – or an additional $35m to market it. That’s how much Amazon has poured into Melania – remarkably, the most the deep-pocketed company has ever paid to secure distribution of a single film. This is seemingly the result of a post-election bidding war when corporate panic over matching a seeming rightward turn in the populace was at its peak.
Technically, paying the president-elect’s wife this much money – Melania reportedly pocketed nearly $30m of Amazon’s initial $40m outlay – was legal, because the first lady isn’t part of the government. She’s just a private citizen who happens to be married to the president and happened to receive a multimillion-dollar check from a company with many government contracts through its web services and other divisions.
Apparently Melania has been nominated for a FIFA film award.
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Re: Melania documentary
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/amazon-pulls-melania-movie-theater-1236494861/
As first reported by The Oregonian, and then nationally spotted by The Daily Beast, an Oregon theater long known for finding creatively witty ways to advertise its movies was asked by Amazon to stop screening Melania.
The Lake Theater and Cafe in Lake Oswego had touted last week's release of Amazon MGM's controversial documentary with declarations such as "Does Melania wear Prada? Find out Friday" and -- quoting Sun Tzu's The Art of War -- "To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts Friday."
Then manager Jordan Perry says their booker received a call from somebody at Amazon asking the theater to pull the film.
"The studio was not happy and/or did not appreciate my take on marketing their film to our own public," Perry told The Oregonian. The theater marquee was then changed to: "Amazon called. Our marquee made them mad. All Melania showings cancelled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead." This was followed by "Join Amazon Prime for Free Two-Day Shipping." (Amazon had no immediate comment on the matter).
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Investors in World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by President Trump and his sons, have secured what the company described on its website as “guaranteed direct access” to certain members of its team for those who lock up $5 million worth of their tokens for a six-month period in exchange for voting rights.
Among those listed on World Liberty documents as the firm's "Supporting Team" are the sons of the U.S. president, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump. The company said Trump and other family members won't be part of the direct access arrangement.
and
“Among the privileges for Super Nodes is preferential access to the World Liberty Financial business development team and executives – not to specific founders – to discuss partnership opportunities,” said its spokesman, David Wachsman. The World Liberty proposal first issued in February said the "Super Nodes" would gain “guaranteed direct access to the WLFI team” for “partnership discussions.”
and
A section of the World Liberty website entitled “Meet our team” previously listed, among others, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump. Following Reuters' questions about the proposal, the website page was altered with the "Meet our team" section removed entirely.
and
Under the terms of World Liberty’s business, 75% of all new token sales go to the family of President Trump, meaning that those who have purchased $5 million of the tokens effectively sent $3.75 million to the Trumps. Under a previous version of the terms, the Witkoffs were entitled to 12.5% of all new token sales, meaning they would effectively be sent $625,000, though the most recent version says only that they receive an unspecified portion of a 25% stake.
Meet the Team page that was scrubbed
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(Tough call on whether to post this here or in the Crypto thread.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justin-sun-sues-trump-world-liberty-crypto-tokens/
Cryptocurrency billionaire Justin Sun is suing World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture co-founded by President Donald Trump and his sons, alleging the company illegally blocked him from selling digital tokens worth up to $1 billion.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in California federal court, also accuses World Liberty Financial of trying to pressure Sun into investing "hundreds of millions of dollars to mint USD1, World Liberty's stablecoin." The complaint alleges that the company froze his World Liberty Financial tokens after Sun refused to commit more money to the business.
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Well the website now says it's no longer "made in the USA", it just says "America-proud design", LOL. I do have a question, do you have to be white trash to buy it or is the phone sort of a ticket to the white trash club?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/26/trump-phone-website-removes-made-in-the-usa-tag-for-the-device.html
Well the website now says it's no longer "made in the USA", it just says "America-proud design", LOL. I do have a question, do you have to be white trash to buy it or is the phone sort of a ticket to the white trash club?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/26/trump-phone-website-removes-made-in-the-usa-tag-for-the-device.html
Well, the phones may never be made. (But we will keep your deposit.)
A year after followers of President Donald Trump put down $100 deposits for a Trump-branded gold phone, not one has shipped, and a recent change in the fine print has some worried they may never arrive.
Last month, the company behind Trump Mobile, T1 Mobile LLC, quietly updated its preorder terms and conditions to clarify that it “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase.”
“A preorder deposit provides only a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale,” the most recent terms, dated April 6, read.
Purchasers like tech content creator Carter Ryan, who goes by CarterPCs online, were quick to call out the company’s vague language.
“I’m paying $100 for the chance to maybe give you more money in the future, if you decide to make the product that I’m paying for in the first place?” he said in a post on TikTok.
https://fortune.com/2026/05/11/trump-mobile-gold-trump-phone-deposits-t1-device-fcc/
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https://apnews.com/article/trump-lawsuit-irs-leak-3729de38770b558be01712a143437bf8
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday announced the creation a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they were mistreated by the Biden administration Justice Department.
The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was announced by the Justice Department as part of a deal to resolve President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in announcing the fund in a statement that it was “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
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I admit, I have not read a single post in this thread, but only feel the need to remark on the irony of the subject matter and the author. Enough said love you jolly.
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